Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1893-08-24

facts 1 have stat above, and he adds
that the bill was printed eleven tunes
by The Congr ssional Printer. Is well
as passed upon bv Commit ees of both
houses between 1870 add 1873
In what | have written above | do
not pretend 10 SDt az with authority or
aSan exp TT have endeavor d, how
ever. to state the facts, as after pretty
careful search. have found them TO
be have, / believe, in the main, Re-
Trained from theorizing, and from stat
ing conclusion leaving it to my read
ers, il shall be fay ored with any, to
draw their own conc us;ons and formu-
late their own theories from the facts.
Iyentured however To state, above,
that it was in my opinion, to be expect
ed that taking away from silver part OF
the uses to which it had been applied,
would, 10 some extent, diminish its
market value. But pointed out, that
it was difficult to discover from the
published tables showing the market
value of silver from year to year, that
the demonetization of silver by Ger
many. or by the act of 1873, bad any
such depressing effect. or if it had. it
was impossible to determir e from those
tables how much the value of silver
was depressed by either of those events,
and how much was Que to other causes,
VIII CHI have been at work reducing the
value Of silver as compared with that
of gold. almost if not quite from the
very beginning of the use of The two
metals as money From tab pub.
l'shed in Applelon's Annual Cyclopedia
for 1885, on p. 276, it appears for in
stance, that the ratio Of alue between
gold and silver ir m 1901 to 1920. was
l to 1915; from 1921 to 1910, to II 20;
from 1911 o 1860, to IL 80. from 1861
To 1880. to II so; and so on. ut about
tn" same rate OF increase of the rati }
between them, until from 1861 to 1850
it was l t, 10; from 1851 to 1900 there
was a Slight decrease. the ratio in 1900
being to ii SO In the next 10 wears
it was l to 1927 The IA 10 then slowly
bu steadi Y dacreas, d until 1880 when
it was | to Il Ga. From 1871 to 1890,
it was 10 10 A. In the next tenyears
it rose t. t. 1851. 10 the next ten
years it was / to 10 81. from 1921 to
1886 it was l to 10 50. From 1881 to
1910 it was l 10 Is IS have already
Civ en- the substance of the ratio since
1910. From those figures il seems to
be true, that while there has been upon
the whole, downward tendency in the
value of silver as compared with gold,
it has not been uniform in its rate, nor
has 1t been uniformly downwards.
Showing, as it would seem, that the
relation between the values of the two
metsls has never been stable
If the theory of the ''siver states
men" that the free coinage Of silver
by this country alone, will restore its
market 'alue 10 the old ratio If the sill
yer dol ar 10 the gold dollar of to l6
nearly, it would seem that the remone-
tia ion of the silver dol ar and the res
toration of its legal tender quality by
the Bland Act in 1878, which be-
came l-w, believt, on Feb. 2Sth,
1878, and the requirement Of that act,
that not less than $2,000,000, and not
more than $4,0O0,000 worth of silver
bullion should be bought, at the mark
ct price, BY the government. per month,
aud coined into dollars as fast as pur-
chased. or the so-called Sherman act, :"
to which GER ain theOri-ts ascrlbe all
our present business depression and
difficulties. viii, h became law, | be-
lieve, July l4th, 1890, and which pro-
vided for the purchase by the govern
ment of 1850, 900 ounces of silver bur
lion per month at is market value not
exceeding 81 90 for 81 rs grains of
pure silver, and the coinage OF 2, O00,
900 ounces OF j. into IS andaId silver
do lars" in each month until Juy lsl.
1891, and alter that date so much Of
the silver bought should be co nad as
shou be necessary to provide for The
payment If he t: easury notes provide
tor IN the act, ought to have had some
effect, a east, upon the price of silver,
or al hast some tendenty to enc, the
st ady mere tse in the difference te-
tween its value and that of g = Both
of thos- acts were passed in the cpIil-
d, mt expect ton, not only of Toe Isl =
yer It t-smen but Of o'h-r sta es
men" IS wen. that such would be their
effect
But cannot discover il the bles
81 wing the p lie OF 81 VIZ, that cit e.
act, after is passage. added mater agy
t. he market value of silver, or more
than iemnofarl y checked downward
tendency During lh- var 1870. the
aver &c ratio was to is 80 In 1876
it increased to l 20 Il 3d. In 1877. in
speculative antieipat on Of be passage
~ the Bland Of some 0 her silver bill,
the ratio decreased o ID II y But
~ 1878, after the Bland act became a
aw and its effect. or want Of effect was
realizt d. the rat o again Increased. 20
thai for 1873. it was 10 II a. worse
than before tie passage OF the ct In
1879 it was to 1910. I'm 1880 there
was a light a is, and il was to 1906.
In 1889 it bad tai en- to 10 p %. In
1890. in anticipation Of the passage Of
further 81 yer legislation, there was for
short time rapid rise in price. fol-
lowed almost Immediately by a rapid
decline 10 very nearly as low a point
as before. So that the difference be-
tive en- the highest and lowest price in
that year, was IL pence an ounce, the
highest point reached being 54s pence
and the lowest Az pence per ounce.
Resp. ctii z this fiuctuation President
Harrison sad. in his message in 1891:
The recent depreciation il the price
Of liver has been observed with regret.