The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1896-04-10

Ike five hundred millions Of silver dol
lars. but Il has stopped coming any more
OF them. II has had as yet no insrr-
mountable difficulty I'm keeping mp :he
exchange OF gold for silver dollars by
the processes described. while the qnanti-
Nv OF silver dollars is no larger than
this. But IL We should open our mints
20 the free coinage OF all the silver that
was brought TO them. the quantity OF such
dollars would soon become so great
that the Government would be utterly
unable to exchange gold dollars for them,
and they would consequently nave TO
travel unassisted. upon their own merits.
They are now worth intrinsically only
about fifty cents. in gold each, and though
free coinage would probably raise their
value somewhat for time. they would
soon fan back to their true bullion value
and we should, therefore. have silver
monometalllsm. with the dollars worth
only half gold dollar each.
As 10 the second question, we answer
that gold dollars have not gone up more
than double their value. Improvements
In the methods of manufacture have
caused all manufactures TO be produced at
far less cost than they formerly were,
and they have consequently greatly fallen
in value. The sources Of agricultural
products have been enormously increased;
these products have been correspondingly
increased. and consequently. as the sup
ply Of them is greater than the demand
for them, their price has fallen. This
explains why a gold dollar buys more
Of some articles now than twenty years
ago.
As 10 our correspondents fourth in
quiry. all we can say is that we know
nothing OF any corner in gold, and cam
not, therefore, answer his question. The
same answer is TO be made to his fifth
question.
We are unable TO answer the sixth
question. No figures have been publish
ed Of which we know that afford All
answer TO IL.
As to the seventh. we can say that our
correspondent is "all OF" on 100000 being
"A per cent. of the population of Eng
land. Five millions would be about "a
per ceat. But. whatever number OF
paupers may be there, we can assure him
hist they have no connection with gold
being a wizard" II that be fact.
As to the eighth question. we say, No.
Silver was not demonetized in 1873 be-
cause gold could not be cornered. We
passed the act dropping the silver dollar
from our coinage system because silvef
was not and had not been for nearly
forty years used in our monetary system,
except for change. There had never been
coined but $500. 900 Of silver dollars. which
being undervalued. had all been exported.
and, as the silver dollar was then worth
about three cents more than the gold
dollar. and would not, therefore, circulate
along with Il, no use was seen in con-
tinuing any provision for its coinage.
We had been doing all the business of the
country with gold only, supplemented by
silver halves, quarters, and dimes Tor
change. and Congress very sensibly asked
itself what reason there was for con
tinuing the provision for silver dollar
that was neither coined nor used in bust
ness. That is the reason the provision
for coming the silver dollar was dropped.
We dor't know what our correspondent
quotes from in his ninth question, but
we tell him that he might drop all pro-
vision for coming gold tomorrow. and
IL would not have the slightest influence
upon its value. Twenty-three and TWEEN
ty-two-hundredths grains Of pure gold
would stnl perform ell the functions
of a dollar.
As for the tenth question. we say the
only way people can become better of
honestly is by laboring to produce some
thing which other people want, and are
willing to purchase from them. There IS
no royal road 10 wealth.
As 10 the eleventh question, we think
International bimetaliism piece OF hum
buggery, but we would be willing 10 try
it. though we have no belief that it could