Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1896-06-01
some HARD FACTS.
They Hit Telling Blows Against Free
Coinage at Eixteeu to One.

Thcy Hit Telling Blows Againse Free
Coinage at Sixteen to One.
Hon. Hoise Smith, secretary of the in.
terror, delivered Il speech in New York
on May 1G on the currency question,
It is speech that should be read by all
who buy and sell or who vote or have
influence with voters. 1t is as follows:
The people of this country make their
contracts payable in dollars. Uncer-
tainty us to the meaning of the word
dollar must create doubt as to the effect
of contracts and general distrustin bust.
ness. 4N
The dollar of the United States at the
present time has o distinct meaning.
1t is equivalent to 1929 grains of pure
gold. Paper dollars are mere promises
to pay il coin. Silver dollars, while they
contain bullion worth only about SO
cents each, have. been. surrounded by
Safeguards OF .legisla ton limiting the
number coinedand sdpporting them by
the credit Of the government, SO that
they have been kept on n parity with
gold dollars. Twenty-three-twen
one-hnndredths grains of gold therefore
measure the value of what is meant by
a. dollar, when the term is used for
trade here, aud this has been true for
about so years, with the exception Of
the period during which paper dollars
We're deprecated.
Upon the floor Of the house of repre-.
sentatives in 1853, when the bill was
pending which made fractional cur
rency subsidiary, Cyrus L. Dunham, of
Indiana, who had charge of the bill,
said:
can objection urged against this pro.
posed change is that it gives us gold
standard only Gentlemen talk
abouta double standard of gold and sill.
yer as thing that exists, and that we
propose to change. We have had but n
single standard for the last three or four
years; this has been and now is gold; we
propose to let it remain so and adapt sill
YER to and regulate it by gold"
| After this long experience in the use
of dollars based upon 23.22 grains of
gold the advocates of silver demand its
free, unlimited and independent coinage
at the present ratio.
This is really proposition to remove
from silver dollars the safeguards of leg.
islation which surround them, to with
draw the limit and to take from them
the support Of the government. It's an
effort to reach bimetallic currency by
the free and unlimited coinage of two
metals at q fixed ratio which places 100
cents worth of bullion in the gold dol
lar apd so cents worth of bullion in
the silver dollar.
! Theexperience of every country which
has attempted the free and unlimited
coinage of the two metals ut q ratio dis
!. .egarding the commercial value of the
bullion of each metal put into dollar
has been the coinage and use of the
cheaper metal and the loss as money of
the more valuable metal. The prin.
ciple is thus expressed by Sir Isaac
Gresham:
"1f debased coin is attempted to be
circulated with full value coin, all of
the latter will disappear from circula-
ton, and the overvalued and debased
coin will alone remain, to the ruin of
our commerce and business"
This indisputable doctrine was taught
in the 14th century by Nicholas Ores
me and again in the 10Th century by
Nicholas Copernicus. Coming down to
1717, Sir Isaac Newton, at that time
director of the mint of England, de-
clared:
eff silver leaves the shores of Eng
land in crowns or in ingots, the produce
of coins remelted, and gives place to
gold, it Is because the value which the
lation 70 gold, is not correct"
Apply the lesson practically to our
own money. With free and unlimited
coinage of gold and silver at the ratio OF
sixteen to one silver monometallisIn
would result, and the measure of the
value Of our dollar would be 371A grains
of silver, worth about 13 grains of gold.
But the advocates Of silver coinage
insist that with 371M grains Of silver
admitted in unlimited quantities to the
mints for coinage, free of charge, the
bullion. value of this number of grains
would necessarily be equal, before coin
age, to the. coined dollar. This is true,
and it would be equally true of 100
grains, or of one grain, If admitted free
and In unlimited quantities to coinage.
Indeed, if chips were admitted free and
in unlimited quantities to the privilege
if being stamped into dollars. the chips,
before they were stamped. would be
worth as much as the dollars after they
were stamped, but unfortunately the
dollars would be worth no more than
chips.
Another favorite argument Of the free
silver advocates refers to the experience
of France, and they have claimed all
over the country that France, fran 1903
to 1874, by fixing a legal ratio for the
coinage of silver and gold lat fifteen
and one-half to one), kept the CONNER
cial ratio between the two metals at the
same figures. This inaccurate state
1nent hna beer one of their Drincipal