The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-05-28

our ability to pay debets The oot on
1873, therefore, did not, and coI1IJ
take away from the people of tho 10
ted States any advantage thoE III
possessed, but it did prevent IT, o onen
age OF full legal tender silver SoISnu-
thereafter, and the act of 1874 SSea@L1s
ed the debt paying power of the ~
standard dollar coined before 1924 oN
cept In sums not to exceeding five dol
lars. If there had been any such dol
lars in circulation or existence here
this latter act would have abridged the
ability of debtors to discharge their OBJ
legations, but as there were none, it
had no practical effect at that time.
Thus we remained until 1873. We
had tried to keep the legal tender coins
of the two metals in circulation at the
same time, under a system OF free
coinage, but had utterly failed. In 1875
a new policy was adopted, and it was
determined to restore the standard
silver dollar to the coinage and to cir,
culation with full legal tender qualities,
not by opening the minis to It's free
and unlimited coinage on individual
account, az is now proposed, but by
providing for the purchase and coin
age of not more than four million dol
lars worth, nOr less than two million
dollars worth of silver bullion each
month by the government itself. IN
der this act, and the so called Sherman
act, and the act providing for the re-
coinage of trade dollars, there have
been coined at the minis of the United
States and put into circulation during
seventeen years, 1897, $50, 853 in full
leg6l-Sender standard silver, as against
So 100000 coined during the whole pre-
v1Ous existence Of the governmental
period of eighty-nine years. In other
words, there have been c0ined~and put
into circulation among the people, In
coin itself or in certificates issued
upon it, nearly fifty times as many full
legal tender silver dollars as were pro
duCed at the mlnts of the United States
from 1892 TO 1878, and yet some gentle
men are writing books and making
speeches to convince their fellow. citi
Zens that silver is demonetiZ8d in this
country. There was never in our whole
history third as much legal-tender
silver in use in the United States at
one time as there is no ". and it is used
without depriving us Of all our gold,
which vas done before. Silver
is not demonetized in this country, but
It's coinage has been so limited and re-
gulatd by law and the financial affairs
of the government have been so con
Quoted that up to the present time it's
purchasing power has been preserved
and it's circulation to a large amount
has been maintained cOncurrently with
other forms of money, nOtwithstand,
ing it has been coined at a ratio which
does not conform to the real value of
the metal contained in it. / repeat
that silver is not demonetized, and the
question presented to us by the aglta-
ton now gong or is not whether it
shall be demOnetized in the future but
whether the minis of the United States
shall be thrown open to all the silver
IN the world that any individual or
corporation may desire to have coined,
free of charge, into legal tender dollars
that, is legal tender in the United
States only at the ratio of Is to l In
order TO discuss this subject intelli
gently we must under stand distinctly
what is proposed by our opponents,
aud fortunately there is no difficulty
upon this point.
Free and unlimited coinage Of full
legal tender silver dollars at the ratio
of 1910 1 means that law shall be
SO changed that any owner of silver
bullion may send it TO the minis and
have it coined, at the public expense,
into dollars each containing 4128 grains
of standard silver, the dollars when
coined to be delivered to the owner of
the bullion, and all the people of the
United States to be compelled by law
TO receive them as dollars in the pay
ment of debts, although not intrinsi-
callY worth more than fifty cents each.
The Is s 10 gealns of standard gold con
tanned in a gold dollar Is worth 100
cents, or the equivalent of 100 cents, all
over the world, in silver standard
countries as we'll as in gold standard
countries, and it is worth just as much
before it is coined as afterwards; but
the 4121 grairs of standard silver con
tanned III a silver dollar are not worth
anywhere in the world more than
about fifty cents. Or, TO put the state
ment in a different form, Is pounds Of
silver cannot be exchanged for / pound
of gold anywhere in the world, but it
requires about 80 pounds of silver to
procure 1 pound Of gold everywhere.
But some One may say that this is lot
a fair statement, because it measures
the value of silver by gold. The answer
to this objection is that the statement
does not attempt to measure the value
of either of the metals, but simply to
compare them, n with the other, and
that for the purpose of making the
comparison the value of gold is deter
mined by it's purchasing power in the
markets of the world, and the value OF
is determined in the same way.
poun0s of silver bullion will
purchase only about one-half the guam
tity OF commodities anywhere that 1
pound of gold bullion will purchase,
and this purchasing power is the rue
of their actual and relative values.
In the United States Is pounds of sill
yer, coined into dollars, will no pur-