The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-17
A Question Asked by Many.


There are good many people who, not
having given the silver question a great
deal Of thought, do not understand why
there is danger that the silver dollar
would become a debased dollar II free
silver coinage should be adopted al the
ratio Of 10 TO 1. The MORNING NEWS has
received several communications bearing
on this subject. The following is one of
them:
Savannah, Aug 15.-Editor Of the MORNING
NEWS. You say this morning: The opponents
Of the coinage OF silver believe that II the
minis we're 5opened TO the free coinage of
silver at the present ratio Of 10 10 /, the sill
yer currency would become a debased cur
rency, that Is it would be accepted by the peo-
pie at only its bullion value. Now this is
what puzzles the people. II 1 have dollar
in paper, gold, silver, nickel or copper, get
the same value for it here in Savannah, and
! find the same all over the United States.
Now it seems to me and many others that any
dollar with Uncle Sans stamp on IL is worth
a dollar in this country. I think the demo-
cratic congress and executive have hard
road to travel. JIG.
We have no doubt that the writer of
the above communication is sincere, and
therefore we publish it, The reason that
a silver dollar now passes at its face value
is that there is confidence in the ability
Of the government to give a gold dollar
for tiff it should be demanded. 1t is the
declared policy of the government to
maintain parity between gold and silver
currency, and it is able to carry out this
policy because it has gold reserve of
more than 500, O00, 900, which is the basis
of the confidence of the people that it is
able to pay gold when gold is demanded.
The effect of the free coinage of silver
would be to drive gold out of circulation
Without gold the government would not
be able to maintain parity between gold
and silver currency, and the silver dollar
would drop to its bullion value. A couple
of months or more ago, when the gold
reserve fell below 800, 0O0, 900, the foreign
holders of our securities began to be
alarmed for the reason that they thought
the government would not be able to
maintain the parity between gold and sill
yer currency, and that they might
have to accept the interest on their Sc
curities, and also the principal, in depre-
ciated silver. Hundreds of millions of
our securities are held in Europe. If
they should be sent home in large guam
titles they would quickly drain all the
gold out of the country. Without a suf-
ficient amount of gold to maintain con-
fidence in the ability of the government
to pay gold on demand the country would
be forced to a silver basis.
Ever since the silver-purchase law has
been in operation gold has been disappear
ing from the treasury and silver has been
taking its place. Free coinage of silver
would only hasten the disappearance of
the gold. The advocates of free silver
coinage recognize that this is true, and so
the great majority of them are willing
that the ratio shall be increased. Sena-
tor Vest, a conspicuous leader of the sill
verites, has proposed that the ratio shall
be "A to l.
The silver dollar is now in a measure
fiat money. The government can keep
at par with gold what silver money there
is now in circulation, but it could not keep
silver money at par very long if the coin
age of silver should be made free. The
volume of such money would soon be too
great for it to do so, and no fair minded
man believes it could do so. Free silver
coinage at the ratio of 10 to would place
our currency in the same plane with that
of Mexico and India.