The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-16
A Troublesome Question.

A Troublesome Question.
u is certain that either the Sherman
slver-purchase law will be uncondition-
ally repealed or there viii be attached TO
the repeating act q provision providing
for the free coinage Of silver at an i'm
creased ratio. The fixing of a new ratio
would be a very difficult undertaking
owing TO the fluctuations in the price Of
silver. At present silver commands about
Is cents an ounce. 10 cannot be stated
with any degree of certainty what the
price will be six months hence. II was
Sl31 cents an ounce soon after
the Sherman law was passed and within
the last month or two it has
been below 40 cents an ounce. Such
violent fluctuations make it clear that
an agreement in respect to a new ratio
1 could not be easily reached.
Congress fixed the ratio between gold
/ and silver in 1892 at Is to l, that ratio be-
/ ing based upon the market value Of the
/ two metals at that time. The market
/ price of silver fell however, to such an ex-
/ tent that it was found necessary to
/ change the ratio, and in 1884 it was fixed
| at l6 to /. This ratio did not prove TO be
| satisfactory, because the price of silver
| advanced, and no silver was taken to the
/ mints TO be coined. Even the fractional
| silver coins disappeared from circulation
/ TO so great an extent that in 1853 congress
made reduction Of about per cent in
| the weight of fractional silver coins,
and the legal tender quality of such coins
was limited to five dollars. In 1873 the
standard silver dollar, together
with subsidiary silver coins, was
demonetized, because the two metals
had parted company, that is,
! the silver coins were of greater intrinsic
value than gold coins, and silver currency
had largely disappeared from the circula-
tion.
II will be seen from the foregoing that
| congress has failed thus far to find a
ratio that will keep gold and silver cur
| rency in circulation on a parity. The
market value of gold and silver is
being constantly affected by the demand
and supply; hence the difficulty of fixing a
ratio that will not cause one or the other
of them to be withdrawn from circula-
ton.
At the present market value of silver a
ratio that would keep the gold and silver
currency in circulation on a parity would
be about % to l. But if that ratio should
be adopted a slight falling off in the pro-
duction of silver would cause a rise in the
price of silver, and the consequence would
be that no silver would be taken to the
mint to be coined The silverites, how
do Of 10 fo
ratio as % to l. One of them, Senator
Vest, has proposed a ratio of "a to
!, but the majority of them object
to ratio above 20 to 1. They
will strive secure a much lower ratio
than that But at 90 to / the intrinsic
value of silver dollar would be much
below that of gold dollar, and it is ex-
tremely doubtful if it could be kept on a
parity with gold dollar.
1t is apparent that the ratio question is
an extremely troublesome one. If the ratio
should be increased all the millions of
silver dollars now in circulation would
have to be called in by the government
and recoined, and before recoinage could
be accomplished the price of silver might
change so greatly9that another ratio
might be necessary.
1t is the purpose of the democratic
party to give the country a silver cur
rency that is sound-that is that will cir
culate on parity with gold currency, but
it will find it no easy matter to do So
owing to the unstable price of silver The
MORNING News suggested a day or two
ago that the purchase of silver should be
stopped at once, and that then attention
should be given to settling the silver
question. 1t could be much more easily
settled under those conditions than it can
by coupling 1t with the act repeating the
Sherman silver-purchase law. The dis
position among congressman is, however,
to handle the repeating act and the ques-
tion of a new ratio together. In the mean
time the business and industrial interests
must suffer until the fight over the ratio
question is ended.