The morning times., 1896-08-27

ONCE OF the Secretary,


s'aD,iy being addressed to him:
Treasury Department,
| OfIice or the Secretary
Washington, ID. C., August 26, 1895.
| Mr. A. NJ. Simmons, Cleveland, y:
NY Dear Sir: Your favor OF the 18th
instant, calling nay atteatiOn TO what you
! characterize as serious errors In the
| circular recently issued by the Treasury
Department, reached here duIiug my alb
sence. aud / embrace the first Opportunity
after my return to acknowledge It.
The statement in the circular to which
you refer 10 as follows:
POINTS TO BE EXPLAINED.
The act OF April 2, 1872. established
the first monetary system in the United
States. The basis of the system were
the gold dollar or unit, containing 2475
grains OF pure golI, AMI stamped In pieces
of $40, So and 50 60, deDominated, re-
spectively, eagles. haifeasles and quarter
eagles: the silver dollar or unit, contain
ing 37l.25 grains OF pure silver.
"A mint was established. The coinage
was unlimited and there was no mint
charge. The ratio OF gold TO silver in
coinage was l to Is. Both gold and
silver were legal tender. TIE standard
was double, land you say the free coinage
advocates point to these mistakes and
claim that they are Intentionally Iugged
III 10 prove that the unit OF value established
by this government was gold.
UNIT OF VALUE.
II you Will re-exaIninc the statement
you will observe that rothing whatever is
said about the unit OF value or about
a standard of measure OF value, except
that the standard WAS double" meaning.
Of course. that the legal stan ndard was based
ON both gold and silver.
/ am unable to discover any error in the
statement. II 2IT.50 grains OF pure gold
constitutes $40, or units IL is evident
that 2i..5 grains of pure gold must consti-
trte one unit" The 2i-15 grains of pure
gold Coustitut ed a gold unit, and the 81 .25
grains Of pure silver constituted silver
unit and the dollar was the unit, whether
was composed Of gold or silver.
The unit is merely the name or denonina-
tion of the coin used in computation and in
keeping accounts, and if Congress had seen
proper to II AXE the dime the unit instead nf
the dollar, il would not have changed the
actual of legal value OF the coins to any ex-
tent whatever
ITS ONLY EFFECT.
The only effect OF such provision would
have been that instead OF counting in dol
iars and fractions of dollars as we now do,
we would have counted in dimes and frac-
tions OF dimes; that is, instead OF saying
-.one COLLAR or "one dollar and taif.''
we would have said ten dines,'' or "fif
teen dimes
The franc. worth a little over nineteen
cents, is the unit in rance, and tie mark.
worth about twent y-four cents, is the unit
,G Germany, no matter whether the franc
or tie mark IS represented by coin or by
paper. but, Notwithstanding the fact that
their unit is much smaller than ours,
and, therefore. much less valuable. their
standard of value is as high as ours
The defect in- tie reasoning OF our free
silver friends on this subject Is that they
constantly confuse the unit of account
with the standard or measure OF value.
they are entirely different things. and have
no necessary connection with each other.
ORIGIN OF.rHE TERMS.
The words unit of value were never
used II the col Image la W OF the United States
until February L., 1873, and then they
were applied 10 the gold dollar containing
- 81 grains of pure gold, or 25.s grains
of standard gold. The fact that tits
quantity OF gold is not now coined into d
s.ngle piece is wholly IInmaterial. That
quantity OF gold constitutes a standard
Dr measure OF value for our collar, and
,7nen men contract for ayment in doiiars
hey mean collars equal iE.value 10 25-S
grains of standard gold.
The authors OF the act Of 1892 estab-
iished, legally. two standards a gold
standard and a silver standard, but, IN
fact both of them could not be continually
used AT tie same time. AS long as 3T1.25
grains OF pure silver Were actually equal
in value 10 2l.75 grains OF pure gold
there WAS, in fact, but ore standard, al
,nough represented by two metals, but
when these quantities OF gold aud silver
ease to he equal TO each ether in value,
one or the other necessarily disappears as
standard. That is Just what happened
and gold went out of Circulation; silver
became the actual standard, and SO re-
until after the passage Of the acts
OF 1884 and 1897.
The effects or the two acts OF 1884 and
s37 wa to change the ratio between gold
md silver from 151, to 1888 to /, (com-
monty called l6 tn >. and the IesJlt Of
his change was that silver went out OF
circulation because it was undervalued in
the n W. and gold TOOK its p!aceand teccJne
he ac.ual standard OF value from that
inIe on. Very truly. yours.
j. q. CARLISLE.