Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1896-06-19
SOME HARD FACTS.
THEY HIT TELLING BLOWS AGAINST
FREE COINAGE AT 10 TO I.

Secretary Holse Smith Makes One Of Hi
Best Speeches Rldicules the Proposed
Free Coinage the Awful Route
We Must Travel to Reach Silver Basis
Would Finally Have Dollar of Uncer
tain Value Which Would Hamper Boti
Domestic and Foreign Trade.
The Hon. Hoko Smith, secretary Of
the interior, delivered a speech in New
York on May lG on the currency ques-
ton. 1t is a speech that should be read
by all who buy and sell and who vote
Or have influence with voters. 1t is a
follows:
The people Of this country mako their
contracts payable in dollars. They do
business in dollars Uncertainty as e
the meaning Of the word dollar must
create doubt as T. the effect Of con-
tracts and general disIust in business
The dollar Of the United States at
present has distinct meaning. 1t is
equivalent to %. p grains of pure gold.
Paper dollars are mere promises to pay
in coin. Silver d.llars, while they con-
tain bullion worth only about 80 cents
each. have been surrounded by safe
guards Of legislation limiting the num-
Der coined and supporting them by the
credit Of the government, so that they
have Leen kept on parity with gold
dollars. TwCnty-thrce-twenty- two-onc-
hundredths grains Of gold therefore
measure the value Of what is meant by
dollar. when the term is used for
trade here, and this has been true for
about 80 years, with the exception OF
the period during which paper dollars
were deprecated.
Upon the floor Of the house Of repre-
sentativcs in 1858, when the bill was
pending which made fractional cur
rency subsidiary, Cyrus L. Durham OF
Indiana, who had charge Of the bill,
said:
IAN objection urged against this pro-
posed change is that it gives us gold
standard only. **s Gentlemen talk
about "A double standard Of gold and sill
yer as thing that exists, and that We
propose to change. We have had but a
single standard for the last three or -four
years; this has been and now Is gold; we
propose to let it remain SO and adapt sill
yer to and regulate it by gold.
After this long experience in the use
Of dollars based upon 23.22 grains Of
gold the advocates Of silver demand Its
free, unlimited and independent coinage
at the present ratio.
This is really proposition to remove
from silver dollars the safeguards Of leg
islation which surround them, to with
draw the limit and TO take from them
the support Of the government Ii Is an
effort to reach bimctallic currency by
the free and unlimited coinage Of two
me,..5 1T a fixed ratio which places 100
cents worth If bullion in the gold dol
lar and 80 cents worth Of bullion in
the silver dollar
The experience Of every country which
has attempted the free and unlimited
coinage Of two metals at a ratio disre-
garding the commercial value of the
bullion Of each metal put into a dollar
has been the coinage and use Of the
cheaper metal and the loss as money Of
the more valuable metal. The principle
is thus expressed by Sir Isaac Gresham;
If debascd coin is attempted to be
circulated with full valued coin, all Of
the latter will disappear from circula-
ton, and the overvalued and debased
coin viii alone remain, 20 the ruin OF
our commerce and business.
This indisputable doctrine was taught
in the fourteenth century by Nicholas
Oresme and again in the sixteenth cen
tury by Nicholas Copernicus Coming
down to III, Sir Isaac Newton, at that
time director Of the mint Of England,
declared:
IF silver leaves the shores Of England
in crowns or in ingots, the produce OF
coins remelted, and gives place to gold,
it is because the value which the none
tary legislation assigns to it, i'll relation
10 gold, is not correct.
Apply the lesson practically to our
own money. With free and unlimited
coinage Of gold and silver at the ratio Of
I6 to silver monometallism would re-
suit, and the measure Of the value Of
our dollar would be 37lh grains Of sill
yer, worth about 10 grains Of gold.
But the advocates Of silver coinage
insist that with 3714 grains Of silver
admitted in unlimited quantities to the
minis for coinage, free Of charge, the
bullion value Of this number Of grains
would necessarily be equal, before COIN
age, to the coined dollar This is true,
and it would be equally true Of 100
grains, or Of l grain, if admitted free
and in unlimited quantities to coinage.
Indeed, if chips were admitted free and
in unlimited quantities to the privilege
of being stamped into dollars, the chips,
before they were stamped, would be
worth as much as the dollars after they
were stamped, but unfortunately the
dollars would be worth no more than
chips
Another favorite argument Of the free
silver advocates refers to the experience
Of France, and they have claimed all
over the country that France, from 1903
to 1874, by fixing legal ratio for the
coinage of silver and gold Cat l51S to u,
kept the commercial ratio between the
two metals at tho same figures. This
inaccurate statement has been one OF
their principal arguments II they will
really examine the history Of France,
they will find that before 1920 the diff
ference between the commercial value
of gold and silver exceeded i51S to !,
and France became silver monometallio