The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-07-31
THE CRIME OF 49,"

"class" preiudices, TO cupidity and dis
honest instincts, and to that vain element
I'm human nature that prompts even SEN
sibe men to buy lottery tickets.
Sophistry is utilized for argument, fairy
| tales for facts, dreamings for stern con-
sideration, and buncombe for horse
sense.
oneof the appeals to sentiment Is based
upon what the silverites call the "crime
of fs7a."
The so-called "crime" was the legisla.
ture that dropped the silver dollar from
the coinage. 1t had been on the list from
the first coinage law adopted by the Con-
gress OF the new nation. 1t was coined
under the law OF 1872, at ratio OF 10 to
!, the idea being 10 retain in our coinage
both gold and silver which were already
in circulation, the Spanish milled dollar
being our principal piece of money at
that time, and the effort OF Congress
being directed to solve the problem of
fixing a ratio that would maintain the
twin metals current
There was an error, however, in max
ing the ratio Is to 1. 1t was a slight
error, but sufficient to cause no end OF
trouble. At the time France was coming
silver at the lower ratio, 10 1-2 10 1, ana
that slight difference was enough to
drain the new nation of gold, because you
could get more silver abroad for your
gold than you could by exchanging 1t at
home.
The country worried along until I s3i,
when Congress undertook to remedy the
situation by reducing the number OF
grains OF gold in gold dollar, and an
other slight change was made in 1887.
The number OF grains in the silver dol
lar remaining consta 1t, the ratio was thus
brought to 10 to /, and that has been the
legal ratio ever since.
But Europe still offered the ratio OF 15lo
TO !, and now the silver began to go out
of the country and the gold to come
back, and the country was shortly on
gold basis despite ITSELF just as before 1t
had gone to a silver basis despite ITSELF
This continued up to 1s73-tbe year of
the crime"
In all the intervening years, silver
being worth more for selling as a COM
modify than for selling TO the mint, the
bullion value being greater in the mar
kets Of the world than the coinage value
very few silver dollars were coined and
few we're in circulation. Up to 1873
O only 5000, 600 silver dollars had been
coined in all the life OF the nation. Sill
yer was at premium Of about 104 in
1873, and few persons except collectors
and students of the subject in that gen.
GRAFTON knew that there was such a
thing as an American silver dollar. II
was a piece of money IN the statutes
only. The attempt to maintain bimetal-
lism had failed, as 1t had failed for six
centuries, as II always will fail. The
"cheap money" advocates in those
days never thought OF using silver be-
cause silver was not cheap. q Did was
cheap in silver then, and so the fiat
money men wanted to make money with
a press instead of a coinage stamp.
Gold was standard money because 1t was
cheaper than silver In the twin coinage
just as silver would become the standard
If both metals should be freely and un-
limitedly coined today because today
silver is the cheaper. So after three years
OF consideration Of a coinage adjust
ment, the "crime OF '73" was committed.
1t consisted only in dropr ing from the
list OF coins the unknown, impossible
and practically nonsexistent silver dollar
authorized in 1884. Senator STEWART Of
Nevada voted for the passage OF the bill.
Nobody missed the silver dollar.
In 1873 the bullion ratio OF silver TO
gold was 1892 TO /. The increased pro-
duction OF silver, for all the mints were
not open to 1t, decreased it's value so that
in 1878 1t had fallen to the ratio OF 1884
to /. Then Congress passed law auth hor-
izing the coinage OF a limited amount OF
silver at the old ratio--16 to l. The act
was passed over the veto OF President
HAYES and provided for the purchase by
the government OF from $780, 900 to
;i,0lO,0 900 worth OF silver evory month.
But the increasing product OF the silver
mines resulted in a constant falling of