Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1895-08-16

u ferson and Hami lton both determined
& to make the new gold and silver dollar
eqnal III yalne to the then standard Of
measurement. which was q dollar equal
4 to 2424 grains Of gold. They recognized
the fact that the exchangeable value Of
{ a coined dollar must be controlled by
the commercial value Of the bullion put
!. upon it. Therefore they undertook to
4 find how many grains Of silver uncoined
were commercially equal in value to
24A grains Of gold. They decided that
it required 10 times as many and null
tiplyjng 243 by ! 5 placed S7l y grains
rof silver in a dollar. l3333 az wv NJ.
This undervalued gold. For the first
few years, owing largely to the lack Of
quick international communication, it
Tcircu lated to q limited extent, and then
long before 1884 went entirely out Of
circulation, and we were On the silver
standard. In 1884 jackson sought to re-
store bimetal lism, but he was unwilling
tochange the standard upon which husi-.
ness was then being, done. M He recog
nized the danger to commerce Of chang
ing the standard He therefore reduced
the amount Of gold put into the dollar,
SO that under the new coinage the bull
Lion value Of both liars would be Just
equal to the dollar then in use, and at
his instance q new. ratio Of 4 9 to- 4 was
passed It was soon found that this new
ratio undervalued silver, and Il shortly
after 1884 this country went to the gold
standard Of %. s grains Of old to the dol
I: lar and has been on it ever since, with
4 the exception Of the time incident to the
4 war. 2
Under the new ratio, after 1884, even
fractional currency was worth more
when melted than its coinage value,
and therefore in / 853 it became neces-
sary to provide q fractional currency,
containing a reduced number Of grains
to the dollar, and their legal tender was
limited to IS. The Spanish milled dol
lar was still in circulation, but the
highest amount Of foreign silver BY the
estimates Of the treasury department in
circulation at any time was SIC, 000, 900.
In i $50 the gold circulation was
\ $214, 200, 900 and subsidiary silver
$21, 200, 900. While 4, 600, 900 silver dol
lars had been coined they have all gone
ant Of circulation, being worth more
when melted az bar silver than their
face value v. a. i.t n
These facts prove that free aud sunlin-
tied coinage of both metals BY the Unit
J ed States did not substantially affect
7 the bullion value Of either metal; that
the cheaper metal became the standard
\ OF value, and the other went out Of cir
4 culation. ss5 III
If 60 years Of experience with free
and unlimited coinage Of both metals
showed that by free and unlimited coin
age we were unable to affect, first, the
value Of silver, to make it equal to gold
at the ratio Of 10 to ! !, or, second, the
value OF GOLD, to make it equal to silver
at 16 to I, when the difference in their
bullion value was only per cent, is it
not preposterous to claim that free and
unlimited coinage now will so increase
the value Of silver when the discrepancy
.is 30 per cent? NJ
It cannot be claimed that the 1egisla-
ton BY the United States in i 1913 seri-
ously affected the commercial value of
silver, for since that time we have fur
nished market for 5000, 600 600 81 sill
yer, very much more in proportion to-
our increasing commerce than went
through our minis during the days Of
afree and Unlimited coinage Of silver.
The fall in the price Of silver can