The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-04-18

| advocate is correct, that the free coin
age of silver will increase the price OF
that metal and make it of the same re-
latlve value to gold as 1t was prior to
| 1873, it, then, also must follow that II
can be OF no benefit to the debtor, be-
cause his obligations would be still
payable in a money metal of no less
value than that which now forms the
| basis of his Indebtedness. Upon the
| other hand, If relief comes to the debt
or it can be of no benefit to the pro-
Queer of silver, for the benefit which
| must accrue to him must arise wholly
| from the increase in the marketable
value of the product of his mine. /
submit that these two opposing propo-
sitions should be reconciled as between
the debtor class and the mine owning
class before the public is asked to give
them countenance and support.
The advocates of the free coinage of
silver have continually protested that
the end sought by them Is the coinage
or silver under the conditions which
prevailed prior to 1873. / am confident
that casual investigation even will
prove that they do not desire any such
thing. The idea in the enactment in
every coinage law from the establish
ment of the government to 1873 was to
have the coins approximately of the
same commercial value without the
governments stamp affixed as they
would be with it, A very small frac-
tional difference was to be made in IA
vor of the coins simply to prevent their
being too readily sent to the melting
pot. Whatever the increased value the
stamped coin had over the unstamped
metal was the result of the conven-
fence arising from its use in business
transactions. 1t never was seriously
suggested by any advocate of the free
coinage of silver until the present agi-
tation that the commercial value of the
metal should be disregarded and an ar
tificial value fixed by law. 1t is to be
remembered that the ratio of 16 to l
in 1896 is a very different thing from
the ratio of 16 to in 1873.
The very fact that those who control
this movement object to adopting as a
part of their silver creed anything
more from the coinage laws prior to
1873 than the mere figures of ratio is
sufficient to prove that they are insin-
cere in their demand for the enactment
of a law similar to the earlier coinage
acts. If not, they would accept the
spirit and the reason of the law as
readily as the bare ratio which they
desire to take from it. The cause of
their not so doing is to be found in the
change in the relative value of the bull
lion value of silver dollar then and
now. In 1873 the average value of the
bullion in the silver dollar-was $1,000.
The first quarter of 1896 it was S0.5256.
A careful calculation shows that pure
silver was worth in 1876 only SO per
cent. of it's value in 1872; in 1881 only 81
per cent; in 1886 only x per cent; in
1889 only 70.9 per cent, and in the first
quarter of 1896 only 50 per cent. Dur
ing the first five years it lost II cents of
it's value; during the first fifteen, % per
cent, and during the twenty-four
years since 1872 As per cent.
1t has long been held that the best
theoretical money would be of gold and
silver coins stamped with no other
mark excepting those indicating their
weight and fineness, and no other
value than their current commercial
value. Such was the system which
prevailed at a time when commercial
transactions We're few in number and
involving small amounts, but now that
the number of them is almost beyond
calculation, and the sum total of val
ues affected by them correspondingly
vast, the world demands, as has been
well said, "a money system which re-
quires of those who use it neither cal
culation nor even reflection. Metal
moneys having in the first instance
been based wholly upon commercial
values, the friends of the free coinage
of silver in this country must, in order
to prove their fairness and unwilling
ness to be party to the issuing of dol
lar which does not have the value of
dollar, cease insisting upon the coinage
of silver at any other ratio than its
commercial ratio.
1t certainly needs no other argument
to demonstrate thesreason why silver
has lost its place in every great COM
mercial nation as a standard money
metal 1t has been wrought through
this instability of value and this loss in
the price which it commands in the
commercial world 1t has not resulted
from any unjust discrimination or wish
to impoverish any class of people or
section of country. The decree against
it did not in the first instance emanate
from any Legislative body, but enacted
law followed in the wake of the COM
mercial world. The prejudice against
silver arises against anything which no
longer answers in the most efficient
way the end which is sought through
the use of it. 1t has lost its place
through that evolution in the medium
of exchange which has gone on without
ceasing from the first dawn of history
until the present time. 1t has given
way to gold as barter gave way to the
use of money, and as actual gold coin
is giving way in great transactions
through the introduction of bank
checks and bills of exchange.
The inevitable effect of the legisla-
ton demanded by those who stand
sponsor for the free coinage of silver
would be to disturb and injure our
commercial relations at home and
abroad. AT home by recl1lessly inf1a-
unsettling values; abroad by destroy
ing the already impaired credit of our
country. 1t is our boast that this is a
great commercial nation, but yet Sc
rols attempt is made to have here n
standard of value which is not recog-
nized in any commercial nation of the
first class in the world. In no nation
l. ofy1