Griggs courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., Dak. [N.D.]) 1885-1902, 1896-07-31

p4sSOg ZEN ANNUMs
have the bullion in the two dollars Of
equal value. There is law known
rs the "Gresham Law propounded
by Sir Thomas Gresham some two
hundred years ago, that ''the cheaper
coin will always drive out the dearer
coin, or in other words, the coin
the least intrinsic value in it will
drive out of circulation all other
money. The principles of this law as
shown by the history of the world has
never been broken, and if any student
OF finance of this country will take the
trouble to look up the financial histo-
ry of the United States since the
adoption of the constitution you will
find as fine n fulltillment of the s.Gres-
ham law as ever found of any law or
principle. In fact to u man OF any
ordinary reasoning ability it will
prove conclusively that we cannot
have two standards of value that
varies in the least in commercial or
bullion value. In 1852 our first coin
age law was enacted under the consti-
tuition. Thomas Jefferson and Alex
ander Hamilton being the fathers of
this act. Thomas Jefferson at that
time favored the experiment OF bime-
tallism. He held the value of gold
and silver coin depends on the amount
OF pure metal in each and that they
could not be maintained at any fixed
ratio If the value varied. He said:
The proportion between the values
of gold and silver is a mercantile
problem altogether, and that .'just
principles leads us to disregard the
legal proportions altogether and to
inquire iuto the market price Of gold
in the several countries with which we
shall be connected in commerce and
take an average from them.'' AS we
read the financial history of the United
States we see how true his predictions
are. In the act of 1892 37l4 grains of
silver, 25.S grains of gold were made
one dollar, the ratio be about Is to l
which was at that time as near us
could be figured from the bullion
value of each metal and gold and
silver did circulate for short time
only at this ratio when it was found
that the bullion in .he gold dollar was
worth more melted and sold by weight
than it was with the government stamp
on it, and in accordance with the
"Gresham law was driven out of
circulation by the cheaper silver dol
lar which was in turn driven out by
the clipped and worn Spanish pieces
which had been made legal tender.
/ In the year 1905 only 321 dollar
pieces We're coined, and on May. l,
1906, President Jefferson through
James Madison, Secretary of State,
ordered "that all the silver to be
coined at the mint shall be of small
denominations, SO that the value of
the largest pieces shall not exceed one.
half dollar" The coinage thus en-
tirely suspended was not resumed FOR
thirty years. AS a result the country
had only bank issues and the light
weight foreign coins, and could not
understand why it had to put up with
such q poor currency. The mints
were open for the coinage OF gold and
for the fractional silver, and a large
number of pieces were being struck
but none found their way into circula-
ton. The democratic party headed
by Mr.. Benton, then a senator from
Missouri, determined to encrease the
ratio between the two metals with the
hope of retaining gold. So an act
was passed in 1885 reducing the weight
) of the gold coins about seven per cent.
The gold dollar now contained %. %
grains, making the ratio between the
two metals about one to sixteen. It
now turned out that silver was the un-
dervalued metal and here again the
Gresham law applies. "gold drove
6ilvcr out OF circulation and there was
> not from that time until 1873 silver
dollar OF our coinage in circulation." :"
In 1853 the country became so short
OF any kind OF change that the people
petitioned congress to pass law to
provide change to do business on. and
congress during this year passed q
law cutting down the weight in the
subsidiary coin SO that after this it
staid in the country.
This is but a short sketch of the
history of the ratio during free coin
age. 1t is plain to be seen by this
that at the coming election we must
decide between silver or gold as re-
demption money for it is impossible
to have both. Which do you want
one dollar worth 1OOc or one worth
but soc? N.
i Notice.