The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1895-10-17

this way of only so much of the silver
of the world as we might absorb in our
circulation would not probably add ma
terially TO its commercial value.
The world is now one family of ma
tions, and their intercourse is constant
and intimate There is not much material
difference in the price of commodities.
Whenever commerce discovers the price
of n commodity to be much lower in one
country than it is in another, it at once
transports it to that country where it
is worth the most, and the equilibrium of
prices is restored. So whatever effect the
free coinage of silver might have on the
price of silver in this country, it would
have practically the same effect on its
price in all other countries of the world.
Over half the population of the world
now has the silver standard of value, and
all the silver used by them as money
has therefore a purchasing power equal
only to its commercial valt&. OF course,
all the uncoined silver of the world has
only commercial value. 1t follows,
therefore, if free coinage should have
the effect to bring silver to parity
with gold in this country, 1t would also
have the effect to not only double the
purchasing power of all the silver coins
III the silver standard countries, but to
double the value of all the unco.0ed sill
yer on the globe, Who believes we can
accomplish this result by an. act of
Congress-?
Lessons TauEhg by Experience.
1t is in the school of experience that
men and nations learn wisdom 1t is inn
possible for me in the space of this letter
TO treat o! the experiences of other
countries in their efforts to maintain the
bimetallic standard, although they fur
nish large field from which useful in
formation could be derived. ! shall CON
fine myself to our own country, and will
attempt to show that the logic of my
position is fully supported by American
history
Our fathers, like majority of their
posterity, had Il preference for the BIZ
metallic standard composed Of gold and
silver; but they recognized fully the
principle for which contend, that it was
impossible to maintain it unless the COM
mercial value of the substances of which
the two dollars were TO be composed
were and should remain equal They ac-
cepted as true the proposition that in
order to maintain the bimetaic standard
the coinage must correspond with the
market ratio, In 1892, during Wash
ington's Administration, the question
came up for solution, and Hamilton and
Jefferson were both agreed that it was
Il commercial question, and that the
proper method was TO carefully examine
into the relative value of gold and silver
in the open markets of the world, and
then to establish a coinage ratio which
would correspond with it, Hamilton
made a careful study of this question of
values, and finding that for more than a
hundred years one ounce of gold had
been equal in value to fifteen ounces of
silver, he prepared an act fixing the
coinage ratio at Is TO /. and throwing the
minis open to the free and unlimited
coinage of both metals.
There is no doubt about It; this ac
did establish for the time being the hi
metallic standard, but it was for a yer!
short period. Within four or five years
silver declined in the markets, and in
stead of one ounce of gold being wortl
fifteen ounces of silver, it was worth ff
that the commercial value Of the golC
in gold dollar was about cents great
er than the commercial value of the sill
yer in a silver dollar, l doubt if the plail
people took any notice of this variance
but the SPECTATORS did, and at once gol,
began to retire from circulation. 1t wa
worth cents on the dollar more a
bullion than it was as money, and there
fore the gold went into the melting pot o
the coins We're sold as bullion. Their
was Il profit of cents on the dollar t
the speculatOr who would withdraw
from circulation and sell it as bullion. L
1881 Thomas ii. Benton declared on tn
floor of the Senate that gold had bee
out of circulation for thirty years. tn
Secretary of the Treasury during Jack
sons Administration reported to Con
gress that gold had not been in circulation
for more than twenty years. | believe a
the authorities are agreed that it ha
wholly retired by the year 1872. Will
there was law on the statute book fC
the free coinage of both metals, the fac
is that from 1872 to 1884 this countr
was absolutely and without intermissio
OH silver basis
You can just rs elfectually establish th
gold or the silver standard by fixing til
coinage ratio out Of proportion to ii
market ratio, as you can by e.
Guiding one of the metals L
law from the mint. The rat
of 30 to / would exclude silver from ii
mints, because fifty ounces of silver al
worth more than one ounce of golt
whereas, the ratio of 10 to 1 would ju
as effectually exclude gold, because OF
ounce of gold is worth largely more tina
ten ounces of silver.
How does the exclusion of go
under the act of 1792-a pa
historical truth, which no intel
gent man will controvert--consist Wi
the often repeated assertion that tn
country maintained the bimetallc stan
ard for more than seventy years prior
1878?
Let us contrast the conditions then G
listing with the conditions under whit
covers a period from the inception of Il
act TO the final expulsion Of gold, the
was not Il commercial power on the Clio
which was not attempting to maintain L
bmetallic standard; and now there is IL
one which has not suspended the fir
coinage of silver. AT that time stea
and electricity had not been discovere
intercourse was restricted, and the II
tons practically lived apart; while tod
the world is brought into one great fal
lily of nations, and commercial int,