Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1896-05-14

To say nothing of the gross Partially and
manifest Injustice Of such a policy, its imme-
date effect would DO 70 contract our currency
TO the extent Of about 1920, 0O0,O00 by stopping
the use OF gold as money and putting a pre-.
MUM upon the coins of that metal equal, or
about equal, &c the difference between the in,
trinsic value OF the gold dollar and the intrin-
sic value of the silver dollar. Gold coins would
at once become a commodity and would be
bought and sold by spectators in the market
Just as they were during the war, when we
had a deprecated paper currency. The value
of the silver dollar would ~iuctuate from day
to day, moving up and down with the rise and
fall of the commercial price of the bullion con-
tanned in it, as the Mexican dollar does now,
and the premium on the gold dollar would OF
course iuctuate to the same extent, thus af
fording an opportunity TO bullion brokers and
spectators TO buy and sell it at a profit. II
would cease to be used as money, because no
man would pay his debt in gold dollars or in
paper redeemable in gold dollars, worth lc
cents, when the law permitted him to pay II
In silver dollars, worth only 81 or so cents.
The sudden withdrawal of $500, 600, 600 from the
volume of currency in the country would un-
doubtedly produce a financial and industrial
disturbance far more disastrous to the inter.
ests of labor than has ever been experienced
81 Jul lASNpiyt dlih IN llAil II udS u pal y
OF sympathy for working men and women and
their dependent families can contemplate the
possibility Of such a calamity without feeling
that 1t Is his duty, whether he occupies a pub
lie or a private station, to employ every hon
orable means at his command to avert it.
While the sudden expulsion Of $500, 900 1900 in
gold from our stock OF money would itself be
sufficient to create a financial disturbance I'M
paralleled in tine history of this or any other
country the situation would be very greatly
aggravated by the fact that the purchasing
power of all the remainder of our currency
would be suddenly reduced about one-half;
we should have only about two-thirds as much
currency rs we have now, and at the same time
it would be SO deprecated in value that it
would require about twice as much as We nave
now to transact the business Of the country,
provided there should be any business to
transact.
Double Standard q Failure.
The attempt TO maintain what is called the
double standard of value-that is, to attempt
70 keep the legal tender coins of the two met
ais, gold and silver, in use as money at the
same time, upon a ratio of value fixed by law
has repeatedly been made by kings and par
liaments in every civilized country in the
world, and it has failed again and again in
every one of them, and it requires no gift of
prophecy TO fofesee that ii must continue to
fail SO long as self interest constitutes a con-
lTOill1S idClJI VI bilc buSlutSS dllalTs VI men.
Without trespassing upon your patience to
review the monetary history Of other coun-
tries in which this experiment has been made
and failed ii may be advantageous to refer
briefly to our own experience upon this sub
ject. When it was determined TO adopt a
monetary system for the United States and
establish a mint, Alexander Hamilton and
Thomas Jefferson, two men who differed
widely upon almost every public question and
whose names as founders and leaders of their
respective parties will live as long as our po-
litical literature is read, agreed that in deter
mining what should be the coinage or legal ra-
ito between gold and silver the true relative
commercial value of the two metals in the
markets of the world must first be ascertained.
and that this relative value, when ascertained,
should be incorporated into the statute as the
basis of the proposed system of coinage. AL
though they were party leaders, they We're
statesmen and patriots, and when they wers
called ON to consider this great business ques-
tion affecting all the private affairs of their
fellow citizens they gave it a thorough and
impartial Investigation upon its merits, with
out regard to the effect their decision might
have upon their own political fortunes or
upon the political fortunes of their followers.
The Fathers" Not Disturbed by This De-
fusion.
These great men were never disturbed for a
moment by the delusion that congress could
fix by statute the actual or relative values Of
gold and silver any more than it could fix by
statute the actual or relative value of a pound
of lead and u pound of iron. They knew that
gold and silver, like all other exchangeable
things, are commodities and that their value
will be fixed in the markets OF the world.
They knew that it was entirely competent. in
fact necessary, for congress to declare the ra-
ito upon which the two metals should be coined
at the mint, if they were to be coined at all,
hat thou Gpaty anr1al1y Xvall that ~ tho ratio an
declared did not correspond substantially with
the ratio which the commercial world had es-
tablished, the coins of the two metals could
not be kept in use as money at the same time,
and consequently, as / have already said, they
determined to ascertain the commercial ratio
and to adopt it. They reached the conclusion
that the true commercial ratio at that time
was Is to THAT is, that Is ounces of silver
were equal in value to | ounce of gold and
accordingly the act of 1892, which was our first
coinage law, authorized the coinage of the two
metals at that ratio.
At the ratio thus established the silver dol.
lar contained 37l4 grains of fine silver and
the gold contained 24A grains of fine gold, but
it was soon discovered that a mistake had been
made and that 37lA grains Of fine silver were
not in fact equai in value TO 24A grains Of fine
gold, and the consequence was that, although
the difference between the value of a silver
dollar and tho value of a gold dollar was only
aDCub one cent anu ODe-SlSuln Oh u CcIt, SllVeT
drove gold out of use and out of the country,
and from that time we had silver monometal-
lism until after the passage of the acts of 1884
and 1887.
The fact that the silver was put into the
form of q coin and made legal tender the same
as gold, and that both dollars were declared
to be worth 100 cents each, did not increase
the value Of the 2gl14 grains Of silver to any
extent whatever. il people could not be de-
ceived by mere words printed in a statute;
they soon learned that the metal contained
in the silver dollar was not equal in value
to the metal contained in the gold dollar
and they paid silver to their creditors and
boarded the gold or sent it out of the coun-
try. Even our new and full weight silver
coins would not circulate or remain in the
country, because congress, by various acts,
made certain foreign coins legal tender in the
payment of debts, and as they We're generally
SO worn by abrasion as to be of less weight
than the new domestic coins they drove our
dollars and half dollars, and to a large extent
our quarters and dimes also, out of use as
money. Our own coins were exported and used
at their bullion value in making purchases
and paying debts abroad, and Mr.. jefferson
United States, issued an order ON the first day
of May, 1906, stopping the coinage of silver
dollars at our mints. No more silver dollars
were coined until 1880. 80 years afterward. and
then only LOCO Of them were issued from the
mints.
Ra~<cvation ~ Gold Staudard Tn pa4l