St. Paul daily globe., 1896-04-16
SILVER AND LABOR.
Continued From First Page.

the legal ratio was changed from Is to to
about I6 to /; that is the law was so amend
ed as to provide that the gold eagle, or $40
piece, should contain 2Sz grains OF pure gold,
grains; but by the act of 1887 it was changed
to % % grains, which now constitutes the
dollar and unit Of value. This was slight
cause 1922 grains of fine gold were not in
fact worth as much in the markets as BIN
grains of fine silver. although the diner,
sufficient to change the whole character Of
our metallic currency, and under this ratio
gold and silver exchanged places; silver went
out of the country and gold came in, and
from that time until after the passage of the
act of 1878 we had practical gold monometal
lism, except during the period of the war
when we had no metallic money of any kind.
eff the over valuation Of silver to the
amount of little over over l per cent in
the coinage law of 1892 expelled gold and
established silver monometallism, and If the
over valuation of gold to the extent of less
than l per cent in the acts of 1884 and 1887
expelled silver from circulation and estab-
Hshed gold monometallism is not the con-
clusion Irresistible that the free and unlimit-
ed coinage of legal tender silver at the present
time at an over valuation of nearly 100 per
cent, would at once place the country upon
not seem to me to be open to serious argu-
ment and when it is proposed that the
United States shall, In defiance of our own
experience during a. period OF eighty mine
years, and in defiance OF the experience OF
other nations during many centuries, auth
orize the free coinage of legal tender silver
at such a ratio. it is the duty of the people,
and especially the duty Of the laboring peo-
pie, to pause before 1t is too late and care
fully consider whether they will determine
to overthrow their existing monetary system
and substitute in its place the deprecated
silver monometallism Of Asia and Mexico
and the small states and republics of Cen
trail and South America, with their low rates
of wages and their high rates of exchange.
''We have now about $500, 600, 900 in gold,
and $413, 600 900 in full legal tender silver,
besides S7S, ,216,6 GIT in subsidiary silver coins
which are legal tender in payments not ex-
ceedng $40, and the real question for the
people to decide is whether they will con-
tinue to use the coins of both metals or
and always will drive one of them out of
the country. All the mints Of the United
States, operated to their full capacity, and
doing no other work. could not coin into
standard silver dollars two-thirds Of the an
nual production of silver in our own coun-
try, but, notwithstanding this, 1t is serious
| ly proposed to offer free coinage to all the
silver in the world at a legal valuation al
most double its commercial value in the mar
| kets of the foreign countries where it is
in the world is about $216, ,0OO, 900 at our COIN
| age rate, and the anr1al capacity of our
mints to coin standard silver dollars is only
933, ATS IN gold and $9,669 48O in silver; so
that if our mints were devoted exclusively
to the free coinage Of standard silver dollars
| the auulIlOn TO our STOCK OF meLalilc money
would be about SIS 900, 900 less every year
| than it is now; and it would not be good
money after it was. coined. More than ff-
/ teen years would elapse before we could at
| this rate coin enough deprecated silver dol
! lars to supply the place of the good gold
dollars expelled from the country, and In
| the meantime, complete revolution would
| have to be effected in our commercial rela-
tons with other nations, and in all our do
mestic business affairs, including a readjust-
ment of the wages of labor, the prices Of
! commodities the rates of municipal, seee5
| and federal taxation, charges for transporta-
| tion and every other matter involving the
use of money credit. We should de-
| scend by a single step from the highest
standard of value to silver monometallism
| deprecated currency, a financial experiment
| which has no precedent in the monetary
| history of the world.
| RADICAL AND DANGEROUS.
Fortunately, when changes have hereto
| fore been made in the circulation by the sub
| stitution of the coins of one metal for the
| coins Of the other, the difference in theil
value has been very small and the process
| OF substitution has been gradual and crea
| ted no great financial disturbance. Now
however, all the conservative and prudent
considerations that have usually controlled
in the settlement Of great financial questions
seem to be utterly disregarded, and we are
movement to destroy by a single blow the
measure of value upon which all existing
| contracts are based, and thus subvert the
| very foundations Of our monetary system
without allowing a single day to prepare fol
the change. In the general confusion ant
| ure, what will be the condition of the Ameri
can laborer? Will he be benefited or in
| jured by reducing the value of the money il
which his wages are paid and at the same