The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1896-08-14

From this remembering also that the cost of
production hasgreatly decreasod) we see that
the fall in tho price of silver has not been as
great as we would naturally expect. How Is
this accounted for2 This wonderfully sustained
price of silver can DO accounted for in only ono
way-namely, by an enormous increase in tho
use of silver. This has taken place in two d.
rections:
: In the arts. The use of silver I'm tho arts
has Increased in tho last quarter or q century
several hundred per cent.
2. AS money. There has been added TO tho
full tender silver money of the world in the
last 22 years an amount equal to the accumu-
lations of all the ages up to that time.
In view of these facts it Is simply trihing
monetized." and to say that "haif our money
has been struck down. Is, plainly, to tell an
unmitigated falsehood.
Production and Coinage of Silver In This
Country.
Our annual production of silver is now and
has been for years more than n thousand times
as great as it was before tho war. and yet
there are leaders among the silverites who
lind 1t necessary TO malign human nature and
attack the memory OF good men in order to
explain why an ounce OF silver is not worth as
much now AZ then.
Our total coinage of silver since 1873, up to
and including 1894. has been $538. 444, 467. This
Is an average of almost $4,000, 900 n year, or
ton times the highest average annual coinage
before 1873 And of this coinage the vast sum
OF $43l, 500 457 is in the form of dollars, every
one of which is full legal tender. Such an
enormous coinage of silver was never dreamed
OF In the world before.
The Great Increase In Gold Production.
But somo ono might properly ask in this
connection. Has not the output of gold in
creased also?' The answer is, "Yes. enor-
mously."
Up to 1913 the worlds annual production Of
gold never but once reached $4,000, 600. while
IN this last half century 1t never but once fell
below 500 OOO, 600. and In 1895 IL was over $780,
every month than it did In q year half q CEN
fury ago. In other words. sir, the worlds pro-
duction of gold in these last 80 years exceeds
by far its entire production for the preceding
400 years. This is the fact limited at in my col
leagues chart, but not clearly. brought out.
And the apnual production of gold alone is
now more than four times great as was tho
production of both gold and silver up to 1910.
This Is tho fact, sir, which has sounded the
deathknell OF tho free coinage OF silver.
Theoretical Versus Practical BimetalIism.
The advocates Of tho unlimited coinage of
silver say; "Opcn the minis to the free coin
age OF both metals. Then they will both be
coined, and both will circulate as money" But
has tried this experiment, though ' some are
still trying 1t. the advocates Of this method
cannot point to single instance in which their
ready seen, France had, with her minis open to
both metals, first circulation of silver up to
about 1850, and then reversal to gold only.
Our own experience here in the United States
has been tho same. Our coinage ratio of lP to
/, from 1902 to 1884, overvalued silver and\ln-
dervalued gold, so during those years, at least
the last 20 of them, our circulation consisted
of silver and no gold. The change of ratio in
1884 and 1887 to 1898 to commonly spoken Of
silver, and silver gradually retired from cir
culation as money. No one would part with
8l.25 grains of silver (the amount Of pure sill
yer in q dollar) for 100 cents as money when
he could sell it for 1903 cents as bullion.
And this has been the experience Of every
nation that has ever tried the experiment. A
double standard is, therefore, an alternating
standard. 1t is not bimetallism. but one-at-a'
time metallism.
What the people want is the use Of both met
als, each in the way that will best serve their
purposes. They want the actual circulation OF
both. not simply the promise OF it, You free
silverites offer them u method that has always
failed and in the nature of things always will.
We offer method that has never failed under
normal conditions and that is why it has been
adopted by all the leading nations of the world.
You offer law permitting both to be coined,
hoping that both will DE. We offer plan
whereby the desired result is secured with GER
tainty Yours Is the bimetallism of the statute
book. Ours is tho bimetallism of the counting
room. Yours is theoretical bimetalliSm. Ours
is practical bimetallism.
A Short History OF Coinage.
In the evolution Of money the metals gradu-
ally superseded all other commodities as the
medium of exchange. Iron and copper came to
be produced in such quantities that they ceased
to BIO ''precious metals" and gave way to sill.
the demands of trade required it, gold was in
troduced into one country after another. In
this evolution q nations needs and progress
the kind of money used by it.
AT first the metals passed by weight. To save
the trouble of carrying scales and the danger
of being cheated by means of alloys the custom
gradually grew up of having the ruling prince
cut the metals into pieces of convenient size
a.. and shape and stamp on one side OF the piece
and on the other side the features Of the prince
as the author OF the stamp. This was the origin
OF coinage.
But princes were sometimes tempted by
their greed or their need to put into the coins
less Of the metal than they should Then, in
coins in payment of obligations the princes de-
creed that the coins must be accepted. This
was the origin Of what are known as illegal
For hundreds of years the money Of Rome
was copper, We have memento OF that time
IN our English word estimate" The Latin
for copper Is "aes," and to estimate literally
means to give the value in copper About 800
B. G. copper, was dethroned and silver became
the standard o money on About $50 b. G. gold be-
fall Of Rome Europe was for about five cen.
turtles almost entirely without gold money.
silver and copper. The reintroduction Of gold
coinage began at Florence, Italy, in 1852 with
the coinage OF the forin.
As q result of the Crusades the commerce Of
Florence, Genoa Venice and other states lying
along the Mediterranean had so increased as
to demand the use Of a more convenient money
than silver. Gradually other nations, rs their
commerce became great enough, introduced
the use OF gold money with silver money. Tho
CruSaueS not only enlarged trade along tne
Mediterranean. but they also opened up to
Europe the then only gold yielding districts
the Crimea-so that the demand for gold money
and the source OF supply came together. The
use of gold as money was thereby both neces-
STATED and made possible.
Then began the coinage of both metals. Then
began, too, rs consequence, the monetary
troubles with which the history of the next
five centuries abounds-the alienation of sill
yer money and gold money, the frequent
changes in the ratio in tho vain attempt to
keep both, the Idiots against shipping out
either kind of coin, tho execution of promi-
nent merchants and others for seeking gain
by. exporting the metal undervalued in the
minis of one country and overvalued in the
minis of another. These "open minis for both
metals" were not in consequence of any theory
of "bimetallism, " but of what Leon Say, quot
cd before, so aptly characterized as "the prim-
tive inability of tho legislators to combine to-
gether the two precious metals otherwise"
Oresme. Copernicus, Gresham and others
had at different times and In different coun-
tries pointed out the source OF the trouble, but
the "primitive inability of the Legislators left
the countries without remedy. And the
supply Of gold and silver was so small (as will
be seen by reference to the table showing their
annual production) that the nations kept on,
hoping against hope las we are apt to do when
we SEQ no alternative) that somehow the open
mint for both metals would give the circula-
ton of both. But, as we have seen, these hopes
were INDUCED only to be disappointed. Eng
land cut the Gordian knot In 1916 and was
freed from tho financial cmbarrassments on