Birmingham age-herald., 1895-06-10
Free Silver in Real Life.
The Financier.

HH Y lIdlClef.
 t Theory is good enough in some cases to lhnuence conviction, but the advo- cates of free silver find their pet areu- ments reduced to hopeless chaos when confronted by real everyday business Iacts. IL has been proved concmsively that the relative decreases in the price of wheat and silver have no connection in common, and that the fluctuations arise from circumstances due to other causes. Coins pet arguments have also been khocked into cooked hat by half dozen leVel-headed business men and bankers who have gone to the trouble of writing an answer to them. Tn thls connection an advertisement recently published by a large depart ment store in New York city is interest- ing as showing the difference between silver as money" or silver backed by the governments promise of gold re- demption, and silver a commodity
 We reproduce the announcement be- low:
 Sterling" silver (spoons) finer than 'coin, only 90 cents each. You could stamp these spoons into coin if Uncle Sam would say yes" and make big money by it. Weigh a dozen of the tea spoons, ny dozen 6A to 61s ounces, say 6 Is on the average. That's 3040 grains. little more than 253 grains for each spoon. Weigh a silver half dollar 1929 grains-601 grains less than the weight of the spoon it would buy.
 And these spoons are 927 fine-2 points finer than sterling, 27 points finer than coin.
 In other words twelve 30 cent pieces will buy enough silver. .927 fine in the form of spoons to make SYST in silver half dollars, of that quantity, or in the neighborhood of $S coin standard Fifty cents thus buys 66 2-3 cents worth of sill yer 27 points finer than the metal the coin contains.
 What, then, is the true value of silver the price stamped on the coin or the price fixed by the manufacturers, which includes probably a fair profit and the cost of the labor employed in making the article?
 And, if the coin represents the real worth, what gives it it's apparent value? Surely not the metal of which 1t Is made, for we have seen that 1t will buy more silver than would make legal half dol lar.
 The value, therefore which keeps it circulating as money comes from out side sources, and that value rests on the government promise of redemption in money which is a standard the world over. Once remove this support and the silver coin would sink to it's proper level as a commodity in the markets of the world Of course the coin mentioned Is subsidiary. but the principle remains the same.
 This is the metal, then. which a con- siderable number of people want the government to coin at double it's real value. If consent is given, what is to prevent the people who manufacture iron raise wheat, or deal in eggs from coming forward with request that q governmental standard be fixed on their goods? In fact, the egg men ought to have an argument equally as lucid as that of the silver advocates, for is not the egg of the great aux in the British museum held at thousands of dollars, and is it not increasing yearly in value? It was the habit of the parent bird of the species named to sit constantly on the ice Look at the result! Would 1t be unkind to submit this as pointer Tor the benefit of Coin ct al?