Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-08-21


 it as to coinage; to withdraw the gov ernment support of silver; to let any man who has silver bullion worth 50 cents have it stamped 100 cents. With out government support 41216 grains of silver and the new silver dollSr would be of the same exchangeable value. The question, therefore, is, What effect would free coinage have on silver bull lion? Would 412M grains of silver be- come worth as much as 25.8 grains of gold? Would free coinage give it an ex- changeable value equal to our present dollar ill the markets of the world? If the value of silver is not doubled by free coinage, then the exchangeable value of our new silver dollar must drop to the actual value of the silver put into it.
 We would not have bimetallism, but gold dollar worth twice as much as the silver dollar, and the silver dollar would become the standard measure of value, driving the gold dollar out of cir culation. We would reduce our stand ard one-half
 When the act of 1792 was passed, lief ferson and Hamilton both determined to make the new gold and silver dollar equal in value to the then standard of measurement. which was dollar equal to 24M grains of gold. They recognized the fact that the exehangeable value of coined dollar must be controlled by the commercial value of the bullion put upon it. Therefore they undertook to find how many grains of silver uncoined were commercially equal in value to 2434 grains of gold. They decided that it required 15 times as many and null tiplying 2424 by 15 placed 371 1a grains of silver in dollar.
 This underyalued gold. For the first few years, owing largely to the lack of quick international communication, it circulated to a limited extent, and then long before 1884, went entirely out of circulation, and we were on the silver standard. In 1884 Jackson sought to re- store bimetallism, but he was unwilling to change the standard upon which busi- ness was then being done. He recog- nized the danger to commerce of chang ing the standard. He therefore reduced the amount of gold put into the dollar. so that under the new coinage the bull lion value of both dollars would be just equal to the dollar then in use, and at his instance new ratio of 16 to l WAS passed. It was soon found that this new ratio underValued silver, and shortly after 1884 this country went to the gold standard of 25. 8 grains of gold to the dol lar and has been on it ever since, with the exception of the time incident to the war
 Under the new ratio, after 1884, even fractional currency was worth more when melted than its coinage value and therefore i'll 1853 it became neces- sary to provide a fractional currency, containing a reduced number of grains to the dollar, and their legal tender was limited to $5. The Spanish milled dol lar was still in circulation, but the highest amount of foreign silver by the estimates of the treasury department in circulation at any time was $50, 900, 900.
 In 1860 the gold circulation was $214. 900, 900 and subsidiary silver $21, ,000 000 While 4, 900, 600 silver dol lars had been coined they have all gone out of circulation, being worth more when melted as bar silver than their face value
 These facts prove that free and unlim- ited coinage of both metals by the Unit ed States did not substantially affect the bullion value of either metal; that the cheaper metal became tho standard of value, and the other went out of cir culation.
 If 68 years of experience with free and unlimited coinage of both metals showed that by free and unlimited coin age we were unable to affect, first, the value of silver, to make it equal to gold at the ratio of 15 to 1, or, second, the value of gold, to make it equal to silver at Is to 1, when the difference in their bullion value was only per cent, is 1t not preposterous to claim that free and unlimited coinage now will so increase the value of silver when the discrepancy is 50 per cent?
 It cannot be claimed that the legisla- tion by the United States in 1873 seri- ously affected the commercial value of silver, for since that time we have fur nished market for $600. 900, 900 of sil- yer, very much more in proportion to our increasing commerce than went through our hints during the days of free and unlimited coinage of silver.
 The fall in the price of silver can easily be accounted for. In 1873 the worlds product of silver at coinage value was $8l, ,O00, ,000 in 1899, it was $196, 450. GOO; in 1893, $209, 165, 900, and in 1894, $214, ,481, 900. This enor- nous increase in the production of sil- yer took place desp lte the fact that sil yer had fallen in value 30 per cent.
 By legislation passed in 1871-2 Nor way and Sweden and Germany suspend ed the coinage of silver i'll 1873-4 Ger many demonetized silver and put $300,- 900, 900 of bullion upon the markets of Europe. Denmark, Holland, Russia,