Catoctin clarion., 1895-09-12
DIR. HILLS PAMPHLET,
A SUPPOSED SILVERITE WRITES
AGAINST FREE COINAGE.

1t Would Lower Our Standard Of Value
and Would Not Give Us 1G to 1 Coinage.
A Pamphlet Which Has Dumfounded
the Free Silver People.
DR.. W. P. Hill of St. Louis has just
written pamphlet entitled Argument
Against Free Silver Coinage at 16 to
l." which has dumfounded tho free sill
yer people. DR.. Hill is the youngest son
of tho late Britton A. Hill, one Of the
ablest champions of fiat money Of tho
old Greenback party. DR.. Hill was edu-,
Gated in the best universities in Europe.
1t has been generally supposed that he
would follow in tho footsteps Of his
father and advocate cheap money. There
is little doubt but that he made
special study Of finance for the purpose
Of securing arguments against the gold
standard. Study changed his opinions,
as Is apparent from the following quo
tation from his excellent pamphlet:
Many people innocently imagine that
tho free coinage Of silver is simply
proposition to open our mints more
freely to silver and to maintain our
money at its present standard Of value
on the gold basis, and that by adopting
free coinage we are not going to debase
and lower tho value Of our money, but
raise the price Of silver all over the
world to 1G to ratio with gold.
There could be no greater mistake.
They fail to see that it also involves
change in our unit, standard or meas
ure Of value.
If the proposition was that the United
States should give gold dollar for ev-
cry 37114 grains Of pure silver brought
to the mints, then that would really be
an attempt ON the part Of our govern
ment to raise the price Of silver, and
how long we could raise it would de-
pend on how much silver there was in
the world and how much gold we had.
But this is not the proposition. The free
silver idea is that we must stop insult
ing tho silver dollar by redeeming 1t
and giving q gold dollar for it, and
their proposition is simply to stamp AS
a dollar every 4121a grains Of standard
silver brought to the mint, and that
this piece of silver SO stamped shall be
our unit or measure Of value.
Is it possible to believe, when the
the new law shall say that 412la grains
of standard silver shall constitute the
value of our dollar, that tho dollar will
10 hot
the present system we have issued mil
lions of silver dollars Oh tho ratio Of 16
to 1. The world has steadily refused to
accept our dictum as to their value, and
we are compelled to maintain a large
gold reserve, and not only stand ready
to redeem all those dollars, but also
constantly to redeem many Of them in
gold to maintain their value
We are staggering under our load
now with our present silver circulation
and have difficulty to maintain our gold
reserve. Will our load be lighter when
we undertake to coin the worlds sur
plus of silver? Will tho world accept
our dlctum moro readily, when, on the
one hand, we will loudly assert the l6
to / ratio, and, on tho other hand, reso-
lutely give the lie to our own words by
refusing to exchange them at tho ratio
Of 16 to 1, which is the only way we
can mako our words count for anything?
The director Of tho United States
mint estimates tho coined silver money
of tho world at 81, ,055, 100000, which
is about 50 per cent Of the total. OF tho
coined silver money moro than SO, 2,0O0,-
600, 900 passes current at exactly the
same value as the silver bullion in the
market, and would flow just like so
much bullion to any place where it
could obtain higher price. Tho
worlds annual production amounts to
5000, 900, 900; the annual production in
this country alone to $S4, 100000. Our
gold reserve amounts to barely $780,
10000
Suppose that by free coinage we could
possibly raise the price of silver III this
country to double what it is now-we
need not say double, but even fraction
more than now-does any man need to
be told that that would start flow Of
silver to this country, and that our lit
tic gold reserve would be completely
overwhelmed, and that tho mighty
stream would mover stop flowing until
all ycstigo Of higher price had been
completely annihilatcd? And when that
had been accomplished, docs any man
need to be told that our dollar would
simply be worth what 4l2ls grains Of
standard silver would be worth in tho
market as bullion: This fact is unan-
swerable-there is no free silver country
in tho world where the dollar Or unit OF
value is worth ono particle more than
the silver in it as bullion IN the market
Our attempt would be about as rldic-
ulous rs if we tried to stop the ebb and
tloIy of the ocean tides by an act of con-
gress, or to regulate the movements of
tbo ,,1oDntS