Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1896-09-10
SIXTEEN TO ONE.
Coinage Chronology Examined and
Facts Cleaned.
DATES so SHOW CHANGES
MADE
In the System ofthe United States.
Assertion That There is no
Country i'm the World That
has a Absolute Free Coin
age of Silver.

GullOF jNcp0SllOfy. ln the enueaVOr
topresent the subject Of coinage intel
lightly and correctly good deal of in
yestigation has been rendered neces-
sary. The dates of the discoveries and
! legislation having a bearing on the
subject will be useful to inquiring read
ers. Only such occurrences as have af-
are comprised in the summary printed
below. Part of these dates were OBJ
tanned from the United States treasury
reports. part from the reports Of the
director OF the United States mints,
4 and part from other sources.
1856 Establishment of the double
standard in the United States with a
ratio OF OF gold and Is. % of silver.
l792-Adoption OF the ratio Of to Is
and establishment OF a mint with free
coinage
1903 Establishment of the double
stadard in France with a ratio OF to
l54
/ IS04-President Jefferson ord ere d
coinage of silver 10 cease. 1t was not
resumed until 1920, when only 1000
was coined. During all this period.
and to seme extent afterwards, no
| American gold or silver coins circulate
! ed, for this reason: The admission OF
| foreign coins into this country was
countenanced, and these being inferior
IN value to American coins became the
only coin currency (The fathers who
! Insisted on such sound money standards
would be known as money sharks
and "Shylocks" in modern Populistic
literature
/ 1Sl6-A bolition Of the double stand
ard in England, which had been at the
ratio of ! TO 1921.
1884 Cold ratio increased by adop-
! tion OF l6 to by President jackson
! practically establishing the gold stand
ard. Then the dollar of the daddies'
ceased to exist.
lS35-For nearly forty years follow
ing 1885 silver bullion was more profit
able to export than coin. 1t was then
under Jackson, that we went to the
single gold standard, where we have
remained until now. The dropping of
the silver dollar from the coinage in
1878 was only making legal the prac-
tices which had prevailed from 1884
until that time.
lS47-Discovery of the gold mines in
/ California
! Discovery of the gold mines in
Australia
S73-I.owering the weight of silver
1 pieces OF less value than 81 to the ex-
tent OF 81 per cent and Limitation of
their legal tender power to S.
Maximum of gold production in Cali
fornia reaching to S65, 900, 600.
BY the passage of the law OF 1858 CON
gress reduced the weight of minor
silver coins and provided that the gov
ernment should buy its bullion aud
mint them. That is just what the gov
ernment has been doing, only 1t in
ciuQ6S llIS QOlldE Win GIlS IiliIDr coins.
Why did our government do that in
1858? To prevent greedy spectators
from buying bullion and coming ii and
making per cent profit by passing it
upon the people. Was not the govern
ment right? If so then the republican
party is doubly right today in insisting
that the government shall buy its bull
lion and not allow the selfish mine own
ers to make from 90 to SO cents off
every silver dollar coined. This may
be degrading silver, but any other
! policy would be expressing, robbing,
and degrading the American people
In 1853 it cost 81 % per ounce to pro-
duce silver-by present processes it is
! produced from % to 30 cents per 100
cents. often lower than % cents.
1S56-Sources of silver made the sub
iect of general investigation. The
worlds annual production found to- be
81, 400, 900 ounces. BY 1876 this annual
production had increased to 67,753, coo