The herald., 1895-05-24

mines the amount or quantity to be de-
livcred, no matter what may De the iesai
tender laws of the different countries.sveh
though they have the same ratios Oh val
ue between the metals witnin .neii re-
spectiye limits. The law OF france, for
instance, places higher value upo,i sil-
yer relatively to gold than is placed upon
it by the laws of the United States, the
French rstio being l5H to l. ana ours
being 16 to /: but If sixteen pouuus OF
our silver, coined or uncolneu' were Sent
to that country to be used III tne payInens
of debt or in the purchase OF com noui-
ties, it would not be accepted at the ratio
of l5L to as compared. TO gold, but only
at the ratio OF about 32 to |. Coinage IS
free in Mexico and the dollar, full legal
tender, contains 377.7 grains OF pure sll
yer, while our dollar contains only ou.zo
grams OF pure silver; yet Mexican silver
dollars are sent into the United states
and sold at the price OF the puilion III
them, about one-half their nominal or
legal value in their country. 1t is the
metal that fixes the value OF the coin ana
not the. coin that fixes the value OF the
metal.
The use OF credit in the form OF bank
notes. checks. bills and other evidences
of debt has SO increased in modern times
that in all highly organized commercial
communities the use to coin, except IN
making change, has been almost entirely
dispensed with. The percentage or com
actively employed in conducting busi-
ness in this country is so small that 1t is
almost inappreciable; so small, III fact.
that its disuse in our transactions would
not be felt if we had substitute Tor or
Q paper representative OF the subsidiary
coin pieces.
Altho ugh we have the gold standard, or
measure of value, in this country, our
actual stocl- nf yold hulliOn and col
amounts TO only about one-third OF our
actual currency-a condition OF affairs in
conceivable few centuries ago. We have
about $625, 600, 600 in. gold, 1897, 562, s73 II
full legal tender silver S346, Ssl 900 in ol d
United States notes, Sl49, 5S4, AL in treas
ury notes issued in the purchase OF silver
bullion, $2O9, 719, $50 in national bank
notes and $7o, 1863, 569 in subsidiary silver
coin, making in all $l.S04 707. 763, exclu-
sive of the minor coins and every dollar r
of this vast volume of currency is kept
equal in value to the standard established
by law. This is the financial condition
which the advocates of free coinage at the
ratio of IL to l propose to reyolutionize
al once by a change IN the standard of
value, so that it would require about
double the amount of currency required
now to perform the same service in the
exchange of commodities. For long
time credit. which Constitutes by far the
most important factor in our financial
md commercial transactions, would be
substantially destroyed by the confusion
and uncertainty necessarily following
such great and sudden change in our
monetary systsm.
1t is contended by large number of
the advocates of tree coinage that the
effect of their policy would establish what
they call bimetallism and double stand
ard. l confess my inability to understand
what is really meant by double standard
or measure of value; the idea is incom-
prehenslble to my mind. because | can
not conceive how it is possible to have
two different legal and authoritative
measures of the same thing in use at
the same time; pound weighing six
teen ounces and a pound Weighing
eight ounces. but declared by law legal
pounds. Instead OF using both gold and
silver as we 10 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 currency. We have
now practical bimetallism-the use of
both metals as noney-we should then
have practical monometallism use of
only one metal as money. This is a con-
clusion based on facts established by the
experience of all nations in all ages.
1t is proposed that the United States,
any other government, shall provide by
law that all the silver bullion or foreign
silver COINS presented at the mints by in
dividmals or corporations, foreign or do
mestic, shall be coined at the public eX-
pense, into silver dollars at the ratio of l6
to 1 with gold, and that the coin SO made
at the public expense shall be delivered
to the owners of bullion or foreign silver
coins. as the case may be, and that all the
people of the United States, but nobody
else, shall be compelled by law to receive
them as dollars of full value in the paw
ment of debts due them from their own
fellow citizens and from the citizens or
subjects OF other countries. 1t is not
proposed 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
us, because that can be done only bv in
ternational agreement. and our impatient
free coinage friends declare their deter
mination 10 proceed at once inde-
pendently OF all other governments. All
who are indebted to us are, therefore. to
have the privilege of paving in sill Ser,
while all to whom we shall become in
debted are ITO have the privilge of reauir-
ing us to pay in gold.
My own opinion is that after we had
passed a.certain limit the more silver dol
lars we're COINED the less they would be
worth, because the imitation itself would
still further diminish their purchasing
power. The attempt to coin the two metals
without llrnI as to the amount into full
legal tender money and keep both in cir
culation at the same time has been made
by nearly every civilized nation in the
world and has failed in every one of
them. England persisted in the attempt
for nearly five hundred years and, not
withstandlng several penal statutes
against the expectation of coins or bull
lion, was at last forced to abandon the
effort and adopt the single standard.
france, In her efforts to keep the coins of
the two metals in circulation at the sam e
time, changed the legal ratio between
them N ore than one hundred and tifty
times in single century and finally. in
1876, fnding that gold was leaving her
and that IN ten years her net imports of
silver had amounted to 500 600 00O
stopped the coinage of legal tender silver
and for nineteen years the attempt hasbeen
abandoned in that country. Both being
legal tenders, the least valuable coin will
always be used in making payments and
will become the measure of value in the
exchange OF commodities, and consa-
quentIy the more valuable coins would he
boarded or sent out OF the country into n
market where their real value viii he
recognized. The free coinage Of silver
would not for long time add ANYTHING
whatever. even nomialy. to our stock
OF money; on the contrary, the immediate
effect of such policy would he n con-
traction to the extent of fully one.third
OF our present volume of currency nv the
expulsion OF about S625, 900, 600 in goId
and 1T would require more than fifteen
years to supply its place with silver dol.
lars, even il our mints coined nothino
else.