The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-05-21

indicates gold and silver are about par when the
production OF silver is little over s. 20 So in
called for illustration iS6.000000 in gold 10
$3.50. GOO COO in silver at coinage value, ard the
price OF silver, compared to gold, has followed
the ratio OF production Silver has increased
on what call the par quantity over one-thlrd
and the price fallen over one-third. This has
been so constant that we cannot avoid the De-
lief that it is the cause OF the whole silver
question. Professor Price says: The law OK
supply aud demand is supreme over money and
gold used as money as over all things"
In regard to the great crime of demonetiza
ton by the act OF 1873. have stated that De-
fore 1850 our silver was taken away in cOnse-
quence of under valuation, and this was effected
by the Gresham law. by silversmiths TO whom
the coins We're worth more than dollar and
by the greater relative production Of gold, and.
in fact, we had no large amount 10 lose. for the
law OF 1887 made the small coins OF equal frac-
tional values with the dollar, and they largely
disappeared. We used foreign, especially
Mexican coin, and as early as 1SA9 commenced
coming gold dollars and continued until 20 O00,-
90 were coined. In 1858 the standard Of our
subsidiary coin was reduced so we could keep
it. and coinage OF the dollar suspended, yet, as
the law of 1887 was a free coinage act. there
were dollars coined every year up to 1873 and
IN 1871 and 1877 over milton per year, and
assume they we're coined on private account
and mainly for use on the Pacific coast. From
1894 TO the Bland act of 1878, period OF eighty
If every one had been in existence in 1913 they
would not have made 20 cents per capita. In
fact L do not think "a millions were in the
country. for silver was at a prem UNI, the dol
lars were undervalued. and the jewelers. would
use up those they could get and east of the
Rocky mountains there could not have been D
cents per capita in dollars. There were prob
ably men in Congress in 1873 who never had an
American silver dollar and perhaps never
even saw one. OF course the act did not
affect the subsidiary coin, and it did not de-
Drrf ,r,I1- -fFa tod
future coinage. SO the act did not demonetiZe
farthing OF the money we had or reduce the
currency one cent, or reduce the money with
which debtors could pay one cent, and the law
left them TO pay in the same currency in which
the debts were contracted. This Is the extent
to which the money of the country vas cut in
two and the burden OF debtors doubled. Prob
ably one reason the standard dollar was over
looked was that the government as 1 assume
had coined none on its own account Tor twenty
years and it was nearly forgotten we had such q
coin, and hence the act only provided Tor
trade dollar and the subsidiary coin. The fact
that it was not generally known for two years
that the free coinage clause Of 1881 had
been repealed, the legal tender power
of silver reduced to So. and the standard
dollar omitted, shows there was no great de-
mand for the dollar, and the fact that silver
fell in price, during those two years more than
the average decline OF the twenty years since
1873, shows it was production and not the law
of which people we're ignorant that caused the
decline. The law was mistake, for il should
have been noticed that ledge mining had so in
creased the amount of silver that it had fallen
TO about par and that the production of silver
was still on the increase, and the standard
dollar should have been provided.
Many mistakes are made in legislation and
this was no more serious than Others and it
has been so amply atoned in less than ten gen
erations that the finances of the government
are now disturbed by the atonement: for with
in three years after the discovery of
the mistake the Bland act was passed and I
have already stated how much silver we have
mir I1Qc md n he 40. e,-
east know these facts. and the exaggerated
statements constantly made concerning that
law cannot be persuasive arguments to them
find there are some who would be willing to
double the amount of our currency to use more
silver. How the volume of currency gets ad.
justed 10 business we do not know, but when il
Is adjusted we know it should be kept steady
and that to double or greatly initiate the cur
rency would raise prices, other things being
equal because currency and goods are ex-
changeable for each other, and cheap or plenty
money makes high prices, and dear or scarce
money low prices. In these DAYS there must
be some relation Of prices between manufac-
turing nations, allowing for transportation and
tariffs, and II we doubled our currency and in
creased prices without q corresponding in
crease OF. currency in other countries, q prohib
itory tariff woUld be necessary or else our man
ufacturieS would close.
We are told that great calamities have fallen
on us since 1873, and that debts low prices and
other evils are the result of that act When
one feels deep interest in any question which
Z
be tendency in the mind to change the center
OF gravity to that point and connect il with
everything in and out Of the world. had sup
posed that since 1878 our country, as a whole,
has been unusually prosperous, and I now
know of nothing to to the contrary except un-
supported assertions. The population has in
creased largely and wealth also, and there is
no country in the world where the people are so
well fed, housed and clothed, or where labor is
better paid or individual industry and economy
more surely rewarded; and there is
rr6n
wise speculation, idleness, unthrift and bad
business management will not make poverty
and tramps. take from magazine the state
ment that the financial failures and liabilities
of those falling in 1892, are less than in auy
] year since 1886, and the comparisons with 1891
/ are: Failures of 1891, 1928, liabilities $3.50
100000; failues of 1892 10 ,224; liabilities Sf4
900, COO. ] cannot go into details as TO all the
evils charged to silver; but if it is true that the
evils exist they cannot be charged to it, for the
/ only way in which silver could affect sucb
/ things is through the volume of the currency.
/ By greatly contracting the volume of money
| debtors have to pay in dearer money. Omit
ting the coined dollars and bullion in the treas
/ ury and considering them as If at the bottom OF
| the Sea-Since 1878 We have put into our cur
rency $4,000 OOOin silver and 1865 O0 coo of silver
! certificates and notes, or nearly 36.OO0O OU per
/ year from silver sources, and we have had gold
1 to the amount OF more than SIS. GEO. GOO per year
besides what is used in the arts. Since 1890 the
addition OF silver notes is the purchase
! price of AZ millions ounces monthly ayerae.
ing from S47 900 600 to $50 600 eco per year and
had there not been contractionS in other WAYS
our currency would have been increased faI
too fast. AS 1t is, l think the increase has been
too much, and we have been representing in
the currency several times our share OF The
! silver of the world If distress has come from
the too scanty representation CT silver in the
currency, there must have been fearful distress
] from 1871 to 1873, when we were using almost
none, except subsidiary coin. either directly OIL
| by representation. Previous to the war [ as
sumo our volume of currency was about S2i pc,
capita. It is given at SD in 1852 and / thirJ
| this was after the first gold notes were issued.
During the initiation of the war, after the ma
I tlonal bank currency came in, il cot up TO 81
/ in 1864. and afterward was contracted, anC
from 1857 TO 1873 ranged between extremes o.
S2s.S and $50 per capita, and though have nc
] data from 1879 to 1873, I assume there
was the same ratio, and that 81 per capits
may be regarded as the full average. This has
4 been increased and the latest report have
gives it now at S25. Is, so that we have cheaper
money than we ever had except during short
was not contracted in 1868 or 1854 or about thai
time, has had cheaper money with which tc
pay than the dollars in which he contracted
the debt. In countries where tenancies are
usual, rental value is one Of the principal Ell
dences OF the value of property aud futere st i:
the rental value OF money. Since 1873 interest
| throughout the whole country has fallen q
least one-third. In the eastern states where b.
law it was from to per cent 1t has faller
about One-third on the same classes of securi
ties, and IL the western states and.here in Utal