The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-03-31

that the bullion in silver dollar was
worth a tritle more than one hundred
cents, usually from two to five cents,
and was consequently more valuable in
trade as bullion than as n one-hundTed-
cent dollar; and so United States silver
dollars could not be kept and We're new
Ell seen in circulation, and We're there
fore so rarely called for for any use,
that from 1884 to 1878 only about $780,
900 silver dollars were ever coined alto
gether Our "daddies" never saw and
never used the high priced silver dol
lar which, since it became cheap, has
been christened in their name to make
it venerable. In 1873, the average mar
ket price of an ounce of fine silver was
$l,29S0, and none was being coined or
for a long time had been coined; and
the silver dollar of which there We're
not a thousand in existence, was
dropped from the coinage list as per-
fectly useless coin. In 1876 the value Of
silver had fallen to $115 per ounce.
Then from the cheap money repudia-
tionists and greenbackers came the
cutlery against "the crime of 1873" and
the clamor for unlimited silver dollars
worth only Lightweight cents; and the
cry was swelled by the men with new
mines and new processes and DESTROYS
of a new market for the illimitable pro-
duct of their new capacities. And in
1873 the Bland-Allison act was passed,
compelling the purchase and coinage of
at least two million dollars worth Of
silver per month.
How Silver Dropped.
1t was sought to reassure the sound
money men by the assertion that this
use of silver would carry its market
price to par and maintain it there; that
is, at not less than $1.2929. And under
the stimulus of these enormous pur-
chases, coming upon an unprepared
market. the average price of silver in
1878 went up to S1.204S per ounce, and
the value of a silver dollar rose conse-
quently to ninety-three cents. But ma
lures newly discovered abundance
and the new arts of man began pres
emily to get in their fruitful work; and
in 1879 the average price of silver was
81. 1918 an ounce, and silver dollar was
worth only about eighty-seven cents,
about which point the price fluctuated,
not very widely, until in 1885 the aver
age price fell to $1.0S97 per ounce, and
the average value of a silver dollar to
eighty-four cents. In 1886 the price
| dropped to s1.03S4 per ounce, and sill
yer dollar to seventy-nine cents and Il
fraction. In 1887 the price went to
$0.9S10 per ounce, and the silver dollar
| to seventy-five cents. In 1888 the price
went to $0.9547 per ounce, and the silver
! Jol lx,
( the price sagged to $0,933S per ounce,
and the silver dollar to seventy-two
/ cents. Great alarm had attended this
! steady decline in the value of this mon
/ ey metal, and all clear and unpreju-
! diced thinkers saw clearly the coming
end, the complete upset of our entire
currency system and it's transfer from
a gold basis to that of constantly de-
preciating silver But their fears of
| the voters of the debtor class and the
asseverations and Establishments of the
| owners and producers of silver were
potent to make our legislators in con.
gress believe that hair of the same
| dog would cure the bite, and that the
way to make silver dollars worth a dol.
| lar was for the government to make
silver scarcely buying it up more free
ly and stacking it away, So in 1890, the
Sherman act compelled the purchase OF
$500, 900 ounces of fine silver per month:
and the price jumped up to S09668, and
! the value of a silver dollar to seventy
| four cents and a fraction; and early il
| 1891 the price went still higher to $1090l
per ounce, and the value of silver dol
lar to eighty-four cents, but falling ma
| terially during the year. In 1892 the
| price of the bullion dropped back tC
| so 1852, and the value of the silver dol
| lar to seventy-two and a. fraction. Ii
! 1893 the average price went down tC
| $0S430, and the value of the silver dol.
lar to sixty-five cents. Then it was
seen, after fifteen years trial that gov
eminent purchases were helpless to af.
feet the price of silver, except disas'
trously by overstimulating its produc
ton; and, after a struggle still fresh il
| all minds, while every legitimate bust
ness interest in the country tremblet
| for fear of a change of monetary stand
| ard, the Sherman act was repealed
and the price of silver has settled to TIL,
neighborhood of sixty-eight cents al
| ounce, and the dollar of the daddies,
which in the time of the "daddies" wa:
worth from one hundred and one to on,
hundred and five cents, and which wa:
consequently worth too much to use al
a hundred-cent dollar and which there
fore they never did use, is now worti
only fifty-tWo cents, and lies unused, OF
account of it's clumsy bulk and weight
and is represented in actual circulation
only by certificates payable nominal,
only in its coinage This enormous
mass of deprecated silver is kept a
parity with gold in our own market
solely because the government, which
receives and pays out enormous sums O
money is pledged to receive it on sucl
equality, and because the government
has never rendered it in discharge of it
debts; has never compelled a credito
to take silver dollars for his claim. ]
is maintained at local parity only be
cause government actually substitute
gold for it, for every practical purpose
and does not resort to its legal tende
use 1t is kept out of comparison AM
competition with gold, and is actual.
used only as subsidiary or token coin
age.
The Greenbacks.
The demand notes, or greenbacks, ar
maintained at like parity because Will