Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1893-07-28

-Vie representatives OF Ntta,lG silver
mines silent in the face of the great
conspiracy? Ii was simply becanse
nobody thought that silver would suffer
by the act of 1873. The silver dollar had
already long ago disappeared because
the silver in it was worth more than Il
dollar. Hence it was that the Till drop
ping an Obsolete coin from the coinage
laws of the country WAS thought of no
consequence and WAS allowed to go
through without opposition. The asser-
tion that the money supply of ti.ecnun-
try has been decreased II half by the
demonel ization of silver is too foolish
to merit any consideration. Bot it has
miSled Il few: so we may be pardoned
for devoting IL short space to this phase
of the question. Even tree silver advO-
| Gates admit that there is sixteen times
as much silver as gold i'm existence.
This is the reason for the proposed
ratio. The whole available money sup
ply OF the country then. previous to 1874.
must have been made up of IL parts. of
which n part was gold and sixteen
parts silver. Then when silver was
destroyed ass legal tender congress
must have annihilated not II half but
sixtcen-seventeemths of the entire
money of the country This is but fol-
lowing toa logical conclusion IL favor
lite free silver ta!iacy. Now let us see
how much the characterization act of
1873 and subsequent silver legislation
by the United States has had to do with
the great decline in the market value of
silver bullion. All will admit that sup
ply and demand have much TO do in
fixing the market value of any commod-
ity. gold and silver by no means except
ed. Government by creating IL
demand for amy commodity cam enhance
the value of that commodity, and vice
versa. When silver WAS d%emonctiztd
in this country silver as currency had.
disappeared practically, except as small
change and trade dollars, so HAT the
action ot the government in stopping
coinage of the silver dollar certainly did
not detract from its value.
In 1878 the cry for free silver was
raised and as a consequence the Bland
act WAS passed. This measure provided
for the purchase of from two to four
million dollars worth OF silver bullion
monthly for coinage into silver dollars.
This measure was passed over the veto
of President Hayes. Bat this did not
satisfy the craze and in 1890 the act of
1919 was amended so that 4,5Oo.OOO
ounces of silver should be purchased
each month by the government. AS IL
result of these measures there was in
circulation in June, 1878, $6i. l34.G5a in
silver. of which $;Gl,9ls,3s2 was i'm sub
sidiary coin and the resi-. Il little over Il
million dollars. was in trade and stand
ard dollars. by the first of January,
1892. the total amount of silver in cir
culation had risen to 1921 ,2lG,G4G. De
monetiZation has increased eight fold
the amount of silver in circulation in
tins country. Taking another view of
the matter: there were coined IN stand
ard silver dollars in the United States
from the time of the establishment of
the coinage system in 1903 down to 1873.
the era of bi- metallism. during all that
period of eighty years S.03l .23S pieces
or that number of dollars. During TIL.
period of the 'cnnspiracy' against silver
there have been coined in standard sill
vel dollars by the United States from
1875 to June 30. 1891. S4O5,G44,Gss: OF
in other words during thirteen wears
that silver has been d~emonetiZed there
has been coined more than fifty times
us many silver standard dollars us there
was coined during eighty years of free
silver. This shows how much the So
called characterization of silver must
have affected the price OF that metal
during the past fifteen years. Other
forces more potent than the action of
this nation have been at work to reduce
the price of silver. In 1873 Germany
suddenly changed from a silver to Il gold
| standard and melted down and s,ld
$s257,454,OOo in silver. This action alone
forced down the price of silver. Ger
many, in demonetizing silver aimed to
cripple her old enemy. France, that was
then maintaining the double standard.
In self defense France Immediately
suspended further coinage of silver and
i'll this she was speedily followed by all
the states of the Latin Union. Thus
Europe canle to II gold standard and
silver WAS corr-spondingly deprecated.
The production of silver rs compared
with the production OF gold has in.
creased more than tonr fold in the past
forty-two years. The total production
of gold i'll the world in 1851 was $500,
900 ounces. The total production of
silver during the same year was 81. 1OO,-
600 ounces or Il ratio of silver to gold OF
1876 to /. In 1891 the total gold pro-
duction of the world was G.OlN.OOC
ounces while during the same year the