Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1896-08-06

owners at the ratio Of rs to1. Those
who make this demand hold that tht
act Of 1873 was wrong and has resulted
in great injury to this country The,
contend that the decentralization" o
silver and the adoption Of the single
gold standard has raised the price o
gold and, since gold is the standard
has correspondingly decreased the price
of everything else, including silver
that the general and constant decline
in the prices Of agricultural, manufac
tured and mineral articles has not beer
decline of their value, but an appre
citation in the gold dollar by which
they are measured; that the dollar il
too s'dear' and requires more labor tt
secure than it used to under free silver
coinage, which is great hardship e
those in debt and paying interest. To
return to the old system, they believe,
would be to repair great wrong; to
increase the prices Of allkinds OF goods
by cheapening the dollar; to make
times better; and to enable debtors to
clear their Indebtedness, which there
Is now little prospect OF their doing.
We believe we have made the silver
position plain and stated it as fairly as
anybody could wish.
Concerning the passage of the act OF
1873 1t is now little remote to judge.
Conditions are very different than they
were then. Then, silver was under
valued by the prevailing ratio of 16 to
4. Its market price was such that it
was more valuable for other uses than
as coin. Consequently, no silver was
being coined, nor had any been coined
for years. The free coinage OF silver
was an admitted failure. Inasmuch as
the law was practically a dead letter
no one gave it much thought when the
law was repealed. Even Senator Stew
art of Nevada, one of the most rampant
of the silver men today, was satisfied
then to have the law repealed and so
voted. Shortly afterward Germany,
and, later, the other bimetallic stand
ard nations of Europe abandoned free
coinage of silver. All the while the
of silver was continuing
and more than keeping pace with the
demand. As a result silver has steadi-
~ declined until, instead of being
worth one-sixteenth rs much as gold,
ounce for ounce, it is now worth only
about one-thirty-tirst as much, or about
half its old value. II is not difficult to
understand why the act of '73 was
passed, though if the decline in silver
could have been forcseen it might not
have been done. Both parties are
agreed that free coinage of silver
would be perfectly safe If the nations
that coined it so in 1873 would agree
to return to it, though there might be
a difference OF opinion about the prop
er ratio. But none of the leading ma
tons now have free coinage and the
Republican party holds that it would
be mwise for the United States alone
to adopt il, especially at such an i'm
proper ratio rs that of l6 to /.
But why not coin silver free at a diff
ferent ratio, sayat its present market
value of 81 to l 2 somebody asks. This
Is just what the silver men do not
want. 1t would defeat every object
hey are striving for. They want A.
,heaper dollar than the one we have, or,
As they say, they want the dollar of '7S
back again. The gold adhcrents would
not object to the free coinage of silver
1t its present value except on account
# the great increase in size of the sill
Ter dollar which would follow, nearly
louble that of the present one.
It-does not necessarily follow that,
fthc act of '73 were a mistake, it |
hould be righted now. On account of
he very different market value Of sill
'er it is not the same question that it |
would have been the day after that act
vas passed, or the year after, even,
When silver had declined only a little.
The silver dollar as now coined con-
aims silver to the value of only SO
ents. The weight of the dollar is the
anne that it was in 1873. 1t circulates
i 100 cents only because the govern
nent is pledged to maintain its parity
Nth gold, that IL, to use all its re-
ources to keep the silver dollar equal
) the gold dollar. To this end it pays
ut gold or silver on the option of the
older of treasury notes, and in other
lays uses gold to bolster up the silver
ollar AS the coinage Of silver is of a
mited amount it is able to do this, but