Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1896-07-09
free COINAGE FACTS
Some Historical Statistics
to Consider.
BY THOMAS V. GATOR
The UnanswerabIe Logic Of
History.
BY THOMAS V. GATOR

The gold standard advocates nave
caused many men to believe that there
Is enormous danger in opening our
mints to the unlimited coinage Of sill
yer at the ratio Of 10 to We are
told that the silver OF the world will
be dumped upon us: that foreign sill
YER will be brought here in shiploads.
These unfOunded statements have de-
ceived many persons who have not
examined the matter.
We opened our mints TO free and
unlimited coinage from 1892 TO 1873.
We also declared the silver coins Of
many other nations legal tender In
the United States up to tie year of
1856. Under such laws we did not
have too much sllyer--we never had
enough. When these facts are pre-
sented we are told that IL was differ
ent then; that there has been a great
production Of silver In excess Of gold,
and for this reason IL must be demon
etized or the ratio greatly changed
This Is not a fact.
The ratio has been fixed upon the
relative quantities OF the two metals
in the world. There has never yet
been sixteen times as many ounces OF
silver produced In the world as Of
gold. Until there Is more than six
teen ounces OF silver in the worlds
total product for every ounce of gold,
the ratio OF coinage can never be prop
erly higher than 10 TO 1. The "Amer-
| lean Statistics" qS9l) informs us that
the amount Of gold and silver In
every shape In the world Is as follows:
Gold, 43,520, 423 pounds avordupols,
and OF silver G33, ,S2O, $3.50 pounds. The
ratio Is II and 56-l00 ounces OF silver
for each ounce OF gold. The whole
matter was investigated 10y our Gov
ernment through men like Jefferson,
Hamilton and others,at It's commence
ment, and on April ?, 1902, the mints
OF the United States were opened TO
free and unlimited coinage of gold
and silver at the ratio OF 10 to /. We
did not have the silver Of the world
dumped upon us then.
In 1884 congress changed the ratio
TO 10 10 /, which Is the highest ever
named by any nation. This contin-
ued, until 1873, the ratio for full legal
tender silver dollars, and so far from
having the worlds silver coined ut our
mlnts, we find very little was coined.
II is agreed that up TO 1873 there was
no excess Of production OF silver over
gold which rendered unlimited free
coinage at 10 TO 1 dangerous. II is
is proven by the fact that when silver
was demonetized in 1873, every silver
dollar was worth a dollar and two
cents In gold,
IL is not pretended that silver was
demonetized In 1873 because OF any
oyerproductlon, The foregoing facts
prove there was not, Mr.. Harvey, adj
mlts that there is no claim made and
cannot be, that silver was demontized
In 1873 because OF 0verproductlon,
Any such claim, he says, would be
nonsense. Silver was meyer dem0ne-
tiled anywhere because OF overpro-
duction, but because, with gold only,
money would be more scant and more |
easily cornered aud used by money
manlpulators to control interest and |
prices and increase debts, bonds and
usury,
There was no oyerproduction then
up 10 1879. This is proven aud con-
ceded. Has there been any sinceg
There has not, The figures show gold
still far In the lead at 10 tol. The
Bureau OF the United States Mints on
August 10, 1893, made an oiiiclal state
ment showing the production of gold
aud silver In the world from 1902 20
lsa2-one hundred years past-from
WHICH Il appears that there was pro-
duced Ia that period s02s, ,Si7, 900 more
of gold bullion than OF silver, at u
raflo of InfaI Vhara WAS that ,,,,,,.b I