Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1895-12-27

rell, Harris, Blackburn, Brice, Wal
thall, Murphy, White. and Jones, oi
Arkansas, at a meeting held to dis
cuss Senate reorganization, decided
that no distractions should be placed
in the way of the Republicans reor-
ganizing the Senate as soon as
they can produce the votes, but that
no move should be made by Demo-
Gratis to voluntarily surrender what
they now have. Reorganization will
be easy for the Republicans if they
can agree upon slate for President
pro tenn. and chairman of committees
that will command the full Republican
votes, as the Populists have agreed to
absent themselves when the vote is
taken. For all practical purposes this
will be just the same as their voting
with the Republicans, and it will
probably be just as beneficial to the
Populists, and still they can 60 home
and pull the wool over the eyes of
their constituents by producing the
Congressional Record, showing that
they did not vote to help the Repub-
licans reorganize the Senate.
The man who is willing to make a
monkey of himself can always start
sensation fin Congress that will
bring him temporary notoriety. The
first to do so this session was Repre-
sentative Barrett, of Boston, who
offered resolution impeaching Am
bassador Bayard because he had dared
to exercise the right of free speech
and to criticise the doctrine of pro-
lection. OF course Barrett knows as
we'll as anybody else does that his
resolution was a new Congressman's
bid for notoriety, pure and simple,
and that it will never be reported back
to the House by the Committee on
Foreign Affairs. to which it was re-
much more. As the silver coin of
Europe is already worth $l.32 an
ounce right where it is, if we coin it at
$l.29 we will be effectually guarded
against a" food" from that quarter.
Third-There are three general
classes of silver in the world. First,
that in the form OF jewelry and wares
of various kinds; second, that which
is in use as money, and third, the an
nual product OF the mines.
The first-class cuts really no figure
in the question of ratio, because it is
worth much more in its present form
than it would be as coin. The second
class comprises about 81 ,OO0, 900 900 in
money. This has been coined at ra.
tios ranging from IA to 16t to l.
Roughly speaking, it may bs said that
the average coming rate is about 15t
tol.
The amount of gold coin is about
So, 900, 600, 900, so that the ratio of 16
to very nearly agrees with the aggre-
gates OF the two metals in the form of
coin.
Lastly, comes the annual product of
the mines. The relative production
of the two metals has always fuctu.
ated greatly. In the early part of the
century it was by value, more than 3
of silver to of gold. Between 1850
and 1865 the proportions were com.
pletely reversed and the gold product
was more than three times as great as
the silver.
| Still the fluctuations in relative
value were very slight. During the
whole 70 years that the French mint
remained open the ratio OF the bullion
never fell as low as Is and never rose
as high AS 16, while the coins main
tanned parity in their purchasing
and debt-paying power at all times.
From this it will be seen that while
bimetallic coinage is in operation
throughout large and important
country, variations in the annual pro-
duction are comparatively trivial in
their effects upon the value of the two
metals.
This is because the annual product
is so small by comparison with the ac-
cumulated stock of coin. At the pres
ent rate of production it would take
twenty-five or thirty years for the out
put of the mines to equal the mass Of
coined silver and the same is true of
gold. Three hundred millions OF dol
lars coming from the mines in a year
seems like large sum and standing
by itself it is. But when one-fourth
or one-third is used in the arts, the re-
mainder thrown into an aggregate
mass of eight thousand millions has
but little effect upon the general level.
1t is like throwing cup of water into
a bucket nearly full.
Therefore it is this enormous body
of coin, the accumulation OF ages, to
which we should look in determining
the ratio to be adopted upon the re-
sumption OF bimetallic coinage in
the United States. This, as shown,
represents very nearly the proportions
of 16 to l.
If we should adopt the ratio of say
8 to 1. it would be giving to silver q
value of about $2.5S an ounce at our
mint. Gold would be worth twice as
much in European as in American
coinage. Consequently none of it
would be coined in this country and
that already in the form of coin would
he eXDOrted As result fhare would