The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1896-10-02

fording an opportunity 10 bullion brokers and
spectators to buy and sell IL at profit. II
would cease TO be used as money, because no
man would pay his debt in gold dollars or In
paper redeemable in gold dollars, worth 100
cents, when the law permitted him To pay IL
In silver dollars, worth only 81 or 81 cents.
The sudden Withdrawal of $500, 600 600 from the
volume of currency IN the country would un.
doubtedly produce Is financial and industrial
disturbance far more disastrous to the inter.
ests OF labor than has ever been experienced
In our history, and no man who has particle
OF sympathy for working men and women and
their dependent families can contemplate the
possibility of such a calamity without feeling
that 1t Is his duty, whether he occupies pub
lie or private station, TO employ every hon
orable means at his command to avert 1t.
While the sudden expulsion of $500, CO., 700 IN
gold from our stock Of money would itself be
sufficient to create financial disturbance un-
paralleled in the history Of this or any other
country the situation would be very greatly
aggravated by the fact that the purchasing
power of all the remainder of our currency
would be suddenly reduced about one-half:
we should have only about two-thirds as much
currency as we have now, and at the same time
1t would be SO deprecated in value that 1t
would require about twice as much az we have
now to transact the business OF the country,
provided there should be any business to
transact.
DOuDlo StanuarO FAILURE.
The attempt to maintain what is called the
double standard of value-that Is, to attempt
to keep the legal tender coins of the two met
ais, gold and silver In use as money at the
same time, upon u ratio Of value fixed by law
has repeatedly been made by kings and par
liaments In every civilized country In the
world, and 1t has failed again and again in
every one Of them, and 1t requires no gift Of
prophecy to foresee that 1t must continue to
fail 40 Golf int or int On
trolling factor in the business affairs of men.
Without trespassing upon your patience to
review the monetary history OF other coun-
tries In which this experiment has been made
and failed II may be advantageous to refer
briefly to our own experience upon this sub
ject When it was determined to adopt a
monetary system for the United States and
establish a mint, Alexander Hamilton and
Thomas Jefferson, two men who differed
widely upon almost every public question and
whose names as founders and leaders of their
respective parties will live as long as our po-
litical literature is read, agreed that in deter
mining what should be the coinage or legal ra.
ito between gold and silver the true relative
commercial value Of the two metals In the
markets of the world must first be ascertained.
and that this relative value, when ascertained,
should be incorporated into the statute as the
basis of the proposed system Of coinage. Al
though they were party leaders, they were
called on to consider this great business ques-
ton affecting all the private affairs of their
fellow citizens they gave II thorough and
impartial investigation upon Its merits with
out regard to the effect their decision might
have upon their own political fortunes or
upon the political fortunes of their followers.
The Gathers" Not Disturbed by This De-
fusion.
These great men were never disturbed for O
hxyf In 6alr fhnt
fix by statute the actual or relative values Of
gold and silver any more than 1t could fix by
statute the actual or relative values of a pound
of lead and pound of iron. They knew that
gold and silver, like all other exchangeable
things, are commodities and that their value
will be fixed in the markets of the world
They knew that 1t was entirely competent. I'm
fact necessary, for congress TO declare the ra
ito upon which the two metals should be coined
at the mint, II they were to DO coined at all.
but they knew equally well that II the ratio so
declared did not correspond substantially with
the ratio which the commercial world had es
tablished, the coins Of the two metals could
not be kept I'm use as money at the same time.
and consequently. as have already said. they
determined to ascertain the commercial ratio
and to adopt it. They reached the conclusion
that the true commercial ratio at that time
was Is to THAT Is, that Is ounces Of silvsr
were equal In value to l ounce of gold and
coinage law, authorized the coinage of the two
metals at that ratio.
At the ratio thus established the silver dol
lar contained 871A grains OF fine silver and
the gold contained 2iA grains OF fine gold but
1t was soon discovered that q mistake had been
made and that S71A grains OF fine silver were
not In fact equal In value to 2ls4 grains Of fine
gold, and the consequence YVES that. although
the difference between the value Of silver
dollar and the value of gold dollar was only
about one cent and one.eighth of cent. silver
drove gold out of use and out OF the country.
and from that time we had silver monometal.
ism until after the passage of the acts Of 1884
and 1887. "'
The fact that the silver was put into the
form OF u coin and made legal tender the same
as gold, and that both dollars we're declared
to be worth 100 cents each, did not increase
the value of the 8lh grains Of silver to any
extent whatever. The people could not be de-
ceived by mere words printed In a statute;
they soon learned that the metal contained
in the silver dollar was not equal in value
to the metal contained in the gold dollar,
and they paid silver to their creditors and
boarded the gold or sent 10 out Of the coun-
try. Even our new and full weight silver
coins would not circulate remain In the
because congress, by various acts.
made certain foreign coins legal tender in the
payment Of debts, and as they were gepcrally
so worn by abrasion as to be of less weight
than the new domestic coins they drove our
dollars and half dollars and to large extent
our quarters and dimes also, out Of use as
money. Our own coins were exported and used
at their bullion value in making purchases
and paying debts abroad, and Mr. Jefferson
himself, who had then become president Of the
United States, issued an order on the first day
Of May, 1905, stopping the coinage Of silver
dollars at our minis. No more silver dollars
were coined until 1885. 80 years afterward. and
then only 1000 of them were issued from the
minis .'f
Restoration Of Gold Standard In 1884.
Gold having left the country, congress, In
1884, during the administration OF Andrew
Jackson, determined to restore II to the circu-
lation and, In order to accomplish that result,
the legal ratio was changed from Is to I to
about 10 to THAT is, the law so amended as
to provide that the gold eagle or $40 piece.
should contain 232 grains of pure gold, which
made the dollar consist Of % lis grains, but by
the act of 1887 it was changed to 23.22 grains,
which now constitutes the dollar and unit Of
value. This was slight generalization OF gold
In the coinage because 20. 22 grains Of fine gold
were not IL fact worth as much In the mar 4
kets as 87lL grains Of fine silver Although the
difference In value was very small. IL proved
sufficient to change the whole character Of our 1
currency, and under this ratio gold
and silver exchanged places. Silver went out 1
Of the country and gold camc I'm. and from