Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1896-08-06
The Depreciation of silver.

The advocates of the free coinage OF
silver charge upon the ''crime of 1873"
the great depreciation in the value of
the white metal, and affirm that if its
coinage is resumed, free to all the silver
in the world, depreciation will cease.
A few facts are worth a volume of the
cries on this subject.
From the establishment of the mint
in 1893 till 1853 we had free coinage for
silver dollars and subsidiary coin, and
from 1853 till 1878 we had free coinage
for silver dollars, the government max
ing subsidiary coin on it's own account.
During this whole period of so years,
from 1893 to 1878, with the minis open
to every one, the total coinage of silver
dollars was only 1901 ,23s, while the
gold coinage amounted to S1,010, 900,-
324, or about one hundred and twenty
six times as much i'm value as the silver.
Yet near the end of that period silver
was at a premium of three per cent
above gold, and had an actual value,
as bullion, of 81. an ounce. From
1878, when the coinage of the silver
were coined 429, 2s99l6 silver dollars,
while the gold coined was valued at
SS01, 800, I'll, less than twice the coinage
value of the silver. Yet the latter
metal had deprecated in bullion value
to 65 cents an ounce. If with coin
age of only $4,000 900 in so years silver
was at premium and if with a coin
r. q A M -, 4 . L.. 4
fallen off in bullion value so per cent,
there must surely be some cause other
than the coinage for the fiuctuation.
The cause is clearly shown by the
study of a few further figures. To go
back to 1853, when the disproportion
between the production of the two
metals was the greatest, the worlds
product of gold was 100000 ounces
and that of silver was 81 300, 900 ounces,
or only 4.16 times as much as gold.
The same year the product of gold in
the United States was 3, 144, 900 ounces,
and that of silver only 10000 ounces.
In other words we produced almost
eigty times as many ounces of gold as
we did OF silver. From this time on
for twenty years there was a gradual
diminution in the amount of gold pro-
duced in the world, and n steady,
though not very rapid, increase in the
production of silver, till in 1872 the
worlds production of the latter metal
had increased to 81, 900 ounces,
while that Of gold had fallen to $780,
900 ounces. the proportion being l2.6s.
In the United States gold had fallen to
1,74t.5 500 ices. and the silver had in
crea ,,23s 900 ounces.
when the Sherman law for
TN ase of silver was repealed,
tn lids pro luction of gold had
risen to 7,60g, 900 ounces, while that of
silver had increased to 166, 0g2, 900
ounces. the proportion being 21.s SO to 1.
In the United States we produced
,739, 300 ounces of gold, and 60, 900, 900
ounces of silver. In other words, i'm
stead Of producing 80 times as many
ounces of gold as we did of silver, as
was the case in 1853, we produced "a
times rs many ounces of silver as we
did of gold.
1t requires no expert i'm political
economy to understand that, under
these circumstances, change in the
relative value Of the two metals was
inevitable. We must add To these
changes in production the fact that since
1853 all the commercial nations of
Europe have ceased to coin sill
yer as standard money If we open
our minis To the free coinage of the
worlds product the tide would be ire
sistable. The hope that we could alone
maintain silver ut par with gold on
basis of ii Ia would be folly. Gold
would go out of circulation and we
should speedily he on the single silver
basis. with silver at its deprecated
value. We should be in poor condition
To trade with other nations of the
earth.
Johnnie Wyatt, colored lad, fell
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