The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-03
senator Pasco's Views.

Senator Pasco OF Florida is a silverite,
but he does not appear 10 be so radical
IN his views as some OF the other silver
leaders. in an interview published in
Mondays issue OF the Baltimore sun ne
says: 'It IS absurd to say that We believe
in cheap money or desire a deprecated
currency. What we do advocate is the
broadening Of the basis Of our currency
system and an Increase in the volume OF
money Sufficient TO meet the demands Of
commerce and industry. The gold stan
dard. in my estimation. means contrac-
tion, an increase Of the public debt and
continuation of hard times. Free coinage
may not prove a remedy for all the
evils under which we have been strug-
Cling. but it would certainly lead to bet
ter conditions than exist at present"
This is a remarkable deliverance unless
we misunderstood the senator's meaning.
He does not explain satisfactorily. and
neither does any other silverlte. how we
could avoid having a deprecated cur
rency if we opened our mints to the free
and unlimited coinage of silver at the
the silverites say they believe that the
opening of our minis to unlimited coin
age at that ratio would have the effect
Of causing the price of silver TO rise until
the commercial value Of the silver in a
dollar would equal the commercial value
of the gold in a gold dollar. or. in other
words. that the commercial ratio of sl-
yer and gold would be the same as their
coinage ratio.
But what ground have they for beiiev-
ing this? In all countries which have
unlimited silver coinage the silver dol
lar is worth only about ffty-three cents
in gold, and that is a satisfactory reason
for thinking that if we opened our minis
to the unlimited coinage of silver our
gold would be driven out of circulation
and our silver dollar, instead Of being
worth a dollar in gold. as it is now. would
be worth only about ifty-three cents.
Senator Pasco and, in fact. the great
majority of the silverite leaders per-
sistently ignore facts. When the Bland
Allison and the sherman silver purchas-
ing laws were passed they declared
that these laws would have the effect of
making the commercial ratio Of gold and
silver equal to their coinage ratio. They
were compelled, however, to admit their
mistake. Immediately after the passage
of each of the foregoing laws there was
a rise in the price of silver. but the rise
was not maintained. The price very soon
declined in each case so greatly that il
became necessary to repeal those laws.
Senator Pasco now says that unlimited
coinage at 16 to / would cause the price
of silver to rise so greatly that silver
money would not be a deprecated cur
rency Surely he ought to give some
satisfactory reasons for his assertions.
Gov Altgeld is not so sangu.ne as Sen
ator Pasco that unlimited silver coinage
at the present ratio would not give us
deprecated currency, because, in re-
cent letter he says that the ratio can be
taken care of if the 10 to 1 ratio should
not do what the s!lverites say it would.
In other words, he would enter upon an
experiment that has many times proven
a failure and which would be productive
of great business and financial disasters.