The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-07-25
Hon. j. Edward Simmons. In the Ne,
York Journal

f1oiI. d. EuWard simmons, In the New
York Journal
The case of the advocates Of free and
unlimited coinage OF silver rests upon
| three cardinal assumptions. II these
three assumptions can be shown to be
false or at variance with statistics and
events. the whole case falls to the ground.
The assumptions are:
|. That the suspension Of free silver
coinage by act Of congress in 1873 struck
| silver from its place as money, forcing
| single standard for our currency and
| contracting the amount Of money In CIR
| culation.
.. That the United States. by congress
| sional enactment, Independent of other
| nations, can provide "A double standard
| whereby gold ana silver will circulate
| side by side at a parity with a resultant
| expansion Of the money in circulation.
3. That the greater the circulation of
money, the higher the values of all prod
| ucts and commodities. ana the greater
the prosperity of the country.
In the discussion of these three as
| sumptions an endeavor will be made to
| avoid technical financial terms and de-
tinitions, as far as possible, in order that
the subject may be made clear to the
general reader. In the first place, 1t Is
utCeSSdTy tHdI tnt meaning VI lIee Sil-
| yer coinage at a ratio of lG to l be thor
oughly understood. Free coinage OF gold
and silver at the ratio Of IL ounces of sill
YER to 1 of gold, means that the weight
of pure silver in a silver dollar Is sixteen
times the weight of pure gold In gold
dollar. To secure this result, under the
| laws of 1887, the weight OF the silver dollar
was fixed at 4l2is grains. and the fineness
at 100000, producing dollar contain
ing S7la grains of pure silver. The weight
OF the eagle Cl0 was fixed at 25S grains,
and the ilneness gOO-l0oO. the pure gold
contained being 2S2.a grains. or %. grains
for the gold dollar, or unit On this basis
an ounce OF gold Is worth S20G1 2-lO per
ounce, and the coming value of silver Is
ST. % 29-l0O per ounce. AS gold Is the uni-
versal basis for reckoning values, 1t may
| be stated that gold and silver are at a
parity under 6to coinage, when an ounce
of silver Is worth about 81 80 In gold. Pre-
vious to 1884 the ratio was 10 to l. In !S34
1t was made 1902 to l, and in 1881 is became
| Is 9SS, or practically IL to !. The weight Of
the coin has remained fixed since 1887. To
grasp the full significance Of free and un-
limited coinage OF gold and silver. 1t must
be understood that the owner of the bul.
lion takes it to the mint, and for every
37ll, grains of pure silver, or 1922 grains
Of gold deposited, the government returns
silver or gold coin stamped zone dol
lar" In the case of gold. ten times 3...2
| grains, or 2322 grains, Is coined into SlO
| piece, called an eagle.
The coinage of gold dollars has been
suspended since 1880 to facilitate the cir
culation of silver dollars. Silver is now
selling at between GS and G9 cents per
ounce. or is, commercially, at ratio of
20 4 fro. nnin ga Gf Stl EAp -
| is authorized at u ratio of IL to /, silver
dollar coined from 37ii grains of pure
| metal will contain about 81 cents worth or
silver Being legal tender 1t must DE uc-
cepted as 10 cents in the settlement or
private contracts. taxes and government
| obligations. As far as the owner OF sill
YER mine can produce silver he Will take
| It to the government mint. and the gov
| ernment has no option except to com II
into silver dollars without limit. At the
current commercial ratio of silver and gold
| gold dollar will contain about twice the
| value Of silver dollar. The result can he
plainly foreseen. Every man who must
pay out dollar will seek to use a silver
dollar. every man who has a dollar owing
| him will seek to collect II in gold The
| government will receive payments only in
silver. and a rush will be made for Its
gold. The foreigners will pay their debts
to our people in silver and collect all pay
ments due them In gold. With each man
trying to pass silver upon his neighbor
| and every man fighting to secure ana Keep
gold, it can easily be seen that gold will
disappear from circulation This Is what
is termed Gresham's law, that the inferior
money drives the better money out Of cir
culation as none would care to have prac-
tically s2 worth Of gold stamped lone dol
| lar" We should speedily come to silver
monometallism. II the silver should be
worth more than Sl.29 per ounce the op-
posite result would follow. Gold alone
would be coined and silver driven out of
circulation. In short. u bimetallic stand
ard Is an impossbility unless all OF the
great nations of the earth should at the
same time adopt a fixed ratio Of gold and
silver.
The ratio fixed by Hamilton for the free
coinage of silver and gold In 1892 was Is
to /. Under this ratio silver was the
"over-valued' metal. AS it was worth about
ILL., to in the worlds markets. In other
words. an ounce of gold could hardly be
coined into as many dollars as fifteen
ounces Of silver. but could be exchanged
in the open markets for fifteen and one
half ounces of silver. The United States
practically produced neither gold nor sill
yer. 1t could not attract golh and there
was no gold in circulation, only depreciat-
ed foreign silver coins which were made
legal tender under the law. The Bank
of the United States. in the year 1919. at
an expense of SJV,OO0, imported $7,V0Y. go
In specie from Europe to relieve the
strained situation. In 1884 the coming ra-
ito was raised to 1902 to !, with the hope
OF attracting gold The ratio was reduced
about li-lOOO in 1897. as previously ex-
planned. Gold was attracted because 1t
became the over-valued metal. and silver
was driven from circulation. The under
valued metal in coming ratio sells at
what is termed a premium. The opening
of new gold fields increased the premium
on silver and the coinage Of silver aver
aged less than $4,000 annually. The coin
age of gold was conducted on an increas-
ing scale from 1919 to 1873. when free sill
yer coinage was suspended by the United
States The circulation of subsidiary sill
yer coin was only made possible by reduce
ing their coinage ratio of gold to less than
Ii to l. The legal tender power of SUBJ
sdiary coin being limited of IS. their con-
sideration is not pertinent to the main
proposition.
Il Il Il
The history of the Intellectual attempts
of our government to keep gold and sill