The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-16
Why Change the RatioP


The following questions have been sub
mitted to the MORNING NEWS from Able
vile, Ga:
Up 70 1873, the ratio between gold and
F silver was 16 70 l. aud everybody was sat
lstied. or, at least, majority were VIII
you kindly answer through your valua bic
paper why IL is now necessary TO raise
the ratio to 20 to !. more or Less Current
creeds are that the price OF gold has gone
up. If this is true, will you state what
was the true cause of its advancement,
| ask for information and trust you will
find time for reply. R. z BRADY.
In the foregoing communication consid-
cradle is assumed to be true which is not
true. As a matter of fact everybody was
not satisfied with the free coinage of sill
Yer at the ratio Of 16 70 l up to 1873. No
I body was satisfied The evidence that no.
body was satisfied is the fact that in that
! year silver was demonetized without op-
/ position, because the silver in a silver
/ dollar was worth 3 cents more than the
! gold in a gold dollar No silver was taken
| to the mint TO be coined into silver dol
/ lars. because it was too valuable to be
/ coined into money. Silver was demon
cited because the silver dollar, being
worth more than the gold dollar, was a
/ disturbing factor in the currency.
| The reason why there is not now free
| coinage of silver at the ratio of 10 to l is
| because the silver in the silver dollar,
measured by the standard of all the
great commercial nations, is worth less
| than fifty cents. While in 1873 the silver
in a silver dollar was worth cents more
than the gold in a gold dollar it is now
worth only half as much as the gold in
gold dollar. The reason of this is NJ t
/ as some would have it believed, because
! gold has become scarcer and therefore
| dearer, but because silver has become
much moro plentiful and therefore
| cheaper. That this is true can be
! readily seen by consulting the re-
| ports of the annual production of
| silver during the last four years. The
production of silver has been enormous,
owing to the finding of new and immense
| deposits of silver and to the cheaper pro
cesses for extracting the silver from the
ore. The production of gold has been
about normal. These are not simply as
sertions. They are facts.
| it IS true that the silverites say that
| gold has advanced in value, but they have
not been able to show it has They point to
the low prices of wheat and cotton as evil
! dences that it has. 1t is true that the
| prices of these articles are exceedingly
| low, but are not the low prices of these
| articles due to overproduction More
! cotton and wheat are produced than the
world needs. The prices of watermelons
are high in the beginning of the melon
| h11f ,rrIo
son advances and the markets
become Overstocked. Again, if the low
prices of wheat and cotton were due to an
| increase in the value of gold we should
! expect the price of corn to be low, and also
| wages. AS a matter of fact, the price of
| corn is higher than it has been for years,
and wages are higher than when the sill
yer in a silver dollar was worth
more than the gold in a gold dollar. There
| is, therefore, nothing to show that there
has been an advance in the value of gold,
but great deal to show that there has
been a very great decline in the value of
silver.
| The reason why it is necessary to raise
the ratio between gold and silver from rs
| to to 20 or more to l, if the free coinage
Of silver is entered upon, is that
in order to make silver dollar circulate
on a parity with gold dollar-thatis,
have the same purchasing power as gold
| dOllar-it must contain dollars worth of
silver. 1t is true that it now has the
same purchasing power as gold dollar,
and it does not contain a dollars worth
of silver. The reason of this is that the
| government gives a gold dollar in ex-
change for silver dollar. The people
could not be made to believe that the gov
| eminent could continue to do this if the
coinage of silver were made free. The
government could not get the gold to do
it, and as soon as the people lost conf
dence in the ability of the government to
pay out gold for silver. they would refuse
TO take silver dollar except at its real
value, which is less than so cents.
In all the countries in which there is
free coinage of silver the silver coins are
worth in gold only about half their face
value. If we should have free silver
coinage our silver dollars would occupy
the same place in our currency, in relation
to gold, that the silver currency of the
free silver coinage countries occupies in
! the currency of those countries.
This silver question is playing an i'm
portant part in the campaign in this state
and we have therefore given considera-
BILE space to answering our correspon-
dents questions.
The Atlanta papers have heard of the