Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1894-08-10


few OF mankind or womankind pine for.
Surely little immediate relief could be OBJ
tanned from this innovation at this time
In connection with the claim for free
coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to
comes from these reformers the charge
and insinuation that the demonstration
of silver in 1873 is the chief cause of the
financial and industrial depression now
prevailing in the country. In order that
you may see how untrue and untenable
this charge is, and in order that you may
realize and fully understand the full effect
of the immediate and unconditional free
and unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio
of Is to l, shall have to take up and dis
cuss, in as brief way as possible, the
principles which govern the coinage ana
circulation OF
Gold and Silver as Money.
BY the phrase "a ratio of 16 to u is
meant that Is ounces or parts of silver
coined into money shall equal one ounce
or part OF gold coined into money. This
is the coin or statutory ratio, as distin-
gulshed from the intrinsic or commercial
ratio OF the metals. Carefully compiled
statistics from original sources show that
the commercial value of silver between
the year 1857 and the year 1892 f1uctuated
from ratio OF Il. II to ratio of 15. 50, and
that in the last year named the commercial
ratio OF silver was 1871 At this time the
first coinage act of the United States was
passed, providing for the free coinage of
both silver and gold at ratio of Is to l.
And here [ ask you to note how near the
coin ratio approximated to the commercial
ratio. Had the trainers of that law steered
as wide from the commercial ratio as the
Populist reformers do today, the ratio
would have been not Is to /, but to l.
But the men of those days were imbued
with hard common sense and business in
tegrity, and had no silver mines or silver
bullion to bull or initiate.
To understand the effect of this and the
subsequent coinage laws of the United
States 1t is necessary to call your atten-
tion to the universal and inexorable rule
governing the circulation of money known
as the Gresham rule: that where two kinds
OF money of equal coin value circulate
side by side, and are not by law incontro-
vertible with each other, that money
which is intrinsically and commercially
the cheapest will drive the dearest out of
circulation. The debtor will always pay
with the cheaper dollar, and the buyer al
ways buy with the cheaper dollar, while
the dearer dollar will be withdrawn from
circulation and disposed of as bullion or
at it's bullion value. The element of inter-
controvertibility being wanting under the
act of 1892, silver, gradually depreciating
in value until reaching a ratio of nearly
16 to by 1884, through the force of the
rule have described, had driven all our
erO11 <Sf %1o1 H.
this evil and bring back the gold into cir
crlation, the coinage act Of 1884, J. fixing the
ratio at 16 to 1, as it is today, was passed.
This was slight generalization for gold
and hence, under the rule of circulation
described to you, gold drove our silver out
CT circulation. TO cure this evil and keep
some silver in circulation, Ae act
of 1858, providing for greatly de-
based coinage of small subsidiary silver
coins, was passed. Save and except those
debased subsidiary coins, gold was the
only money Of the pational government in
circulation from 1910 down to 1862, at
which time our national government first
acquired paper currency and this cur
rency remained the only circulating me-
dunn from that time until specie payment
was resumed in 1879.
Only leCnnlCdl DEMONSTRATION
From these facts it is apparent that
when silver was demonetized in 1873, it
was not in circulation and had not been
| since 1910, and that we then were, and
ever since 1862 had been, on an exclusive
paper basis, SO that the denonetization
was, as a matter of fact, technical rather
than PRACTICAL In 1878, one year before
specie payment was resumed, silver, under
| the Bland law, was demonetized and a
true state of bimetallism inaugurated
by adopting, for the first time, and as a
| matter of fact, the prin ciple of incontro-
vertibility, without which no real p1acti-
| cal bimetallism can exist, outside of inter-
| national bimetallism. The Bland law
| provided for the purchase and coinage of
| from two to four million dollars worth of
silver bullion per month, and for the 1ssu
ance Of silver certificates upon such coin
age. Under this law over 400, 600, 600 of
silver dollars have been coined.
| Owing to the almost universal demone
tization of silver in Europe since 1872, and
the greatly increased production thereof
| throughout the world, in spite of the
Bland law and in spite of the Sherman
law of 1890, ur der which the government
was required to purchase silver bullion at
the rate of 81, 100000 ounces per year and
issue paper currency thereon, silver has,
ever since 1872, gradually deprecated in
value until today it's commercial ratio is
less than 80 to 1, and before the repeal of
the purchasing clause Of the Sherman law
it had reached ratio of less than % to l.
In all these years, aside from India, the
United States has been the best friend
that silver has had. Until the repeal of
the purchasing clause of the Sherman law
and the suspension Of coinage in India,
both occurring in 1898, these countries
consumed upwards of two-th irds Of the
worlds entire supply of silver. And yet,
in spite of the efforts of these two coun-
tries to sustain silver, it kept on, from the
causes already described. to decline in
price so rapidly that it became evident
that India and the United States com
bined could not sustain the burden
alone. On the first day of June
I! 1894, the United States carried in circula
tion s647, 10000 of silver as against $685.,
100000 of gold, of which s100,000, ,00(
is kept in the treasury as a redemption
fund for S346, COZ, 600 of greenbacks. France
has a silver circulation of 500, ,00O, 900, as
11@1