The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-08-30
SILVER IN THE UNITED STATES.

1t Is wearisome and thankless task
but possibly it is as good a method of
spreading Information as any other.
The existing interest in the coinage
question has called forth historical state
ments from a number of newspapers,
and, among others. the Philadelphia
Times has produced one that is gro
tesque in it's misstatements Unfortu-
nately the Times is a paper OF large cir
culation and influence. and in conse-
quence its statements have been adopted
by a number of it's contemporaries, and
ton. 1t seems reasonably clear that
there will never be any judicious or
proper settlement of the coinage ques-
ton until the American people under
stand the facts involved and apply the
logic of common sense to them. We
therefore invite the attention of our
readers to a paragraph Of this ''histori-
cal statement" In which there is not a
solitary fact stated. The Times says:
The United States, by act of April 2,
1882 provided for the establishment of a
mint and fixed the amount of precious
metal TO be used in their coins. The
silver dollar fixed as the standard at
that time contained 416 grains. which
made it worth a fraction of cent more
than 81 in gold. BY the act Of June Is,
1884. the weight of gold coins was
slightly Increased as compared with sill
yer. which remained unchanged. By the
act of Jan. Is. 1887, the French standard
for both gold and silver was adopted.
The weight of the gold coin remained
unchanged, but the silver dollar was
reduced to 4121s grains. where it remains
today. At that time, as il had been
from the esta blishment Of the mint, and
as it continued until 1873. the silver dol
lar Of 412h grains was worth a fraction
more than dollar in gold.
To begin with the first statement, the
act of 1892 did not make the silver dol
lar worth more than the gold dollar. 1t
established a ratio Of l TO Is, which
made the silver dollar worth less than
the gold dollar, intrinsically. and there
fore gold was driven away from the
country. The act OF June rs, 1884. did
coins; it decreased their weight. The
gold dollar Of 1892 contained 24.75 grains
of pure or fine gold and the gold dollar
of 1884 contained only 1872 grains of fine
gold The silver dollar was not altered
by the act of 1884, but the reduction of
value of the gold dollar had the same
effect as overvaluing gold and under
valuing silver. There was too much
silver in the silver dollar as compared
with the gold dollar, and consequently
the silver left the country soon as our
gold mines were able to supply gold to
take it's place.
The act of 1887 did not adopt 1.-The
French standard" except as to alloy.
1t made no change whatever in the
amount Of silver in the dollar and very
little in the gold. The act Of 1892 had
provided that the gold dollar should con-
tain one-twelfth alloy, and the silver
dollar should contain 179 parts alloy to
LASS parts fine silver, which is a ratio
of a little more than one-tenth alloy.
The law of 1884 had also made the al
10y of the gold dollar a little more than
one-tenth. The law of Jan. Is. 1897. pro-
vided that the alloy of both gold and
silver coins should be exactly one-tenth,
but the amount of silver in the dollar
was not changed. This reduced the
weight of the silver dollar from 416 to
4121s grains, but the silver in it, as it
always had been, and now is. was
371.25 grains. The gold in the gold dol
lar was increased by this law from 1872
to 1922 grains.
These changes seem very slight, and
yet their effects were of the utmost i'm
portance to the country. Before 1884
our gold coins were sent out Of the coun-
try as fast as they were minted. After
1884 we had not verv much trouble until