The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1895-06-04

| iyn "a i4,,,sV.a., ..a So, ibV,
| 500 in subsidiary siis coin, making la
all s.. 804, 707, 1858, exclusive of the minor
| coins, and every dollar Of this vast volume
of currency is kept equal in value TO the
standard established by law, so that every
man who receives silver dollar or paper
dollar in exchange for his products, or in
satisfaction of a debt, gets just rs good a
dollar as the man who receives gold.
This is the monetary system and this is
the financial condition which the advocates
of free coinage at the ratio of Is to l now
| propose to revolutionize at once by a change
in the standard of value, so that the whole
mass of circulation left for the use of the
people would be reduced to about one-half
the purchasing power it has now, or, in
other words, SO that it would require about
double the amount of currency that is re-
| quired now to perform the same service in
the exchange of commodities. But the con-
summation of such policy would produce
results more farreaching and disastrous
than the mere reduction of the standard of
value because, for loSg time at least,
credit, which constitutes by far the most
| important factor in our financial and COM
merical transactions, would be substan.
TALLY destroyed by the confusion and I'M
certainty necessarily following such "a great
and sudden change in our monetary sys-
tenn.
But it is contended by large number
of the advocates of free coinage-perhaps
majority of them-that the effect Of their
policy woult be not to abolish the present
standard of value and substitute the single
silver standard in its place, but that it
would establish what they call bimetallism
and double standard confess my ina
bility to understand what is really meant
by a double standard or measure of value
The idea is incomprehensible to my mind
because / cannot conceive how 1t Is posi-
BILE to have two different legal and author
itative measures of the same thing in use
at the same time-as, for instance, apound
weighing 16 ounces and pound weighing
s ounces, or only half as much, and both
declared by law to be legal pounds 1 agree
entirely with General Jackson's secretary
of the treasury, who said, "The PROPOSE
ton that there can be but one standard, in
fact, is self evident" The proposition TO
establish and maintain two different meas
ures Of value to be in use at the same time,
and to be applied to the same things at the
same time, embodies physical and meta
physical absurdity, and this is so evident
that the ablest thinkers and writers upon
the subject have been at last forced to aban
don it.
Values will always be measured by tho
kind of money in actual circulation, no
matter what the law may declare, and
therefore if the free and unlimited coinage
of silver at the ratio of 16 to should drive
out gold and substitute silver and paper
redoemable in silver in its place we
should have o single silver standard and
actual silver monometallism. Instead Of
using both gold and silver, as we do now,
in larger amounts than ever before in our
history, we should instantly expel the
more valuable metal from the country and
make the other the sole basis of our cur
renCy. We have now practical bimetallism
the use of both metals as money, We
should have then practical monometallism |
the use Of only one metal as money. |
This is neither speculation nor prophecy, |
but conclusion based on facts established |
by the experience of all nations in all ages |
In order to eliminate all irrelevant mat |
ter and simplify the argument allow me |
to state exactly what the proposition now
pending before the people is: 1t is proposed |
that the United States, without the co OPP |
Grafton or assistance of any other govern |
mcnt, shall provide by law that all the silver |
bullion, or foreign silver coins, that may be |
presented at the mints by individuals or
foreign or domestic, shall DO |
coined, at the public expense, into silver |
dollars, at the ratio of IS TO with gold
that is, that G6 pounds of silver shall be
considered equal in value TO one pound of |
gold, and the weights Of the coins shall be
adjusted acknowledgement that the coins
so made at the public expense shall be de-
livcrcd to the owners Of the bullion, or for
cign silver coins as the case may be, and
all the people of the United States, but no.
body else, shall be compelled by law to re-
ceive them as dollars of full value, in the
payment of debts due to them from their
own fellow citiZcns and from the citizens
or subjects of other countries 1t is not
that the citizens or subjects of
other countries, with whom our people
trade, shall be compelled to receive these
silver dollars in their transactions with
u.s. because that can be done only by inter
national agreement, and our impatient
free coinage friends declare their determi-
nation to proceed at once Independently Of
all other governments. All who are in
1ebtcd to us are therefore, TO have the
privilege of paying in silver while all to
whom we shall become indebted are to
have the privilege of requiring us 10 pay
in gold.
Relative Values of Gold and Silver.
Measured by their purchasing power in
the markets of the world which is the only |.
real test, the relative value of silver bull
lion to gold bullion is about 80 to THAT
Is, it requires in all countries, silver stand
ard countries as well as gold standard
about 32 pounds of silver bull
lion to procure the same quantity of COM
modities that one pound of gold bullion
will procure, and therefore the proposition
to authorize the free and unlimited coin
age of silver into full legal tender money
Mt the ratio of 10 to / means, under exist
ing conditions, that the intrinsic value Of
the silver dollar shall only be half, or about
half, the intrinsic value of the gold dollar.
My own opinion is that, after we had pass
ed a certain limit the more silver dollars
we coined the less they would be worth,
because the initiation itself would still fur
Their diminish their purchasing power
Such legislation by the United States alone
would not reduce the value of the gold dol
lar to any extent whatever, because, as al
ready stated, the value of that metal in
transactions all over the world
Is estimated according to its weight and
fneness and will co ltinue to be so estimat-
ed, and consequently the only way in
which this country alone could diminish !
the value of it's gold dollar would be to re-