The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1895-06-29

to dollars, and those dollars, less
the fee for coinage, would be hand
cd out to the owner of the bullion.
That is what the silver men
want, but it is privilege which
congress has always refused to
grant, for fear it would food the
country with deprecated silver.
The facts of the situation are brief
ly these: The silver dollar is COM
posed of 371.25 grains of pure sill
and 41.25 grains of alloy Of no
value, the total weight being 412.50
grains. The gold dollar contains
1922 grains of pure gold and ass
grains of alloy not counted, making
total weigt of 25.8 grains. There
fore the relation of the silver dol
lar to the gold dollar is nearly, but
not quite, as 16 to- 1. That is, gold
is about Is times as valuable as
as silver. and 80 silver dollar, to
be of the same value as a gold dol
lar, has to be about sixteen times
as heavy. That makes the ratio of
16 to l which is SO much talked of
and, therefore, by the mint STAN
dard, 16 ounces of silver are reck-
oned to be worth ! ounce of gold.
An ounce of pure gold is worth
at the mint $40 81. It is worth
that in the commercial market of
New York, and it has a value cor
responding to that in the minis
and commercial markets of London,
Paris, Berlin and other European
countries. There is no fluctuation
in this value. It never changes
and it is always the same. Far
different are the conditions with
silver. In order that 16 ounces of
silver shall be equal to. l ounce of
gold, which has the value of $50 81,
one ounce of silver must be worth
81 20, and this is its rating at tho
United States mint But it has no
such value in the commercial mar
ket of New York, nor in the mints
or markets of any European coun-
tries. An ounce of silver can be
bought for about 20 cents or less in
any market, and therefore its mint
rating is wholly artificial.
It makes no difference 80 far as
q statement of the situation is con-
cerned, what has caused SO great a
decline in the commercial value of
silver. The actual fact is that
while the white metal is rated at
the United States mint at 81 29 an
ounce, it is worth in the markets
of the world from 60 to 70 cents,
or less, and if free coinage were al
lowed, it would be possible for any
person to purchase silver in the
market, and after having it coined
into dollars, pay it out at the rate
of 81 20 per ounce.
Now, it is evident that every sill
yer dollar rated as above, while it
is declared by the mint stamp to be
worth 100 cents, contains some
where about so cents worth of sill
YER, and, by consequence, the re-
mainder for which it stands is a
fictitious value, which would have
no existence if it were not guaran-
teed by the United States govern
ment But the government guar
antee is just like that of any indi-
vidual. It depends on the ability
of the government to make it good.
A government has no other means
of getting money except by levy
ing taxes on the people. The pow
er Of taxation is limited. 1t can be
carried no further than the endur.
ance of the people will permit.
| When taxation becomes more
burdensome than the people viii
bear they rise in revolution and re.
fuse to pay. This has been done
in many cases and by the people Of
many nations, and, therefore, the
expression so glibly used by the
silver socialists that the govern.
ment practically owns all the pro
property of all the people is wholly
false and fallacioua The govern
ment owns nothing but its public
buildings and its public lands. The
buildings are absolutely necessar.
for the carrying on of the business
of the country, and bring in no in
come. The proceeds of the sale o
the public lands are too small to b.
!. seriously considered, and, there
fore, the government of the Unitet
States possesses no means of get
ting a revenue except by laying
, taxes on the people, and, as ha