The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-09-17
THREE QUESTIONS ANSWERED.
To THE EDITOR OF THE NEWS:

10 THE EDITOR OF lHE NEWos
sR-Csp yod answer the following
questions? l-When manufactures OF
silverware purchases silver bullion can ne
pay for IL In silver dollars; q. Q can he
give sixteen pounds OF silver coins for
tbirty-one pounds of coin silver bull
lion), or musthe pay for IL in gold?.
2-Is our silver coin worth any more In
Europe today than it's bullion value?
3-Wili the European countries take 10
parts OF silver in place OF one of gold be-
cause the United States stamps IL a dollar
when they can buy 81 parts of silver
bullion for one OF gold in London? 4.
Providence, Sept. 16, 1896.
In answer TO the above: ID Silver
bullion can be bought and paid for in
silver dollars at just about the ratio OF
weight named by &C" IL our cores
pondent will go to a retail silverware
dealer and ask for silver spoons, or any
article OF silver wherein the labor OF
fashioning or decorating IL not too great,
he will ind the silverwaro dealer ready
to sell him the article, weight for weight
in silver dollars. In other words
apparenily" "even" his silver coin for the
nufactureu silver. The silver ware
dealer will derive all the profit he wants
from the fact that the fiat value that the
government stamp gives to the lump
weight of silver pays for the labor and
other cost OF fashioning the silver ar
ticles and the profit on top of that. Our
correspondent may try this experiment
IL he pleascs. We have no doubt the re-
taller will cheerfully join in 1t, provid-
ing, Of course, thst the articles are not
OF too ella borate and too costly fashion
ings. In the same way manufacturer
OF silverware" may purchase silver bull
lion ny weight and pay for it by weight
in silver dollars in the stated proportion
of about l for 2 because the dollars are
worth, by reason OF the government
stamp. about for i OF the bullion.
There Is no political trick about this,
although, OF course, the average pur-
chaser of bullion uses neither silver nor
gold for money but paper or a check.
2-Certainly. Our silver coin is worth
its face value with a small discount, per-
haps. 1t is good oil over the world at it's
face value. That does not mean that ii
could be readily passed in foreign places
for II would be an unfamilia coin. But
the United States backs up it's dollar
valuo and its bullion value no more affects
IL than does the intrinsic value of the
paper In green back affect that. In
Mexico, for instance, where be-
cause the country is a next door neigh
Dor, cut silver Is familiar and In use, 1t is
worth about its face value, or about
double the value of the Mexican silver
dollar, which has a tribe the greater
bullion value. With an American silver
dollar you can. buy 30 cents worth of
goods In Mexico and receive q Mexican
dollar In exchange.
3-we repeat the questions: "will the
European countries take 16 parts OF
silver in place OF one OF gold because the
United States stamps 1t a dollar, when
they can buy 81 parts CT silver bullion
for one of gold In London"-to make
more emphatic, the answer MOI Neither
will anybody In the United States take
silver at any such price. 1t is taken now
in the form of . silver dollar because the
government guarantees to make the diff
erence good. Remove that guarantee,
have the coinage OF silver unlim ited and
free, done on private account instead Of
government account, and nobody could
be Induced to accept II at any such valua-
tion-either at home or abroad. II the
Congress, by law, said to the butcher,
the baker ami the candlestick maker.
"You must accept IL at its face value"
the butcher, the baker and the candle
stick maker would simply double their
prices and thus keep even.