People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1896-09-10

VIII the gold mounted whip lash
western voters into line for a single
standard?
~
A few weeks ago the editor of the
Mail boldly proclaimed to the world
that in all the years preceding 1873
only eight million silver dollars had
been coined, while under limited
coinage since that time over 400 mil
lion dollars had been coined. That
this statement was made to deceive
the people, we need only to give the
following extract from his editorial of
May 20, 1895, upon this very point:
"As a result of this policy only
l,5Ol, ,S22 in silver dollars had been
coined upto 1910, although forty times
this much silver had been coined into
halves, quarters and dimes. And the
failure 10 distinguish between the
coinage Of silver dollars and the total
coinage of silver has led to many dis
puteS and misconceptions. The facts
are that prior to 1873 there had been
only about eight million silver dollars
coined and this amount soften given,
even in public speeches, as the total
amount Of the coinage of silver up to
that date. But this is an erroneous
impression. Up to that time about
ninety-seven million dollars worth of
quarters, halves and dimes had been
coined, which, added to the eight mil
lions which had been coined into sill.
yer dollars, runs the total silver COIN
age to that date up to los million
dollars"
Then he refers to the act OF 1884
cutting down the amount Of pure gold
in coins; and then the act of 1887, re-
ducing the silver dollar from 4l6
grains to 4l2i, aud changing the ratio
from Is to to l6 tOl.
He then proceeds to give this in
formation, which, as he says, is fur.
ther reason why American coinage
was not larger.
"But at this time France was coin.
ing both gold and silver at relative
valuation of l5i to !. Other Europe.
an nations were also coming silver at
higher valuation as compared with
gold than the United States. The re-
suit was that an ounce Of French gold
shipped to the United States would
buy 1898 ounces Of silver. When this
silver was shipped back to France
1850 ounces Of 1t would buy an ounce
OF gold. This left the dealer .4S of an
ounce Of silver, or 3 per cent, for his
proht and expenses of Shipment" lat
this time the little country Of France
and the Latin union were fixing the
value of silver, don't you see! Amer.
lea can't do it, thOugh!-ED. VOICE. !
AS a consequence of this condition
OF affairs, the full weight silver coins
of the United States were exported.
This caused great scarcity of change
and left only the smooth and abraded
Mexican and Spanish silver coins in
circulation. Ia order to prevent this
expectation of United States frac-
tiOnal coins, the act of February q.
1858, was passed.
I'VE have heard thestatement made
that this act of 1853 demonetized sll-
yer and deprived it of its legal tender
character, and in substantiatiOn of
these statements We have been cited
to an article written by a member of
the presidents cabinet. Neither OF
these statements is true. The act OF
1853 is entitled, An act amendatory
OF existing laws relative to the half
dollar, quarter dollar, dime and hall
dime. 1t does not even purport to
effect the silver dollar in any respect,
aud does not. There never was an
hour from 1892 to 1873 when the silver
! dollar was not full legal tender in
payment OF every debt, both public
and private, no matter how large the
amount of payment was. The provi
sions of the act Of 1853 are as follows,
SECTION 1. The weight of the
half dollar, or piece OF fifty cents
shall be 1872 grains, and the quarter
dollar, dime and half dina ehall ha