The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1895-05-25

SiEtl L lS lCSGlG W dS lllaC SIIfCi lSAS
the Country and gold came back. ga
very small percentage Of difference
between the legal ratio and The CON-
mercial ratio has always been found
sufficient in modern !imes to drive the
under-valued metal entirely out and
substitute the o:he", Or paper basf d
upon the other, in its place, and no
Congress cr Parliament can repeal or
alter the natural law Of trade by which
this movement of the metals is
governed" Here were two illustra-
trations of the law, in the one case
silve.: was ov:r-valued, and in the
other gold was over-valued.
In 1858 Congress, in order to main
tain the circulation of subsidiary
coins-half dollars, quarters and
dimes-reduced the metal contained
in them and made them legal tender
in payment Of sums not exceeding five
dollars. Consequently these came into
use until expelled by the cheaper paper
money issued during the war; not
being full legal tender they could not
drive out the gold coins.
This was the condition in 1878.
Our actual measure of value was gold,
and cur actual circulating medium was
paper, with purchasing power mea-
sured by the gold standard. We had
no silver and it had no influence what
ever on our prices. and on our ability
to pay debts. "The Act of 1873,
therefore, did not and could not take
away from the people of the United
States any advantage they then pos
sessed, but it did prevent the coinage
of full legal tender silver dollars there
after, and the Act of 1874 destroyed
the debt-paying power of The old
standard dollar coin d before 1878,
except in sums O. five dollars. No
silver being in circulation, it had no
practical effect on debtors to ply their
debts. Thus we remained until 1878.
The effort to keep both metals in circu-
lation as full legal tender under a
system of free coinage had failed. A
new policy was tried, that of restoring
to circulation the standard silver
dollar with full legal tender: not by
opening the mints to its frea and un-
limited coinage on individual account,
as is now proposed, but by providing
for the purchase and coinage of not
more than four million dollars worth
and not less than two million dollars
worth of silver each month by the
government itself. Under this Act,
the Sherman Act, and the Act requir-
ing the recoinage Of the trade dollar,
in seventeen years 1897 .652, 1913 in full |
legal tender standard silver dollars
were put in circulation as against
SS,030,00O during the. whole previous
existence of the government. There
never was one-third as much silver
dollars, full legal tender, in circulation
az now, and the financial affairs Of the |
government have been so managed
that its purchasing power has been
preserved, Notwithstanding il is coined
st ratio which does not conform 10
the real value of the metals in the
market. "Free and ualimitda coinage
of full legal tender silver dollars at
the ratio of 16 to / means that our law
shall be so changed that any owner of |
silver bullion may send it 10 the mints
and have it coined, at the public e1-
pense, ints dollars each containing 4l23
grains of standard silver, the dollars
when coined to be delivered to the
owner OF the bullion, and all the people
of the United States to be compelled
by law to receive them as dollars IN
payment of debts, although not
intrinsically worth more than fifty
cents each" The 25 $40 grains
in a gold dollar Is worth 100
cents, or the equivalent of 100 cents,
all over the world, in silver countries
as we'll as gold countries. It is worth
it before it is coined. Or as Mr.. Car
Isle strongly puts it: 16 pounds of
silver cannot be exchanged for l
pound of gold anywhere in the world,
but it requires about 50 pounds of
silver" In answer to the objection
that this is measuring the value of
silver by gold, he says, "the statement
does not attempt to measure the value
Of either Of the metals, but simply to
compare them, one with the other,"
and "for the purpose cf making the
the value Of gold is de-
termined by its purchasing power in
the markets of the world, and the
value of silver is determined in the
same way"
MIR. Carlisle defines his position thus:
II have never been, and am not now,
to silver in the sense of
desiring to see it excluded from the
monetary system Of the United States,
Or of ony other country, but I know
it cannot be kept in circulation along
with gold by means of any ratio the
law Of any one country may attempt
to establish between the two metals;