St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-25
DEFINITIONS ASKED FOR.

the issue just at present, and as man.
| including myself-do not under
stand the question, and as we mus
GLOBE be kind enough to explain
fully the meanings Of 16 to 1 himetal
ism; monometallism; demonetize
| monetize and parity, as used in rela
| ton to gold and silver? By fully, in
telligently and correctly giving the
meaning of the above terms ant
words much light will be thrown up
on the subject and enable us to pro
coed Understandings"
Wethe more cheerfully comply with
the request Of our correspondent as
it is evident, in any casual reading
of the discussions of the question
that there is a looseness in the use OF
these terms that creates confusion
The first term whose definition is
asked for involves in its definition q
statement of the relations of the gov
eminent to metallic money. In all
times gold and silver have been ac-
counted precious or noble metals
Their scarcity, their use for adorn-
ment, their divisibility and durability
gave them their respective values and
led to their use in making exchanges
among men, getting the quality we
call money. 1t must early have be-
come apparent that if some authority
could take the metals and give them
suitable shape and certify to the
quantity of metal in each shape, it
would greatly facilitate their use.
This authority was naturally the rep
nation, their government.
The values Of the metals being
given to them by the same causes
that give value to any other COM
modify, the function of government
was simply to ascertain what the
relative commercial values of the two
metals were and adjust it's coins to
that. They have at times tried to
give them value above or below the
values given by trade, but this has
always resulted disastrously. 1t is
trade, supply and demand and cost
of producing that give values, and
not governmental DEGREES, though,
especially in money matters, they
may decrease values by ceasing or
decreasing the use of a metal for
money When our first coinage act
was under consideration it was a
matter of some doubt what was the
precise relation of gold and silver
commercially. France based her
coinage on the assumption that gold
was fifteen and a half times as valu-
the silver to come to our minis, our
act took the ratio of fifteen to one;
that is, that fifteen ounces of silver
was equal in value to one ounce of
gold.
In the development of the country
and the course of time it was found
that, while this did not attract silver,
it did repel gold, and, for the eX-
press. purpose of keeping our gold at
home, congress, in 1884, fixed the
relative values at sixteen of silver to
one of gold, reducing the number Of
grains in the gold dollar to 22.S. This
undervalued silver, which went
abroad, where the ratio remained
151a to 1. The commercial value of
silver has since fallen, so that today
it takes thirty ounces of silver to buy
one of gold. The sfree silver men
want the government to attempt to
decree that it's value shall be 16 to 1
at the mints.A
'Bimetallism" means the concur
rent use of the coins of two metals
as a circulating medium at fixed
relative value. Ours is a bimetallic
country in this sense, using gold ana
silver as coins at a value for the
metals in the coins assumed to be Is
to 1. "MonometalliSm is the reverse
of this, the use of coins of but one
China, India, and most Of the South
American republics are monometallic,
using silver only in their exchanges.
Men are charged with being gold or
silver monometallists when the idea
meant to be conveyed is that they
would make gold or silver coins the
standard by which the values of all
other commodities should be meas
ured.
"Demonetize" means the depriving
of a metal of its character of or it's
withdrawal from use as money. 1t is
only in the sense that silver was de-
prived of access to the minis by the
acts of 1873 and 1893 that it was ode
monetized." 1t neither lost its char
acter as money nor was it withdrawn
from use by those acts. "Remonetize"
is to restore that character or use,
and demonstration, in its true sense,
would be the free access of silver to
the minis for conversion into coins at
the ratio established by natural
causes. If this were done there would
be a parity, or equality of values, the
silver dollar being intrinsically as
valuable as the gold dollar, parity
meaning simply equality.