New-York tribune., 1896-08-31
known offcislly IN Washington. He will san an
September 2 from New-York
THE UNIT or VALUE.
SECRETARY CARLISLE REPLIES TO CRITICISM %
TIE RECENT TREASURY CIRCULAR

SECRETARY CARLISLE REPLIES TO CRITICISM %
THE RECENT TREASURY CIRCULAR
Washington, Aug 3O.-Secretary Carlisle recent,
IL addressed the following letter to a correspond
ent In Ohio in regard to the unit Of value. and au.
thorlzed it's publication an answer to many other
similar inquiries which constantly being ad
dressed to him:
A. NJ. Simmons. Cleveland Ohio.
Ny Dear Sir: Your favor OF the 18th inst. calling
my attention 10 hat you characterize as serious
errors in the circular recently issued by the
Treasury Department. reached her" during my sb
sence. and embrace the first opportunity after nv
return TO acknowledge H. The statement In the
THE act Of April O. 1892 established tho first
monetary system Of the United States. The bas.,
OF the system were: The gold dollar unit con-
tanning 475 grains OF pure gold and stamped In
pieces Of $40. s. and 81 80 dcnominated respcctyey
eagles. half-eaglcs and quarter-eag giles: tho silver
dollar or unit containing 57.25 grains Of pure sll
yer mint established. The coinage was pn
limited and there was no mint charge Tho ra,,o
OF gold to silver IN coinage was 10 l5 Both cola
and silver were legal tender. The standard was
double"
TO those mistakes and claim that they are lnten.
tionay lugged In to prove that the unit Of yau.
established by this Government gold"
If YOU will rc-examine the statement you will
observe that nothing whatever is said about
ure OF value except that the standard was
mranng mean G Gt bb goT goG nt hs esa stand
able to discover any error IN the statement II
Constitute ono unit" The 2f7 grains ~ nur. nus
YoId constituted "A gold unit and The AT y gria p
Of pure silver constituted silver unit snd Sahs ihs
dollar" the unit. whether II composed ~
goli or silver The unit is merely the name y,
denominaton OF the coin used in computation, and
I'm keeping accounts. and II Congress had seen
proper TO make the dime the unit instead OF Tho
dollar It would not have changed the actual or
legal value Of the coins to any extent whatever
The only effect Of such a provision would haye
been that instead OF counting I'm dollars and frac'
tions of dollars "a we now do would have
counted in dimes and fractions II dimes. tha, fs
~ saving dollar or .lofi..-
half" would hav" said ten dimes" or
"hfteen dimes The franc worth little over 10
cents IS the unit In France. and the mark worm
about ~ cents. is the unit in Germany no mater
whether the frame or the mark il represented by
coin or by paper; but Notwithstanding the f.c,
that their unit X mu'h smaller than ours and
therefore, much less valuable. their standard ~
ing Of our free silver friends this subject is iht
they constantly confuse the unit Of account with
the standard measure Of value They are en-
trey different things and have no necessary con-
necton with each other
The words unit Of value" never used in
any coinage law OF The United States until Febru-
arv T. 1873 and tnen they were applied 10 tho gold
dollar go anderd eod Th q fa Pufs lba sGa ,S. or S
tty of gold Is no. now coined into a single piece
stitutes standard or measure OF value for our
dollar. and when men CONTRACT lor payment Ia dol
lars they mean dollars equal in vain" to Gs grains
OF standard gold The authors OF the act OF l9! So
tablished NegallN) TWO standards-a gold STANDARD
could not be- continuously used ai tho same time
As long as 81 % grains Of pure silver actually
equal in value 10 a 80 EituS ~ pun SDlu llfTr Was
in fact but one standard. although repres, ntcd by
two metals but when these quantities OF gold and
silver ceases to be equal 10 each other in value
or the other necessarily disappeared as a standard
That is Just what happened. and gold went out of
circulation: silver became the actual standard and
so remained until after The passage Of the acts Of
1884 and 1885, The effect of the two acts OF 1894 and
1877 was to change the ratio between gold and silver
from Is to to 1888 to commonly called II 10 y.
and the result of this change was that silver went
out of circulation because II Was undcrN aped in
the law and gold took its place and became the
actual standard Of value from that tim N. Very
truly yours. J. q. CAR ISLE