Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1896-09-24
SOME HARD FACTS.
THEY HIT TELLING BLOWS AGAiNSy
FREE COINAGE At IS TO /.

Secretary HOke Smith Makes One OF His
Rest Observation-Disclosures the Proposed
Free Colnsxe-Pieturos the Awful Route
We Must Travel to Reach . Silver Basis.
Would 1inally Have . Dollar Of Unoer-
tain value which Would Hamper Roth
Domestic Foreign Trade.
The Hon. Hoke Smith, secretary Of
the interior. delivered a speech in New
York on May 16 on the currency ques-
ton. It is q speech that should be read
by all who buy and sell and who vote
or have Influence with voters. 1t is as
tollowss
The people of this country make their
contracts payable in dollars They do
business in dollars. Uncertainty as to
the meaning Of the word dollar must
create doubt as to the effect Of con-
tracts and general distrust in business
Tho dollar of the United States ut
present has a distinct meaning. It IL
equivalent TO 23. % grains of pure gold.
Paper dollars are mere promises to pay
in coin. Silver dollars, while they IN
tain bullion worth only about SO cents
each, have been surrounded by safe
guards of legislation limiting the num-
Der coined and supporting them by the
credit Of the government, so that they
have been kept ON q parity with gold
dollars. Twenty Neutrality-suspicious.
hundredths grains Of gold therefore
measure the value of what is meant by
q dollar, when the term Is used for
trade here, and this has been true for
about 50 years, with the exception Of
the period during which paper dollars
were 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. Durham Of
Indiana, who had charge Of the bill.
said:
IAN objection urged against this pro-
posed change is that it gives us u gold
standard only. 80 Gentlemen talk
about q double standard Of gold and sill
yer as q thing that exists. and that we
propose to change. We have had but q
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 %. 20 grains Of
gold the advocates of silver demand its
free, unlimited and independent coinage
at the present ratio.
This is really q 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. 1t is an
effort to reach o bimetallic currency by
the free and unlimited coinage Of two
metals at a fixed ratio which places 100
cents worth Of bullion in the gold dol
Lar and 80 cents worth Of bullion in
the silver dollar.
The experience Of every country which
has attempted the free and unlimited
coinage Of two metals ut a ratio disre.
garding the commercial value of the
bullion Of each metal put into a dollar
has been the coinage and use Of the
cheaper metal and the loss as money Of
the more valuable metal. The principle
is thus expressed by Sir Isaac Gresham:
IF debased coin is attempted to be
circulated with full valued coin, all Of
the latter will disappear from circula-
ton, and the overvalued and debased
coin will alone remain, to the ruin Of
our m and business"
This indisputable doctrine vas taught
in the fourteenth century by Nicholas
Oresme and again in the sixteenth cen.
tury by Nicholas Copernicus. Coming
down to l717, Sir Isaac Newton, at that
time director Of the mint Of England,
declared:
If silver leaves the shores Of England
in crowns or In ingots, the produce Of
coins remelted, and gives place to gold.
it is because the value which the none
tary legislation assigns to it, in relation
to gold, Ia not correct"
Apply the lesson practically to our
own money. With free and unlimited
coinage Of gold and silver at the ratio Of
16 to l silver monometallism would re.
suit, and the measure Of the value of
q dollar would be 371A grains Of sill
yer, worth about l8 grains Of gold
Bnt the advocates Of silver ooinage
insist that with 871H 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 1t would be equally true Of 100
grains. or of l grain, il admitted free
and in unlimited quantities to coinage.
Indeed. If chips were admitted free and
in unlimited quantities to the privilege
Of being stamped into dollars, the chips,
before they were stamped, would be
worth ~ much a. the dollars after they
were stamped. but unfortunately the
dollars would he worth no more than
chipA
Another favorite argument Of the free
silver advocates refers to the experience
Of France. and they have claimed all
over the country that France, from 1908
to 1874. by fixing . legal ratio for the
coinage Of silver and gold tat 1bK to y,