The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-05-10
Repeal the sherman Inv.

Inc sherman law ought TO be repealed.
II was stupid piece of work and has re-
suited in great losses to the government
But these losses would have been very
much less il the one feature of the law
which not only recognized the policy of
bimetallism, but provided q way for it's
enforcement. had been taken advantage
OF by the Harrison administration. IL
the treasury notes issued under it's author
lty had been redeemed in silver instead
OF gold II may be seriously doubted ii
there would have been any considerable
drainage OF gold from the treasury To
repeal the Sherman act now without
substituting tree coinage of silver or some
such legislation as the Bland act, would
be to establish the gold standard alone
Ii not we should like to have TIE SENTI-
MEL explain why not
Perhaps the simplest explanation is TO
point to the fact that temporary stop
page OF the coinage OF silver money is not
a removal from the currency of the silver
money that has already been coined.
This country has about 100000 600 Of sill
YER currency in circulation. Every dollar
of it is worth dollar in gold, no matter
what the intrinsic value of silver may be.
because the credit of the government is
back of it. If the government should I'M
dertake to establish gold monometallism
1t would have to call in lite silver and pay
face value in gold for it. But the govern
ment has no such intention, and the
people do not want any such action.
They want the silver currency. The only
problem of the government is to keep our
silver and gold currency on an equal foot
ing while other countries with which We
have commerce have demonetized silver,
and while the patriots of Wsll-st. are try
ing to force gold to a premium for specu
lstive purposes.
We have shown repeatedly that the
decrease in the value of silver is wholly
due to artificial cauees. In the last forty
years the production of gold has been
enormously in excess of the production of
silver. In thirty-seven years, from 1851
to 1889, the worlds product of gold was
S4,675, 100000, as against 3, 575, 600 000 of
silver. The worl d supply of gold stood
in the relation of about l to - of silver
during the first fifty years of the century.
Now it stands about / to 10. Hence gold
and silver increasing. BY Improvements
in mining the cost Of production OF both
metals has been cheapened, but the
cost of the production of gold
has been chsapened much more
than that of silver. Hence gold should
naturally be decreasing in value and
silver increasing. There is something
81 al fhaV =
of prices. What is it? Obviously the
legislation on the coinage question which
began in 1870 because since that date
there has been a general decline in the
value of silver. but at the same time more
remarkable fluctuations in it than were
ever known before.
In the period of demonstration, as il
may for convenience be called, all sorts OF
schemes for enhancing the intrinsic val
ne ofsilver have been tried except the re-
turn 10 free coinage. But free coinage
does not mean actual coinage. Perhaps
the Courier makes the error OF confusing
the two. The Bland bill provided for actual
coinage, BUTT did no good. As matter
OF fact actual coinage does not seem 10
have had much effect on the relative val
ne oithe metal either before 1870 or since.
From 1893 to 1905 the United States coined
! Sl,440000Of silver dollars. From that
time to 1910 silver coinage was free but
not actual. Only 81 300 of silver dollars
were coined. There was heavy coinage
of subsidiary silver coins, but these always
rested in part on credit, eng of debased
metal. From 1910 to SO there were
coined So 10000 of silver dollars. With
this very small coinage there was no ma
terialfluctuation in the value of silver.
and yet silver was practically the only
coin of the country. The coins used
were Mexican and Spanish dollars.
In the four years Is7O-73 the United
States coined S2.978,OO0 of silver dollars,
and vet silver decreased in value. Then
came our own demonstration, and for
four years the United States coined no
silver dollars, but in the course OF six
years coined $50, 100000 of trade dollars in
compliance with the honest money" de.
mand for dollars whose intrinsic value
should equal their face value. This ex.
pertinent proved a total failure, as the
trade dollars were quickly at a discount oil
10 TO 20 per cent as compared with the
dollar of the dads" which was intrinsical
ly worth less.
The total actual coinage to 1873 was
| s., 583. 900 of silver dollars. and the trade
dollars, which were sflerward retired
Under the Bland bill the government
coined in 1873 SD, 49J, $50 Of silver dollars
and has increased that amount annually
ever since until over $500, 00O,0OO of silver
dollars have been coined. If there were
any virtue in actual coinage we ought
TO see something of it by this time, but
in fact the value of silver steadily
declined under the Bland bill. There
was q reaction in 1890, due to demand
for silver in India. but that was all
Then came the Sherman law with more
actual coinage. and silver deprecated
more rapidly than ever. Hence the
Sherman law is worse than the BLAND
law, but neither accomplishes nor tend:
10 accomplish what is needed 1t may be
noted here that what is called the depre
citation of silver is in fact largely, II not
wholly, an appreciation OF gold as com
pared with all com modities. which has