Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1895-09-06
DIR. HILLS PAMPHLET
A SUPPOSED SlLVERlTE WRITES
AGAINST FREE COINAGE.

| SUPPOSED SlLNERlTE WIKI Eo
AGAINST FREE COINAGE.
1t Would Lower Our Standard of VaIue
and Would Not Give Us 10 to Coinage.
A Pamphlet Which Has Dumfounded
the Free Silver People.
DR.. W. P. Hill of ST. Louis has just
written pamphlet entitled Argument
Against Free Silver Coinage at 16 to
l." which has dumfounded the free sill
yer people DR.. Hill is the youngest son
of the late Britton A. Hill, one Of the
ablest champions of fiat money Of the
old Greenback party. DR.. Hill was edu-
Gated in the best universities in Europe.
1t has been generally supposed that he
would follow in the footsteps Of his
father and advocate cheap money. There
is little doubt but that he made a
special study Of finance for the purpose
Of securing arguments against the gold
standard. Study changed his opinions,
as is apparent from the following quo
tation from his excellent pamphlet:
Many people innocently imagine that
the free coinage Of silver is simply a
proposition to open our minis more
| freely to silver and to maintain our
money at its present standard Of value
ON the gold basis, and that by adopting
free coinage we are not going to debase
and lower the value Of our money, but
raise the price Of silver all over the
| world to q 16 to / ratio with gold.
There could be no greater mistake.
They fail to see that it also involves a
change in our unit, standard or meas
ure Of value.
If the proposition was that the United
States should give gold dollar for eva
cry 371A grains Of pure silver brought
to the minis, then that would really be
an attempt on the part Of our govern
ment to raise the price Of silver, and
how long we could raise it would de-
pend on how much silver there was in
the world and how much gold we had.
But this is not the proposition. The free
silver idea is that we must stop insult
ing the silver dollar by redeeming it
and giving a gold dollar for it, and
their proposition is simply to stamp as
a dollar every 412H grains Of standard
silver brought to the mint, and that
this piece Of silver so stamped shall be
our unit or measure Of value.
Is it possible to believe, when the
the new law shall say that 41216 grains
Of standard silver shall constitute the
value Of our dollar, that the dollar will
be worth any more than that? Under
the present system we have issued mil
lions Of silver dollars on the ratio Of l6
TO /. The world has steadily refused to
accept our dictum as to their value, and |
we are compelled to maintain large |
gold reserve, and not only stand ready |
to redeem all those dollars, but also
constantly TO redeem many Of them in |
gold to maintain their value.
We are staggering under our load /
now with our present silver circulation /
and have difficulty to maintain our gold |
reserve. Will our load be lighter when |
we undertake to coin the worlds sur |
plus Of silver? Will the world accept |
our dlctum more readily, when, on the
one hand, we will loudly assert the l6 |
to ratio, and, on the other hand, resO-
lutely give the lie to our own words by |
refusing to exchange them at the ratio
Of l6 to /, which is the only way we |
can make our words count for anything? |
The director Of the United States |
mint estimates the coined silver money |
of the world at S4,O55, 700, 900, which
is about 90 per cent Of the total. Of the
coined silver money more than 81, OOO,-
600, 600 passes current at exactly the
same value as the silver bullion in the
market, and would flow just like so
much bullion to any place where it
could obtain q higher price. The
worlds annual production amounts to
5000 900, 900; the annual production in
this country alone to SS4,000,000. Our
gold reserve amounts to barely $780,
900, 900.
Suppose that by free coinage we could
possibly raise the price Of silver in this
country to double what it is nOw-we
need not say double, but even a fraction
more than now-dOes any man need to
be told that that would start a flow Of
silver to this country, and that our lit
tie gold reserve would be completely
overwhelmed, and that the mighty
stream would never stop flowing until
all vestige Of a higher price had been
completely annihilated? And when that
had been accomplished, does any man
need to be told that our dollar would
simply be worth what 4l2h grains Of
standard silver would be worth in the
market as bullion? This fact is unan-
is no free silver country
in the world where the dollar or unit Of
value is worth one particle more than
the silver in it as bullion in the market.
Our attempt would be about as ridic-
ulous as if we tried to stop the ebb AID
flow of the ocean tides by an act Of con-
gress, or to regulate the movements Of
the planets.