Southwest-sentinel. [volume] (Silver City, N.M.) 1883-189?, 1893-08-15

A little while ago, the Constitu-
ton took occasion to frame this
question: with our mints re-
opened to the unlimited coinage
Of silver, and the metal placed on
an equality with gold bullion be-
fore the law, what would be the
effect on the price Of the metal in
London2'
This question, which goes deep
er than would appear at FIRST
glance, has attracted the attention
Of Mr.. Murat Halstead, and in his
letter to the New York Herald, Of
Thursday, he undertakes to ans
wer it, and he does it in his custo-
mary terse and off-hand fashion.
He says:
What would be the effect Of the
free coinage of silver? 1t would
be a greater loss to the silver men
than the stoppage of the purchase
Of the metal. Under the free
coinage system foreign silver would
come in at once and compete with
our silver product in getting gold,
and the price would go down to
the ratio Of thirty-two to one, and
perhaps lower. The free coinage
Of silver would mean among other
things its irretrievable fall.
The New York World, of Thurs
day, parallels this statement. 1t
says:
The result of the adoption of
the free coinage act would be to
dump in our market substantially
the worlds product and store of
silver. And it will probably re-
quire that experience to convince
Mr.. Bland that he is wrong.
VIII Mr.. Halstead and the
World tell us where "the worlds
stock of silver is, and in what 1t
consists? If either Mr.. Halstead
or the World can place their hands
on a stock of uncoined silver out
side of the United States treasury,
large enough to affect the question
of unlimited coinage one way or
another they will shed considera-
BILE light on the matter. But as
there is no such stock, they must
refer to the worlds store of coin
ed silver. The law of unlimited
silver coinage that prevailed until
the crime of decentralization in
1878, never provided for the coin
age of silver free of charge to the
bullion owners. The law was I'M
limited coinage, without purchase,
for one-tenth toll.
Let us suppose that u minis
are reopened to unlimited coinage,
and hat these Europeans who
have access to our channels of
trade foreign silver can come
here In no other way) desire to
take advantage of the situation.
The first fact that confronts them
is that Europe's stock of silver
coin is worth its face value in gold.
Mr.. r. L. Preston, acting director
of the United Statee mint, says:
"There is no discount in these
countries on the legal tender sill
yer at the banks" Another fact
is that the silver of Europe is coin
ed at a ratio of 154 to l, whereat
American coinage is at the rate of
16 to l. And, as the bulk Of Eu-
ropean silver has been in use many
years, it has probably lost 3 per
cent. by abrasion. Here is a dead
loss of 6 per cent. on every dollars
worth of European silver that is
dumped" on this country, to
which must be added. freight and
insurance. But this is not all,
The European coins could not be
offered to our minis. The one
tenth alloy which they contain
would have to be extracted-a loss
Of 10'per cent.-and the extraction
would cost another 5 per cent,
making a loss and cost of not less
than 80 cents before the dump
reached our mints, the total loss
on every dollars worth of Europe
an silver brought over here being
not less than 80 cents. To put il
another shape, foreign spectators,
in order to dump" European sill
yer or our mints would be COM
PEELED to sell for 68 cents the silver
that cost them a dollar in gold.
OF the so sacks of Kangaroo
silver ore washed away by a food
in Box Canyon between Kingston
and Marlborough recently about
40 have been recovered. Some of
the sacks were found about a mile
below the canyon, showing the