Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-03-08
SILVER QUESTION.
Democrat" Takes Enquirer
to Task On 1t
And Quotes From Speeches Delivered
By Senators Bailey, Beck and
Others,
10 The Tobacco Leaf-Chronicie:

]
the silver question. He is certainly
mistaken when he says that silver
and gold were not substantially at
par with each other under free coin
age during the whole history OF cur
government prior to 1873. AS a fact
silver was never during that whole
period as high as fifteen for one or
lower than sixteen for one compared
with gold. 1t is true that in 1858, in
consequence of the enormous rush OF
gold from California, Congress made
slight change in the ratio of the
two metals, but even then the purity
of the two was not seriously affected.
The secretary of the United Stats
treasury, in report in 1877 on this
subject, says:
"These difficulties in the adjust
ment of gold and silver coinage were
fully considered by Congress prior to
the passage OF the act approved Feb
ruary q, 1858. y Though the
silver was worth on the market 3-13
cents on the dollar less than gold
coin, yet its convenience for use as
change, its issue by the government
only in exchange for and its practi'
cal convertibility into gold coin, main
tanned ii in circulation at par aci h
gold CON-"
Nor is your correspondent correct
when he seeks to create the impress
sion that silver was neglected by our
people prior to the war and was not
in use to any considerable extent as
money. To this assertion-for it has
been made before-Senator Beck, of
Kentucky, once replied as follows:
II deny that such was the state of
fact in regard to the silver coinage OF
this country; certainly not up to
1884, indeed until after 1850. The
silver dollar was the unit of value
from the beginning. 1t was made so
by the IT solution of 1856 before the
constitution was adopted. UP to
1884, when the value of the gold dol
lar was reduced from the ratio of 10
to to that of 16 to l of silver, there
had been only about ten millions OF
gold of all denominations coined in
the United States. There were over
five millions more silver bali dollars
of full legal tender value, az shown
by DR.. Linderman's book, coined in
the years 1880, 1881, 1882, 1888, 1884,
than all the gold that had ever been
coined in the United States from 1898
up to 1884. Up to 1919. until the dis.
covery Oh gold in California, silver
was the coin of this country. The
Spanish and Mexican dollars were
used and made by law legal tender.
| have here table in which
Mr., Hunter shows that up to 1850 we
had coined of silver coin, independ-
ent altogether of the Mexican and
Spanish dollars which formed large
portion of our currency, about sew
enty. eight millions, and that up to
IS49 we had only coined of all sorts
of gold coins about eighty-six mil
lions"
The discovery of gold in California
in 1913 of course made the annual
coinage of that metal largely in ex-
cess of silver for some years. When
the civil war came the large volume OF
paper money issued, together with adj
verse foreign trade, drove both gold
and silver practically out of circula-
ton. The discovery of silver in Ne
vada and elsewhere was after the war,
speedily bringing silver coinage up
to that of gold again when, in 1873,
silver was demonetized. This was
done, undoubtedly at the dictate Of
the national bondholders, just as the
country had set itself to the task OF
retiring most Of its paper issue and
resuming specie payment. The fight
for demonstration at once began and
has been kept up to this day. Va
rious enactments have been passed
under which we have now nearly
) five hundred million dollars of silver
l in circulation and both houses OF
Congress favor free coinage. Moth
ing but the presidential veto indeed
now stands between the country and
free coinage.
In the light of these facts no man
can excuse the demonetizing act Of
1873 by saying our people never
} wanted silver and would not use il
: as a currency when they had the op
3 portunity, and that the people are
not demanding it to-day.
"Enquirer" fails TO comprehend
; how silver dollar worth seventy
cents can be kept at par with
gold dollar worth 100 cents. He
: overlooks entirely the coinage val
3 ue OF the two metals. Gold is worth
: an hundred cents because its holder
can have 1t coined into legal tender
money and pay his debts with it
: Silver is worth only seventy cents
because its holder hos not now that
l privilege, though he used to have it
IF uEnouirarp has a GOOD mich COW