The San Francisco call., 1896-08-28
As TO A UNIT OF rALUE.
Secretary Carlisle ErpIains Monetary
Lufus of america.

LatUs of America.
WASHINGTON, d. c., Aug. 27.-Secre-
tary Carlisle yesterday addressed the fol-
lowing letter to a correspondent in Ohio,
in regard to the unit of value, and author
lied its publica tion as an answer to numer-
Gus other similar inquiries which are con-
stantly being addressed to him:
Mr. A. NJ. Simons, Cleveland Ohio-MY DEAR
SIR: Your favor of the 10Th inst, calling my
attention to what you characterize as serious
errors in the circular recently issued by the
Treasury Department, reached here during
my absence, and 1 embrace the first opportu-
nifty after my return to acknowledge it.
The statement in the circular to which you
refer is as follows:
The act of April 2, 1892, established the first
monetary system of the United States. The
basis of the system was: The gold dollar or
unit, containing 24.75 grains of pure gold and
stamped in pieces of SO, S. and So so, de-
nominated respectively eagles, half-eagles and
quarter-eagles; and the silver dollar or unit,
containing 371.25 grains of pure silver. A
mint was established. The coinage was un-
limited and there was no mint charge.
The ratio of gold to silver in coinage was to
15. Both gold and silver were legal tender
The standard was double, and you say "the
free coinage advocates point to those mistakes
and claim that they are Intentionally lugged
in to prove that the unit of value established
by this Government was gold"
If you will re-examine the statement you will
observe that nothing whatever is said about
the "unft of value' or about standard of
measure of value, except that "the standard
was double, meaning, of course, that the legal
standard was based on both gold and silver 1
am unable to discover any error in the state
ment II 247. so grains of pure gold constitute
$40, or "units," it is evident that "a rs grains
of pure gold must constitute one unit" The
24.75 grains of pure gold constituted gold unit
and the .25 grains of pure silver constituted
a silver unit, and the dollar was the unit,
whether it was composed of gold or silver
The unit is merely the name or denomina-
ton of the coin used in computation and in
keeping accounts, and if Congress had seen
proper to make the dime the unit instead of
the dollar it would not have changed the
actual or legal value of the coins to any extent
whatever. The only effect of such provision
would have been that instead of counting in
dollars and fractions of dollars as we now do.
we would have counted in dimes and fractions
of dimes; that is, instead of saying zone dol
lar" or zone dollar and half" we would have
said "ten dimes" or ''ifteen dimes"
The franc, worth a little over nineteen cents
is the unit in France, and the mark worth
about twenty-four cents, is the unit in Ger
many, no matter whether the franc or the
mark is represented by coin or by paper; but
Notwithstanding the fact that their unit is
much smaller than ours, and. therefore. much
less valuable, their standard OF value is as
high as ours. The defect in the reasoning of
our free-silver friends on this subject s that
they constantly confuse the unit of account
with the standard or measure of value. Thew
are entirely different things and have no
necessary connection with each other
The words funit of value" were never used in
any coinage law of the United States until Feb
ruary II, 1873, and then they were applied to
the gold dollar containing %. % grains of pure
gold, or 25.S grains of standard gold. The fact
that this quantity of gold is not now coined
into single piece is wholly immaterial That
quantity of gold constitutes standard or
measure OF value for our dollar, and when men
contract for payment in dollars they mean dol
lars equal in value to 25.s grains of standard
gold. The authors OF the act of 1892 estab-
lished (legally) two standards-a gold standard
and silver standard-but, in fact, both of
them could not be continuously used at the
same time AS long as 371.25 grains of pure
silver were actually equal in value to "a rs
grains of pure gold there was in fact but one
standard, although represented by two metals;
but when these quantities of gold and silver
ceased to be equal to each other in value, one
or the other necessarily disappeared as
standard.
This is just what happened, and gold went
out of circulation; silver became the actual
standard, and so remained until after the pas
sage of the &C is of 1884 ana 1887 The efforts
of the two acts of 1884 and 1887 we're in effect
to change the ratio between gold and silver
from Is to to 1898 to / commonly called
16 to IL and the result OF this change was that
silver went out of circulation, because 1t was
under value In the law, and gold took the place
and became the actual standard of value
from that time on. Very truly yours,
]. G. CARLISLE