The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-15
THE MORNING NEWS: TUESDAY, AUGUST Is, 1898.
Meaning Of Free Coinage OF silver. A"

Meaning Of Free Coinage OF silver"
The MoRNISG News has received a
number Of inquiries as to the meaning Of
the free coinage Of silver Of which the
following is a sample:
Sycamore Fla. Aug 70 Editor Of the
Morning News: There seems 20 be quite q
difference Of opinion as TO what free coinage
o. silver means. VIII you please give
clear statement Of what IL IS.
Briefly the free coinage Of silver
means that any one having silver bullion
may take it TO the mint and have it coined
into the silver currency of the country.
The mints of this country are now closed
to free coinage. Silver was demonetized
in 1873, after the question Of demonetiziug
it had been discussed for two or three
years. The reason it was demonetized
was that the silver dollar was worth
more than a gold dollar, and it was incon-
venient to have gold dollar and a silver
dollar in circulation of different intrinsic
values. The silver producers did not
oppose the decentralization of silver be
cause silver was worth more as bullion
than as coin.
The ratio at which silver is coined by
the government, when it is coined, is 10 to
/, that is, sixteen ounces Of silver are held
to be worth as much as one ounce Of gold.
Since that ratio was adopted, however, the
market value of silver, owing to
the very great increase in its production,
has greatly declined. At the present
price of silver, it takes about p ounces of
silver to equal one of gold in value, and
the intrinsic value of a silver dollar is
somewhere about 60 cts.
The opponents of free coinage of silver
believe that if the mints were opened to
the free coinage of silver at the present
ratio of IS to I, the silver currency would
become a debased currency, that is, it
would be accepted by the people at only
its bullion value. A silver dollar would
not be accepted at its face value, but at
its bullion value, say 90. The result
would be that all the gold would be driv-
en- out of the country and our currency
would be forced to a silver basis like
that of Mexico and Central and South
American countries.
A few of the advocates Of free silver
coinage at the ratio of 16 to assert that
free silver coinage would have the effect
of increasing the price of silver, so that
the intrinsic value of a silver dollar would
be equal to its face value They have,
however, no reasonable argument to sup
port their assertion. The great majority
of the free silver coinage advocates now
admit that free silver coinage, at the
ratio of 16 to /, would not so increase the
price of silver that the bullion value of
silver dollar would be equal to its face
value, and they are willing to accept
new ratio, say 20 to l. But they cannot
show that, at that ratio, the price of sill
yer would so increase that a silver dollar
would irtrinsically be worth dollar in
gold. They only hope it would. If the
production of silver should fall off, it
doubtless would, in little while, but, if
the production of silver should continue
to be as great as it has been in the last
few years, it is safe to say it would not.
The great majority of those who are OPP
posing the free coinage of silver are not
opposing it at a ratio that would make a
silver dollar intrinsically as valuable as a
gold dollar. They simply object to the
| free coinage of silver at a ratio at which
a silver dollar would not be as valuable
intrinsically as gold dollar They want
sound and safe currency, the kind of a
currency called for by the national demo-
cratic platform. The free silverites seem
determined to force upon the country a
debased silver currency.