Mexico weekly ledger., 1895-07-25
POLLARD'S.

4 S1A N
every year on a parity with gold in
the payment of public AS
long, therefore, as the amount is thus
limited and the Government receives
silver on a parity with gold in pay
ment of all sums due it, and pays gold
on its obligations it follows that silver
will have equal purchasing power with
standard money. The panic of 1898
grew out of a doubt in the commercial
world of the ability or disposition of
this Government to maintain the par
ity.
HISTORY OF oUR MONEY.
If this country should adopt a coin
age ratio of 16 to 1 it would result in
the gold standard, because no man
would have his silver coined into a
| dollar when he could take the bullion
and exchange it for two standard gold
| dollars. If silver should be coined
under such a law, is it not perfectly
| clear that the silver dollars would
cease to perform the functions of
money, because they would be twice
as valuable as bullion? If this coun-
try should establish the ratio at 10 to l,
is it not equally clear that it would re-
suit in the silver standard, because no
man would coin gold into a dollar
when he could take the bullion and
exchange it for two silver standard
dollars of the same de~bt-paying
power? Should gold be coined under
such a law is it not certain that it
would retire from circulation, because
| the bullion in each dollar would be
worth as much Is the dollar itself?
This simple economic truth was per-
| fectly understood by the fathers OF
the Republic. After the Revolution
airy War the Spanish milled dollar vas
the basis of our circulation. 1t was by
law the standard money of the coun-
try. During Washington's first ad-
ministration the question of coinage
was considered, and Hamilton and
Jefferson, as is shown by history of
those times, accepted the economic
truth for which l am contending, and
fully realized that the bimetallic
standard could not be maintained I'M
less they could adopt aLsgal ratio, at
which standard a gold and silver dol
lar should be coined, which would cor
respond with the commercial ratio.
Hamilton's researches convinced
him that the commercial ratio had
been in the neighborhood of Is to /
for more than 100 years, and it was
then, in the markets of the world, ex-
actly Is to 1. Hamilton, therefore,
prepared and Congress passed the act
of 1892 for the free, unlimited and in
dependent coinage of standard gold
and silver money at that ratio, and
the minis were thrown open to both
metals.
1t may be observed that this act was
passed practically without opposition,
1t was accepted by the people and
their representatives as an effort to
establish the bimetallic standard I'M
der the most favorable conditions, and
under the guidance of statesmen OF
great sagaeity. The lesson, there
fore, which it teaches cannot be over
estimated. In less than two years
after the passage of the act silver de-
clined in the open market to such a
point that it required Is ounce to
purchase M ounce of gold. Here
was the door wide open for the opera
tions of the money changers. A
J Spectator who had 81, 900 in gold
could buy silver bullion sufficient to
coin 1850 standard silver dollars of
equal debt-paying power. No man
owing $4,000 would pay it in gold
when he could exchange the gold for
10,500 standard silver dollars, pay his
debt and have $500 in his pocket. The
gold dollar was worth s1.05 in silver,
and, therefore, 1t went into the melt
ing pot and was sold as bullion. 1t
ceased 20 perform the functions of
money, and became q mere commo-