Birmingham state herald., 1896-07-26
"sIL,vER DUMPING. :"

Many of our readers nave not access to the official statistics of the worlds money. For the use of such we give be- low some figures taken from the report of the director of the United States mint for 1885, It is not amiss to say that he is a very pronounced gold monometallist, and that these figures are not. therefore, shaded by any partiality for silver.
 The worlds total stock of coined gold, as given by the report, pages 40-A, is $4, ,086, 800, 900. The total stock of coined silver is $407O500, 900, or $16,9o0,0O0 less than the stock of gold. Of this silver $3, ,439, 300, GOO is what is known as "fulp' legal tender, and $631. 200, ,O00 is limited" legal tender With the exception of $55, 00O 900 of this, coined in Mexico at the ratio of 16B of silver to 1 of gold, and $S4. 300, 900 coined in Japan at a ratio of 161S of silver to 1 of gold, which neither of those countries can spare, and our own coinage, amounting to 5000, ,O00, all this mass of silver money is coined and circulates at par upon ratios to gold, on which silver is equivalent to more gold than in our own system of coinage at 15.9S ounces of silver to 1 of gold or 16 to 1, as it is commonly called. This over
 
 countries as compared with ours varies, but il is fully within limits to say the average is al least per cent.
 If now we deduct from the worlds stock of silver coin and leave out of view all that of Mexico, Japan and the United States, the balance left will be $S,275, ,60O,- 900. All this silver coin is worth. where it now is, per cent in gold more than 1t would be worth here in gold, if it were actually converted into our standard sil- yer dollars, without any cost to the own CTS for transporta ton and mintage; that is, the world would lose by dumping" its silver on us and recoining it here on our standard more than $131, ,000, 900. But the cost of gathering it, if such thing were indeed possible, loss by abra- sion, insurance, transportation and in- terest during the slow process of con- version into our coinage would be fully twice as much more. The net cost to the owners, therefore, of the conversion Of the worlds silver into our standard coins would be about 12 per cent, aggregating $400 000 900 or more. The man silly enough to really believe the nations of the earth or any large number of their people, insane enough to pay such price for converting their indispensable silver money into a coinage foreign to their needs and uses can believe any thing, and ought to have a guardian.
 But let us suppose that to be an accom- plished fact, which is incohceivable to everyone but gold maniac, or some one else stark crazy. Concede that all our gold is gone, and that we have all the si1x cf aat-fb ff1I us; that it has been coined into our standard silver dollars and is here, the property of the foreign Bumpers" amounting to nearly $50 per capita of solid full legal tender, worth as such more here than anywhere else on earth, besides our own present stock, in all about $60 per capita of our people. What now will the Bumpers" do with it? Will they incur further losses of many mil lions by taking this American silver coin back to their own countries, where it will have no debt-paying power as legal tender money but will pass only as a commodity by weight? Will they keep all this money here idle and hoarded in steel vaults or stockings? Either suppo- stion assumes these Bumpers" to be full-fedged fools. They will do neither of these preposterous things. They will | employ 1t by investments here in real | estate, In the purchase of the products of our farms, mines and factories, in the creation of new industries and the open ing up of new fields of productive enter prise. The competition will be then among money-owners instead of between money-needers. The prices of labor and of its productions and of all productive property would receive a strong, persist ent upward tendency; idleness would disappear, and the whole country would soon be as busy and contented as bees under the genial influence of opening spring.
 Meanwhile, what would be the condi- ton of the outside world? With all our present stock thrown in, they would have only $3 per capita in gold They would have no subsidiary coinage beyond cop per or nickle pennies or centimes. How would they carry on the innumerable petty transactions of life, involving 95 | per cent of the total amount of them, otherwise than by barter or exchange or | by using shin plasters? They would still need our products far in excess of our needs of theirs, and this balance of trade | in our favor would soon deplete them of | their gold and transfer it to us in larger volume than we now hold 1t, to be added to the output of our own mines. The dump" of the worlds silver on us, in- stead of bringing ruin, would go far ther than almost any other conceivable event to make this country the work shop, emporium and clearing house of all l the earth We may without fear chal- lenge the world to do its utmost at all such dumping"
 Of all the scarecrows ever devised by l human knavery or stupidity this one of
 "silver dumping and it's dangers is en- | titled to pre-eminence for its transpar- ent, unapproachable folly and its utter | impossibility.
 | LACKING IN COURAGE.
 | The democratic bolters are debating I mt a