The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-05-04
THE CURRENCY QUESTION.

COIN money ana reg ulite inc Nalue tIcTc-
Of" Congress adopted silver and gold as
money. 1t then proceeded to fix the unit;
that ls, it then fixed what should consti-
tute one dollar or unit, and congress fixed
this monetary unit to consist of 31h
grains of pure silver. providing at the
same time for certain amount OF alloy
to be mixed with 1t to give it greater
hardness and durability. This law was
passed April @ 1892 l now read from the
United States statutes:
Dollars or units each to be of the value
of a Spanish milled dollar. as the same is
now current and to contain three hun
dred and seventy-one grains and four
siXteenths part of n grain of pure-or four
hundred and sixteen grains of standard
silver This is the statute that fixed the
unit and is the only statute on the subject
till we come to 1873.
Now, then, that much silver was to con-
stitute q dollar; each dollar was a unit
and dimes, quarters and half dollars were
exact fractional parts of the unit. Gold
was made money, but its value was
counted from these silver units or dollars
the ratio between silver and gold was
fixed at 10 to / by weight and afterwards
by changing the gold coin at 16 to l. The
silver unit was never changed during all
this time, and this statute continued to
be the law mp to 1873 While this was the
law 1t was impossible for any one to say
that the silver in the silver dollar was
worth less than 100 cents on a dollar. For
1t was the unit of value and could not be
worth less than its own measure; less than
itself As the law fixed 371h grains OF
pure silver as n unit, the silver dollar could
not change, but the quantity of gold in
the gold dollar being fixed by ratio could
and did change by the change of ratio.
History points to the fact that for all
these years from 1892 to 1873 silver in Its
commercial use was steady in the market,
seldom nuctuatng more than one or two
points. although during portions of this
time its production was largely in excess
of gold. Even in gold standard England,
where silver was demonetized as early as
1876 it did not vary more than per cent,
and this was due chiefly to the differences
IN ratio between siver-uSing countries.
To summarize: We had free coinage over
n period of eighty years of both metals at
a fixed ratio with little or no fiuctuation
in the commercial value of either: due to
the fact that an unlimited demand at the
mints was established for two precious
metals of limited production and the point
fixed Mt which either could take advantage
of that demand. This was true bimetal-
lsm indeed, although in point of argu-
ment, we were, up to 1873 on a silver basis
As TO the amount of silver coined,
Mr.. Chittenden states that $S,OCO,O0O was
the mintage from 1892 to 1873 and that as
early as 1904 jefferson forbade further
coinage of silver dollars, which, If true,
gives him prestige over Mr.. Cleveland in
the exercise of executive functions. / find
that prior to 1873 there were $1Oj, 100000 of
silver coined by the United States and that
was in silver dollars, and ninety-fve mill
ion in silver dimes, quarters and half dol
lars. In addition to this, about 800, COZ, 900
of foreign silver had found its way into
this country prior to 1860 and had all been
made legal tender in the United States by
acts of congress. We needed more silver
than we had and congress passed laws
making all foreign silver coins legal ten
der in the United States. These acts ars
scattered all through the statutes prior
to 1873. Let me read one:
And be 1t further enacted, that from
and after the passage of this act the fol-
lowing silver coins shall pass current as
money within the United States for the
payment of all debts and demands at the
rates following, etc, etc.
on account of the scarcity of silver both
Jefferson and Jackson recommended that
Dimes quarters and halves would better
serve the people than dollars until more
silver bullion could be obtained. This was
the reason why only eight millions of the
one hundred and five millions were coined
into silver dollars. During the struggle to
get more silver France made n bid for II
by establishing a lower ratio, 15la to l.
This made silver in France worth $l.O31k,
and so to keep our silver from leaving
us congress in 1853 had our fractional
silver coins made of lighter weight-so
made for the standing of silver under BIZ
metalllsm. We had about $2O5 100000 in
the country and were doing all we could
to get more and hold on to what we had. |
Thus silver and gold were the measures of
value, both money of redemption; al.
though from 1860 to 1873 neither was in cir |
culation.
On Feb. 70. 1873, congress passed an act |
to be a revision of the COIN
age laws. This law covers fifteen pages |
of our statutes. 1t repealed the unit |
clause in the law of 1892 and in its place |
substituted a law in the following Ian
guage:
"That the gold coins of the United States
shall be a one-dollar piece, which at the |
standard weight of twenty-five and eight
tenths grains, shall be the unit of value"
1t then deprived silver of it's right to I'M
restricted coinage and destroyed 1t as n
legal tender money in the payment of
debts except to the amount of five dollars.
At that time we were all using paper
money and it was not until specie pay
ments were about to be resumed that the |
country began to realize what had been
done. Silver had been demonetized, as 1t
were, by stealth-one-half of the primary
money of the country outlawed-leaving
gold alone as the sole money of redemp-
ton, and making all our credit money,
even silver itself, practically redeemable
in gold coin. Hence, having lost its prin-