The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1893-08-16
THE FINANCIAL QUESTION.
Why Silver Has Declined in Value-Purely
Question of Supply and Demand.

To the Editor Of The Herald and
News:-Our free silver fanatics would
have US believe that the chief, if not
the only cause, for the decline in the
price OF silver, is to be found in its de-
monetiZation, or other legislation ad-
verse to it, by the various leading COM
mercial nations. Those gentlemen put
the cart before the horse, to use a
homely but apt expression. Instead
Of such legislation being the cause of
decline in prices, it was the decline and
continual variations in prices that have
caused the governments one after an
other to demonetiZe or otherwise legis
late against silver. Of course the de-
monetization, or stoppage of the COIN
age of silver, by the leading commercial
nations, exec pit the United States, may
have, and doubtless did to some extent,
indirectly influence the|price by diluin-
ishing the demand for it. But the one
chief and essential cause Of the con-
tinual and rapid decline in the
price of silver, until it is now
worth in the markets of the world
little more than half what it was twenty
years ago, has been the extraordinary
increase in the production during this
period. For instance, in 1873, the year
the United States suspended the al
ready long since obsolete law for the
coinage of silver dollars, the worlds
production of silver was only 63, PSI, 900
fine ounces. And this was already a
very large increase over few years
previous, for in 1869 the production
was Only 43, 700,0O0 fine onuces. Here
then WAS All Increase nf 50 per cent. in
only four years. At this time, Z. e., in
1873, the silver in our silver dollar,
supposiug there mad been any in ex-
isteuce, Was worth lob cents, so OF
course none We're htily c0ined, for the
sil-sufficiept reason that silver was
more valuable in the arts than as
money. Nor, md. Ell, had any of these
now so much talked of dollars Of our
daddies" been coined for siSty-eiyht
wears, that is, since Thomas Jefferson,
the recognized father %: the Democ-
cratic party, had in 1905 arbitrarily
suspended their coinage because they
were then, as now, driving gold out of
the country. The legal ratio between
gold and silver at that time, be it re-
membered, was to IS in the United
States. In 1884, during the presidency
of Andrew Jackson, democratic Con-
gress changed this ratio to l to l6, think
Ing thereby to bring both metals into
use again. But this proved to he too
high, making silver the dearer metal,
80, of course, none was coined, and
gold continued de tdcto the standard.
In 1858 still another Democratic Com
gress actually adopted the gold standard
aud made silver only a subsidiary
coin, q legal tender for only IS. So we
zee that these 'CiolturS Of our daCtliCS,"
now so much wept over by Senator
Stewart, and for which the brave gov
ernor of Colorado is going to wade
'bridle deep" in blood, are in reality
only myth. something conjured up
10 their fertile imaginations for effect
on their ignorant dupes, our Southern
and Western a.liAncemeu.
From 1873 onward, and up to the
present, the annual increa-e in the
production of silver has been rapid,
and the decline in price has about kept
pace with this increase, in spite Of the
B!and-Allison bill in 1878, and the
Sherman bill! in 1890 to bolster it up.
In 1888 the worlds product Of silver
was 10S,SSS, 600 fine ounces; and the
value Of the silver in a dollar had de-
clined to y 10 cents instead Of l03
cents as in 1878. In 1891 the product
was 40,S65, 900 fine ounces, and the
value of silver in dollar came under
| 70 cents. In 1892 the product OF silver
is estimated st l52, ,0O00, 900 fine ounces,
and the value of the dollar came dow q
to 81 to IS certs. Since the suspension
of free coinage in India in May last it
has gone still lower, to about 81 cents
for the dollar, but this very likely in
part as the result of paDic, which ii
will recover.
We see then that the price Of silver
has declined in the worlds market II
proportion as the supply has Increased
and I may add as the demand has de