The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1896-07-30
some ANSWERS.
A DISCUSSION OF QUESTIONS
THAT ARISE

In the Contest Now Going on Between
Free Coinage Advocates and the
Advocates of the Single Gold
standard Platform.
We demand the free and unlimited
coinage of both gold and silver at the
present legal ratio Of 16 to 1, without
waiting for the aid or consent of any
other nation. We demand that the stand
ard silver dollar shall be full legal
tender equally with gold for all debts,
public and private. Democratic Ma
tional Platform, 1895.
Free coinage means that silver and gold
bullion shall be coined without charge
by the United Sattes mints.
Unlimited coinage means that all the
gold and all the silver presented at the
United States mints shall be coined into
money.
The ratio OF 16 to 1 means that the
number of grains Of pure silver In silver
dollar shall be sixteen times the number
of grains Of pure gold in a gold dollar.
BY full legal tender is meant that
when debtor offers either gold or silver
TO creditor in any sum whatever the
creditor is bound to accept the same and
discharge the debtor from his liability
How much silver was coined in each
year from 1878 to 1878 both inclusive, and
the different denominations each year?
W. S. NJ.
We presume that your question refers
to the coinage of standard silver dollars
containing 41215 grains There were no
such dollars coined during the period
named. The act Of 1878 dropped the
standard silver dollar from the list Of
silver coins, and substituted the trade
dollar of 42O grains, which was a legal
tender in an amount not to exceed s.,
until July 90, 1876, when its legal tender
character was entirely taken away. The
coinage Of silver during the years you
mention, was, therefore, confined to trade
dollars and subsidiary coins Of denomina-
tion less than a dollar Section 21 of the
act of 1878 provided as follows:
Section 2l. That any owner Of silver
bullion may deposit the same at any
mint, to be formed into bars or into
dollars of the weight of 420 grains, troy,
designated in this act as trade dollars
and no deposit of silver for other coinage
shall be received; but silver bullion
contained in gold deposits, and separated
therefrom, may be paid for in silver coin,
at such valuation as may be, from time
TO time, established by the Director of the
Mint.
Is it q fact that one American silver
dollar is worth two Mexican silver dol
lars and If so, why is itY H. M. G.
1t is assumed by most people when
discussing the monetary question that
the best money is the dearest money; that
the money which will purchase the most
of everything is honest money. This is,a
great mistake. II 1t were true, then we
should adopt Herr Most's plan and demo-
netize gold and have 14-carat diamonds
for dollars, because certainly 14.carat
diamond would exchange for more COM
moditles than a gold dollar will now.
The complaint against the gold standard
is that it makes money too valuable and
that it is constantly increasing in value.
Now, value means power in exchange.
Hence, an increasing money value means
that dollar is constantly able to buy
more and more of other things. This
again means that the price OF everything
gsd Tho ya1ua pf aach InlIar
depends upon the number of dollars. If
any man had the power so to do he could
raise the purchasing power of a dollar to
any degree desired by simply limiting
the number. The resalt of hostile silver
legislation in this country has been to
provide our citizens with \ dear money.
Consequently, since 1878 there has been
decline, steady, but sure, and continuing
at the present day, in general prices.
Silver is now measured in terms of
gold, and silver bullion has declined in
price in company with the general decline
in prices. This decline is now about 80
per cent. since 1873. A Mexican dollar,
having no legal tender character in this
country, is bullion, and consequently
sells for the bullion price of silver, so
that 1t would take about the silver In two
Mexican dollars TO exchange for United
States dollar in silver This, however,
does not prove that the Mexican silver
dollar is dishonest dollar, or that our
silver dollar is an honest dollar. In fact,
Just the reverse is the case. The Mexican
silver dollar viii! today, in Mexico, on the
average, buy as much Of everything as it
ever did. Our silver dollar, on the con-
trary, will buy about twice as much of
everything as it did in 1878. Now, which
is the honest dollar--the one that main
tains a steady relation to other things, or
the one that, placed In. a strong box for
twenty three years, can be brought forth
and will purchase twice as much as 1t
would formerly? This increasing pur-
chasing power of our money is what is
causing universal distress in our land,
while the steady value Of the Mexican
money is bringing about an era of pros
perity In Mexico such as that country has
never before experienced.
Would there be any profit to the govern
ment in the free coinage of standard sill