The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-09-16
PARITY OF GOLD ANDSILVER
SECRL FAIRY C1RLISL FPS ' LUCID LET
 TER ON THE CURRENCY.

Silver Advocates Pointed Out Govern
 ment Has Made No Discrimination Be- tween the Two Metals-Limitation of Silver Coinage Essential to Maintaining
 the Parity of Silver and GoId-Obliga-
 tions of the Country Considered. Washington, Sept. 15.--Secretary Carlisle, from his summer retreat in Bar Harbor, Me, has addressed the following letter to James F. Helme, Louisville, Ky:
 My dear sir: Your letter ask ing how the silver dollars, which con- tain quantity of bullion commercial ly worth only about 53 cents each are maintained at a parity with gold, not withstanding the fact that the govern- ment does not diyectly redeem them, or the certificates issued upon them, in gold, is received, and as a. great many inquiries upon the same subject are addressed to me daily from different parts of the country, which it Is i'm practicable to answer in detail, I will ! take advantage of your favor to an- swer all at once.
 All the standard silver dollars is- sued from the hints since the passage of the act of 1878, now amounting to more than $433, ,000, o00 have been coined on public account from bullion pur- chased by the government and are le- gal tender in payment of all debts. public and private without regard to | the amount, except when otherwise ex- pressly stipulated in the contract be- tween the parties. They belong to the government when coined and are paid out by the government at parity with | gold for property and services of all kinds and received from the people at parity with gold in payment of all public duties and demands.
 | "The government has made no dis elimination whatever between the coins Of the two metals, gold having l been paid onaits coin obligations when gold was demanded and silver having been paid when silver was demanded. ! Under this policy the coinage has been so limited by law and by the policy of l the treasury department, that the amount coined has not become so great l as to drive the more valuable coin, gold, out of use and thus destroy the | basis of our monetary system, and so | long as the two metals are of unequal 1 commercial value, at the ratio estab- lished by law, this limitation upon the coinage is, in my opinion, absolutely essential to the maintenance of their parity in effecting exchanges
 1 Tt constitutes the principal safe guard for the protection of our curren- cy against the depreciation which the experience of all countries has shown would otherwise result from the att tempt to use two legal tender coins of the same denomination, but of un- equal value. If the limitation were re- moved, confidence in the ability of the government to preserve equality in the exchangeable value of the coins would | be destroyed and the parity would be | lost long before the amount of silver coinage had become really excessive.
 With free and unlimited coinage of silver on account of private individ-
 
 would be under no moral obligation to maintain the parity and, moreover, it would be unable to~do so, because the volume of over-valued silver forced into the circulation by a legal ten- der provision would soon expel gold from the country or, put such a pre- mium upon it that it would be impossi- ble to procure and hold in the treasury a sufficient amount to provide for the redemption of silver on presentation.
 "In order to maintain the parity un- der such conditions the government l would be compelled from the begin ming to exchange gold for silver dol- lars or their paper representatives whenever demanded, just as it now ex- changes gold for its own notes, when demanded, and as the coinage Of sil- yer dollars would be unlimited and, therefore, constantly increasing, 6 point would soon be reached where it would be impossible to continue the process of redemption.
 "The implied obligation of the gov- ernment to preserve the value of the money which it coins from its own bull lion and for its own use and which it forces it's citizens to receive in ex- change for their property and services has been supplemented by two statu- tory declarations which substantially pledge the public faith to the mainte- nance of that policy. The act of July IA, 1894, after providing that the secre- tary of the treasury should under such regulations as he might prescribe re- deem the treasury notes issued in pur- { chase of bullion at it's discretion de- clares that it is the established policy of the United States to maintain the two metals in a parity with each other upon the legal ratio, or such ratio as may be provided by law and the act of November 1, 1893, again declares 1t to be the policy of the United States l to continue the use of both gold and silver as standard money and to coin both gold and silver into money of equal intrinsic and exchangeable value, such equality to be secured through international agreement or by such safeguards of legislation as will in- sure the maintenance of the parity of value of the coins of the two metals and the equal power of every dollar at all times in the markets and in the payment of debts.
 l With knowledge of these assur- i ances the people have received these coins and have relied confidently upon