Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1896-07-23
What rs to I Means.

A silver dollar contains 37I.27 grains
of pure silver. A gold dollar contains
23.22 grains of pure gold. The weight
of the silver is I6 times the weight OF
the gold; hence, we say they are in
ratio of Is to I.
The money standard of this country
to-day is the gold dollar. Every Treas
ury note, every national bank note, is a
promise to pay dollars equal in value to
the gold dollar. The value of the gold
dollar is what 23.2z grains of pure gold
is worth as bullion.
But 37I.a7 grains of silver. which is
the amount in a silver dollar, is not
worth as much as 73.22 grains OF gold.
The latter Is worth dollar; the other is
worth about So cents at present prices.
Therefore, to admit silver to free and
unlimited coinage would resnlt in a
change of the money standard. Instead
of the gold dollar being the standard,
the silver dollar would become so; and,
instead of its passing for the same as
the gold dollar, it would be actually
worth only what the silver in it is worth
as bullion. All our paper money would
depreciate to the same degree, because
it would be redeemable in silver dollars.
The Republican convention, at St.
Louis, declared that it adhered to the
present condition, that it is opposed to
the free coinage of silver at I6 to I, be-
cause of the results, stated above, which
would follow.
"Bradstreet's" definition of the term
is as follows:
''The unthinking and unreasoning de-
mand or cry for the free coinage of silver
at the ratio of I6 to seems to be based,
in part, on sentimental grounds, mas
much as that ratio was established by
the coinage act of 1887. So much mis-
conception and ignorance exists as to
what the expression I6 to means as ap-
piled to the coinage of silver dollars,
that it may be we'll to restate it. The
gold dollar is composed of 23.22 grains
of pure gold and 2.sS grains of copper
alloy, 25.8 grains in all, and the silver
dollar is composed of 37I.25 grains of
pure silver and 4I.25 grains of copper
alloy, or 4I2.5 grains in all. The ratio
of the 75.s grains of gold land alloy) Ito
the 4I2.5 grains of silver land alloy) is
as to I6, and practically similar ratio
exists between the number of grains of
pure gold and pure silver in the gold
and silver dollars.
Commercial bar silver at New York
was quoted at 6S.75c. per ounce of 4So
grains on the 18th inst. The value, there
fore, of the silver dollar on that day may
be expressed by 37I.25-4So of 6S.75, or
S3.I7c. Hence the So cent dollar. Divid-
ing the number of grains in the ounce
[4So] by 25.8 grains, the total number Of
grains of gold and alloy in gold dollar,
an ounce of gold dollars is found to be
worth $3.50. A similar calculation with
reference to an ounce of silver dollars
makes it plain that the latter is worth
only one -thirtieth OF the value of an
ounce of gold dollars. In weight the
silver coins are sixteen times heavier,
but in value only one-thirtieth as much.
''When the ratio of I6 to was estab-
lished in 1887 it represented the actual
or nearly the actual value of equal
weights of silver and gold dollars. To-
day, as shown, the ratio of value of the
silver dollar and the gold dollar is al
most one-half what II was at that time. :"