The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-09-20
VALUE AND VOLUME OF MONEY.

OF a single gO1u SldhuolN - e
paipn is, that natural and not human
laws have produced the depreciation
in the price of silver which to-day en-
ables the lender of one ounce OF gold
in the London market to buy ABOUT
90 ounces of uncoined silver, whereas
it is proposed by the people OF the Uni
ted States to make the price OF an
ounce of coined gold in this country
buy sixteen times greater than that o.
an ounce of coined silver. They say
that an ounce of gold is worth 80
ounces of silver; that our silver dollar
containing 412a grains OF standard
silver is worth only SO cents and that
to propose to allow the free and un-
limited coinage of silver dollars OF TINS
weight and fineness means natlonal
min. and that to endow these dollars
with legal tender qualities means Ma
tional dishonor. They say value is Tx
ed by Nature. which gave gold quallty
and silver quantity that legislation has
nothing to do with it, and that the idea
of maintaining one metal at any given
parity with the other, if free coinage
IS allowed to both, is absurd. Let us
see.
First on this question of the ag-
gregate of weight or volume; then on
that of price or value. There is to-day
in the world; according to Sootbeer the
great statistician; 1903 tons of silver
for each ton of gold. The uncoined
price of this silver is "a ounces of silver
for one of gold. In 1900 there were in
the world 1922 tons of silver for every
ton of gold and yet the price OF silver
was 1885 ounces for one of gold. The
question of quantity or volume of the
metals extant and available for coin
age fixed the price and we are forced
10 conclude that some other than a
natural cause has been at work here to
cause this tremendous decline. Looking
for this cause and where do we find it.
From 1892 when the minis of the Uni
ted States were established and the
free coinage of gold and silver therein
at the ratio of Is to / begun; noting
the change in the-ratio to 16 to / as we
go along, and including the entire per-
iod up to 1878 and what do we find as to
the relations between volume and val
ne. At no time did the market rates
- ell no hssl
legal ratio of 16 to i. At no time in
this entire period when it required one
ounce of gold to buy sixteen ounces of
silver were there less than 22.6 tons of
silver in the world for every ton of gold.
At no time in this period was there the
slightest difficulty in exchanging gold
and silver at the ratio of sixteen to
one.
In 1873, when the free coinage of
silver was suspended by the United
States there were 1906 tons more of sill
YER extant than there were tons of
gold. But there had been produced a
greater value in gold than there had
been of silver. From 1892 to 1873 the
worlds production of gold was So. 483,-
1000; of silver $2,812, 252.0 00-an ex-
cess in value in gold over silver of
S669, ,0G0,, this value being computed
at the legal ratio then established of
16 to 1. During this period (from 1872
to 1879 the highest market rates OF
silver to gold was 1926, during the Ma
poleonic wars in 1S0S-'13. The lowest
was 1904, during these same wars,
in 1914. Dividing the time from 1892
to 1873 up into more minute periods in
order to be more accurate, and we lind
that twice as much silver as gold was
produced; that from 1S49 to 1862 three
times as much gold as silver was pro-
duced, and from 1863 to 1873 twice as
much gold as silver came from the
mines of the world as there did silver,
and vet, despite these enormously va
rying productions, despite these con-
slant variations in volume of money
metals extant, all the variations in
their market ratio or value are en-
braced within point and quarter.
If this is not sufficient to show of its
own strength that natural laws have
not accomplished the depreciation of
silver, and that wicked and criminal
legislation alone has caused it, we will
go further upon the same lines. From
1874. when silver was demonetized by
the United States, to 1894, the excess of
silver production in the world over
gold production was less than 10 per
cent. And yet in this period silver
sank more than 16 points. While, with
a variation in volume ranging from
twice as much si1evr, from 1892 to 1910,
to three times as much gold,
from 1S49 to 1892, we oniy
had variation in value of
one and quarter point. We find that
from 1874 to 1894 we had-with var
iat,s in volume OF less than ten per
eent-a fall iii the price of silver of
over 16 points.
After maintaining it's position
from 1892 to 1872 without de-
clining in value more than one and a
quarter per cent at any time, silver
was. by one fell swoop, swept from this