Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-10-27
OUR GOLD BASIS IN 1881.
Prevailing Monetary Conditions Previous
 to the Crime of 1873.

Prevailing Monetary Non0ltfonb IIebtoUs
 to the Crime of 1875
 If any of the sixteen to one silverites were actuated by desire to arrive at the truth in regard to the conditions which prevailed previous to what they are pleased to call "the crime of 1873"- =, which means that this country was not allowed to resume in 1878 in ninety-two per cent. silver dollars, to gradually de- cline to fifty cents, they would find good and interesting reading in the annual report of Mir. James Pollock, director of the mint, to Secretary Chase in 1861, being twelve years before ''the crime of 1873." The salient portions of the re- port are published by the New York Journal of Commerce. Director Fol lock stated the facts in regard to silver and gold as they existed at that time, before either of those metals had been displaced by government issues of pa per currency. He alludes to the gold dollar as ''the standard of value for all foreign coins used or employed in com mercial or governmental transactions with other nations,' and describes it as 'conforming in standard value and dec ilnal character to all the gold and silver coinage of the country except the silver dollar"
 At the date of the report silver was so much undervaiued in comparison with gold by our coinage laws that the bullion Ill the silver dollar was worth several cents more than the face of the coin. Hence the mint could not afford to deliver silver dollar for gold dol lar or to purchase silver for mintiDg, while not only was there no induce ment to citizens to wish to have silver coined for them into dollars, but itwas far cheaper to put the silver dollars into the melting pot than to buy silver bull lion for use in the arts. Therefore the country was actually on gold basis, gold being the cheaper metal according to the legal ratio. The following eN- tracts from the report are worthy of a careful reading to-day:
 "The gold dollar of the United States, conforming in standard value and deci- nal character to all the gold and silver coinage of the country, except the sil- yer dollar, has been properly selected, and should be retained as the standard of value for all foreign coins used or en- ployed in commercial or governmental transactions with other nations. The silver dollar of the United States, differing as it does in commercial and decimal value from the other silver coins of OUT country, cannot, without disturbing our decimal system and producing confusion in the relative value of our gold and silver coinage, be used as a standard. The legal weight of the silver dollar is 412.5o grains; of two half dollars, or other component fractions of the dollar, 3S4 grains-a difference of 25.50 grains.
 .sThe silver dollar, as it now is, has actually three values: 1. It is. by law, dollar simply, or 100 units or cents. 2. By the mint price of silver it iS 103.08 cents, which is it's true commer- cial value as compared with gold. 3. It has an interior or mint value, which is determined by it's relations to the silver contained in the half dollar, which makes it 1o7 27-64 cents; for which reason single pieces are paid out at the mint at the even price of 100 cents.
 'As the dollar, which is the unit of our money, is represented in gold coin, it would seem desirable not to have another dollar in another metal; but if this is inadmissible, and the silver dollar should be retained, then it should be reduced to eight-tenths of an ounce to be in true relation to our other silver coins.
 Two reasons seem to have influenced congress in retaining the silver dollar at it's present anomalous terms: First, that it preserves the old dollar, known from the beginning of our coinage, and often exactly stipulated for in deeds of rent charge, mortgages, and other mon eyed securities. To this it may be sue cessfully replied that such payments are now always made in gold, because it is legal and usual tender for all sums exceeding $5, and because silver dollars are no longer to be had, or are very rare. In the second place, it was sup posed to be needed for our China and East India trade; but our consular ad- vices are to the effectthat our silver dol lars are very reluctantly taken at the ports and not at all in the interior of China. They are believed by the Chinese to be of less value than they really are. The reason for it's reten- tion having ceased, either we should cease ocoin the silver dollar or it should be made to conform in weight and value to our smaller silver coins.
 'The reduction of the standard value of all American coins except the silver dollar was made to check the export of specie from the United States; but the commercial character of specie, and the facility with which the coins of one nation can be converted into the peculiar and distinctive denominations of another, have prevented the realiza- tion of that expectation. The relative II