The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-08-14

that the use of silver as money was
greatly diminished by the act of 1878, and
That since then silver has been going
down, because there was no demand for it
lor coinage purposes. The impression is
u6serly false. As matter of fact.
during the past ten years the ay-
erage coinage of silver in the world
per year has teen vastly greater than
curing the ten years preceding 1878.
rom 1868 to 1878 the coming value OF the
9otai production of silver did not average
more than SOC, 100000 year, while in
the last ten years the coming value of
the silver actually coined by the world
each year has averaged almost three
times that sdm. The increase of the use of
silver 1or money in this country is still.
more striking. From 1892 to 1884 the
toldi silver coinage of cur minis was
S4S, 600. 600: from 1884 to 1873 it was s1o3.-
$40. 900; from 1873 to 1878, when the
crime of 1878" was in full force. If WAS
s19 l20, Ell; from 1878 to 1894 it was
! So5S, 444, 467-and yet the silver orator.
with tears in his eyes, will talk about
INC deoilne In the demand for silver con.
sequent upon the crime of 1873.
The failure of Mexico to advance the
price OF silver by free coinage and the
continued and rapid fall of that metal,
III spite OF our own attempts to assist it
oy purchasing acts, give the silver men
VINO profess to believe that free coinage
oy the United States would bring silver
20 q parity with gold, great trouble.
here is the way Candidate Bryan got
round it in his speech at Madison Square
Garden:
1t is absurd to assert that the United
SGaues Is not able to do anything which
Mexico has failed TO accomplish. The
one thing necessary in order to maintain
ohe parity Is to furnish demand great
enough to utilize all the silver which
VIII come to the minis That Mexico
has failed to do this is not proof that the
United States would also tail.
This leaves much to be desired. 1t is
doubtless absurd to assert that the United
State is not able to do anything which
Mexico has failed to accomplish, and no.
body ever made any such assertion. What
| has been said is that the failure of Mexi-
can free coinage to arrest in the slightest
degree the decline Of silver tended to
show that the United States would not
be able by free coinage to bring silver
to parity to gold. And how does Mr..
Bryan rebuff this presumption? It is all
done in the above paragraph. If we can
furnish demand great enough to utilize
all the silver that will come to our
mints, we can keep it at q parity. he
says, and there he leaves it. 1t would
have been just as satisfactory, and have
thrown just rs much roal light on the
question, If he had said, If we can raise
the price high enough we can keep it at
parity. We have never been able in
| the history of this country under free
coinage to keep our gold and silver coins
at parity for any considerable length
OF time. A very slight difference be-
| tween the legal ratio and the commercial
| ratio banished our gold dollars after the
coinage act of 1899, and kept them in
exile until 1884. Then under new coin
age act slight difference between the
legal ratio and tine commercial ratio
| banished our silver dollars. II, under tie
slight variation in these cases we could
not keep the two dollars in concurrent
circulation, how can Mr.. Bryan expect to
| succeed with variation of nearly so
per cent? Our own experience before
1873 under free coinage, and since 1873,
under limited coinage, and the expert
ence of Mexico negatives the presumption
that the two metals can be maintained
| at a parity. and to Offset this he presents
absolutely nothing except generaIities of
the most glittering sort.