The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-01-09
UNFAIR IN ARGUMENT.

either speak fair or WRITE lar On INC
subject OF free coinage of silver. Here
for example is the Chicago Herald
saying under the caption "Silver's Ups
and Downs for Year"
The beauty of unstable money and
the condition in which American bust
ness would be were we to slump TO a
silver basis is aptly crystailized in the
story of silver for the fical year about
to be officially reported. Nothing
known to human ingenuity can make
silver dollar intrinsically worth
more than its bullion value, although
the government pays out gold and
boards silver in an effort to an i'm
value of the silver dollar was
for last year 40 cents. The
ratio of gold to silver for
the fiscal year was to $3.50. Should
the free silver interests have an OPP
portunity (Which they will never have)
to try their monetary theory upon
American business, the chief occupa-
ton day by day Of the American bust
ness man would not be buying or
selling other commodities upon q.
known and stable monetary basis, but
weighing his silver and finding out by
telegraph. overland and submarine,
how much his money was worth. Bust
ness men who fancy this sort of occu-
patton would be profitable, after few
months trial would help to increase
the population of asylums for ex-
hausted intellectS and bankrupt
pockets.
The argument implied in the above.
briefly stated, is this: ~ The price
OF silver bullion measured in gold, is
variable, therefore if we entered upon
the policy Of the free and unlimited
coinage of silver the money so coined
would be SO variable in value as to
keep business men employed finding
out how much money they had on
hand. (2) The average bullion value
Of a. silver dollar for the year was
SO.49-to be exact SO.4916S-and at that
average bullion price the ratio in the
value of gold to silver was 1 to 32.5.
and the bullion value of United
States silver dollar was only S0.49,1 1853,
hence the impossibility of the govern
ment sustaining under free coinage
the present legal ratio of to 16.
This argument is unfair from the
fact that it takes no account of the
influence that decentralization of silver
has had upon it's value as compared
with gold, or the influence that the re-
monetization of it would have both as
to increasing its value and rendering
less fiuctuating its price. The Chicago
Herald is judging what the money
made from silver would be when silver
is admitted to free coinage and the
silver dollar made full legal tender, by
what it is when deprived of the privi-
lege of free coinage and of full legal
tender quality.
1t is a favorite argument of the
single gold standard men that you
cannot create value by government
enactment, that hing is and can be
only of value as A. is intrincically so.
1t cannot be denied, however, that
when silver was demonetfzed in 1873
by Republican legislation it's value
was affected by that legislation. The
average bullion value of the silver in
a silver dollar in 1878 was 81. OO4: and
with a dollar you could only purchase
on an average in that year 2e977 grams
Of pure silver bullion, 1.4S grains less
than the amount of pure silver in a
dollar. The next year the aver
age value of silver AuIIion in
dollar was sO.9SS; and for dollar
you could purchase at the average
price for that year 975.76 grains of
pure silver. 4.51 grains more than the
amount of pure silver in dollar.
The reason that the difference was
not more marked, grows out of the
ot that it was not generally under
stood that the effect of the
Republican legislation of 1878 was
to demonetize silver. BY 1876
the average bullion value of a
silver dollar had fallen SOS94. as
against s1.OO4 in 1873, difference of
eleven cents; and a dollar would pur-
chase 415.27 grains, as against 9e9.77
grains in 1878, a difference of 45.5
grains. 1t is true that since that
time there has been some huctuaHon
IN the average price of silver, but on
the whole the price has been steadi-
" going down, or what would be
more accurately stating the case.
gold. having had assigned to it alone
free and unlimited coinage, and be-
ing given a monopoly Of the full legal
tender quality, has gone up in value;
but the usual method of stating the
fact is to say silver has gone down
in price, until for 1895 the average
price of the bullion in q silver dollar
is only q little more than S049, as
against s1.0O4 in 1873.
Another illustration Of the effect of
aesslation on metal from which the
money function has been taken away
is seen in the closing of the minis Of
India against the coinage of silver
in 1899 In 1892 the yearly average
price Of silver in England was near
ly 40 pence per ounce. In 1898, the
year in which the Id!an mints were
closed, It was nearly sc pence per
ounce. The year following the clos
ing OF the mints it fell to less than %
pence There was a corresponding
fall In prices in the United States.
Now the sum of the argument is,
that If taking from silver the privi-
Iege of free and unlimited coinage,
and tie quality Of full legal tender
has dragged down the price Of silver
50 per cent-or, as before stated, has
sent the price of gold up 90 per cent.
lis it not reasonable to believe that
the restoration, Of the coinage privi-
lege to silver, and to the silver dollar
the fun legal tender quality. that it