The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-13

News why, if our minis were opened to
the free coinage OF both silver and gold
at the ratio OF le TO !. the price OF silver
would not advance so that the CONNER
cial value OF the silver in silver dollar
would be worth a dollar I'm gold. AR
Wilkes puts his question in a little diff
ferent shape. but the language in which
We have Put IT. for brevity. is what he
means. lie ought 10 put the question 20
those who are urging the free. unlimited
and Independent coinage of silver. They
are proposing free coinage Of silver. and
therefore ought 10 show that if there
We're free coinage at the existing ratio
gold and silver currency would circulate
on parity. II would be useless for him
TO ask them, however. because he would
get no answer. While some of them are
pretending that the two kinds OF metal
money would circulate on a parity. all the
arguments they use in behalf of free sill
Yer coinage prove they would not. For
instance, they say that II We had free
silver coinage the prices Of all products
would advance greatly, would be double
perhaps what they are now. How could
that be if prices continued to be express
Ell IN gold, as they would he if silver con
tinuod TO circulate on a parity with gold?
What they mean, and the only thing they
can possibly mean, is that if the coinage
of silver were made free. silver would
become the measure Of value. and prices
would be expressed in silver. All silver
Even Harvey. the author Of Coins FL
nancial School" and the great apostle of
the silventes. admits that with free silver
coinage a silver dollar would not circu-
late on "a parity with a gold dollar. on
page Ii3 of his work he says I'VE can.
if necessary, by act of congress, reduce
the number of grains in a gold dollar till
it is of the same value as silver dollar"
From this il is seen that the apostle of
the silverites docs not think the CONNER
cial value Of the silver in a silver dollar
would be the same as that Of the gold in
a gold dollar. and therefore he would rob
the gold dollar of half its gold or as
much as might be necessary, to bring its
value down to that Of a silver dollar. He
fails to state. however. that the gold dol
lar he proposes would not be worth a
dollar in gold. and would not circulate as
a dollar in the commercial world.
But outside of what the silverites say
about the matter, it is apparent that free
silver coinage by this country alone would
not make the commercial value of the sill
Yer in silver dollar equal to a dollar in
gold. Under the purchasing clause of the
sherman silver law the government pur-
chased nearly all the output of the silver
mines Of this country. and put it into cir
culatlon in the shape Of treasury notes,
but the price of silver steadily fell. With
the minis of India and Mexico and some
other countries open to free silver coinage
the price of silver steadily fell. The vast.
populations Of China. Japan. India. and
Central and South America have the sill
yer standard, and STILL at the ratio of
16 to J. a silver dollar is worth only about
half as much as a gold dollar. About one
thousand millions of people use silver ex-
clusively and less than three hundred
millions have gold as the standard of
value. Could this country alone, with it's
seventy millions of people, by opening it's
mints to free silver coinage, double the
purchasing power of all the silver money
of the thousands millions of people that
use silver exclusively? Is there u reason
able man who believes it could? and yet
that is what would have to occur before
silver and gold currency would circulate
on parity at the ratio of 16 to 1.
our Tampa correspondent asks us how
bimetallism can be brought about? That
is a difficult problem to solve. An agree
ment among the gold standard nations
might solve it. 1t would at least save us
from the evils that would come upon us
from undertaking free silver coinage
alone. At the same time, our correspon-
dent must not forget that we have some
thing close to bimetallism now. We have
about as much silver currency as gold
currency, and silver circulates on a par
ity with gold, and is legal tender.