The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-24

matter what the law NAV declare and
- - - n =. me Tree ana unlimited COIN
&c OF silver at the ratio OF 16 20 / should
dFlFe out gold and substitute silver and
Y paper redeemable an silver in its place we
should have a single silver standard and
aSsuai sliVer mOnometallism- Instead of
using both gold and silver as We do now
I ~ iaIser amounts than ever before in our
history, We should instantly expel the
more valuable metal from the country and
make the other the sole basis OF our cur
/ II.sncy- We have now practical bimetal-
nsh-the use Of both metals as money;
We should have then practical monometal-
nsm-the use Of only one metal as money
ms Is neither speculation nor prophecy.
l ~ SoDci fusion based on facts estab-
/ all ages.
! In order to eliminate ali irrelevant mat
/ Ter and simplify the argument, allow me
/ 10 state exactly what the proposition now
pending before the people Is: II is proposed
/ that the United States, without the CO.
| operation or assistance OF any other gov
/ eminent shall provide by law that ali the
/ SILVER bullion, or foreign silver coins that
/ may De presented at the minis by individ-
/ uals or corporations, foreign or domestic
snail be coined, at the public expense, into
/ SILVER dollars, at the ratio of l6 to l with
I sOI9-that Is, that sixteen pounds Of silver
! shall be considered equal IN value to one
/ pound of gold, and the weights of the
/ coins shall be adjusted accordingly-and
that the coins SO made at the public
/ expense shall be delivered to the owners Of
! the bullion, or foreign silver coins, as the
| case may be, and all the people of the Uni
/ TED states, but nobody else. shall be COM
/ PEELED by law to receive them as dollars
/ OF fun value, in the payment of debts due
" tntn from thelr own IelloW-cltlzehs
/ ana from the citizens or subjects OF other
| countries. 1t is not proposed that the citi-
zens or subjects of other countries, With
/ whom our people trade, shall be compelled
1 to receive these silver dollars in their
| transactions with us, because that can be
/ done only by international agreement,
/ and our impatient free coinage friends de-
/ clare their determination to proceed at
\ once Independently of all other govern
ments. All who are indebted 10 us arc,
! therefore, to have the privilege of paying
/ in silver, while all TO whom we shall be
come indebted are to have the privilege
/ of requiring us to pay in gold.
! Measured by their purchasing power In
/ the markets of the world, which is the
/ only real test, the relative value of sill
/ yer bullion to gold bullion is about % to
/ ]; that is, il requires in all countries sill
| ver-standard countries as well as gold
/ standard countries, about 81 pounds OF
silver bullion to procure the same guam
! tity of commodities that one pound of
gold bullion will procure, and. therefore
/ the proposition to authorize the free and
/ unlimited cOingage of silver into fun lc-
/ gal-tender money at the ratio of l6 TO
means, under existing conditions, that
I the intrinsic value of the silver dollar
shall only be half, or about half, the in
/ trinsc value of the gold dollar. My own
/ opinion is that after we had passed a Ger
coined the less they would be worth be,
cause the imitation itself would still fur
/ Their diminish their purchasing power
]
| alone would not reduce the value of the
gold dollar, to any extent
TSsatevSrii mo because, as mot. stated
commercial transactions ali over
I the world is estimated according to its
| weight and fineness and will continue
/ to be so estimated, and, consequently, the
| only way in which this country alone
| could diminish the value of its gold dol
| lar would be to reduce the weight of the
/ pure metal contained in it.
The attempt to coin the two metals
without limit as to amount into full le
gal tender money and keep both in circu-
/ lation at the same time has been made
/ by nearly every civilized nation in the
! world and has failed in every one of them.
/ 1t has failed because in every instance il
/ has been found impossible to establish
/ and maintain legal ration corresponds
ing at all times with the intrinsic
or commercial ration between the
| two metals contained in theFcoins, and
/ because whenever either of the metals
I was under valued relatively TO the other
! in the coinage laws it was expelled from
] the country. England persisted in the at
/ tempt for nearly 500 years, and, notwith,
| standing the enactment of most severe
penal statutes against the expectation OF
/ coins or bullion, was at last forced to
! abandon the effort and adopt the single
standard. France, in her efforts to keep
| the coins of the two metals in circulation
at the same time, changed the legal RAJ
/ ton between them more than 100 times
in a single century, and finally, in 1876,
finding that gold was leaving her and that
in ten years her net imports of silver had
amounted to $3.50 OOO OOO stopped the coin
age of legal-tender silver and for nine
teen years the attempt has been aban-
| doned in that country. Many other ma
| tons in Europe and other parts Of the
| world have subjected their people to great
loss and expense by their adherence to
| monetary systems based upon the theory
| that a double standard could be main
| tanned, but in no case have they succeeded
! in keeping the coins of the two metals in
| use at the same time, except for very
| short periods. Our own country is not
| without experience upon this subject, and
/ . IL 1tr-F
| they have been everywhere else.
| The great and important fact conclus-
| lively established by the history of that
| legislation and its effects upon the circu-
| lation of the coins of the two metals is
| that whenever one of them is oVer-Valued
| relatively to the other in the coinage laws,
| with free coinage or coinage upon equal
/ terms, and both are made legal tender, the
! coins of the under-Valued metal will be
driven out of circulation and out of use
/ as money IN the country where the UNI
/ equal valuation is made The reasons for
this are perfectly plain. Both being legal
/ tenders the least valuable coins will al
ways be used In making payments, and
! will become the measures of value in the
/ exchange of commodities, and consequent
| ly the more valuable coins will be boarded
or sent out of the country into a market
/ where their real value will be recognized.
Now, as this is just what has always oc-
| curred-at least in modern times when
commercial relations between different
/ countries are so intimate and the means
of transportation are so rapid and cheap
y
valuation amounted to only one or two
per cent. think we are fully justified in
| concluding that if the United States alone
should adopt the policy of free and unlim-
tied coinage of legal tender silver at the
ratio of 16 to l, which would be an over
valuation of that metal to the amount of
100 per cent, all the gold in the country
would be Immediately boarded or exported
! or be held as a commodity by spectators
! engaged in the business of buying and
/ selling it at premium. If this should be
! the result, the free coinage of silver would
/ not for a long time add anything what
ever, even nominally, to our stock of
money; on the contrary the immediate
effect of such policy would be contrac-
| ton to the extent of fully one-third of our
| present volume of currency by the expul-
sion of about $685. 900 in gold, and it
would require more than fifteen years to
supply its place with silver dollars, even
| if our minis coined nothing else.
| All who have been or may be induced to
give their support to this revolutionary
| policy, upon the assurance that 1T Will
give the country more money for use in
the TRANSACTION of business, will be great
| ly disappointed, for they will find, when it
I is too late, that instead of having more
| money, they will have less, and that 1t
/ will he dpprpCiated in value besides.