Evening star., 1896-08-24
Coinage Problems.
To the Editor Of The Evening Star:

To the Editor OF The Evening Star:
A correspondent whom you quote in your
Issue of August 1S, under the above head
ing, writes that the advocates of free COIN
age believe that the present low price Of
silver is entirely due to adverse legislation
and that this must also be the belief of
those who hold that united action by the
civilized nations of the world could MAIN
tain silver at parity with gold at 16 to L.
Perhaps that is not exactly the belief of
honest-dollar men: the latter do not believe
that even the united action of the world
can make 53 cents worth of silver equal to
100 cents worth. What they would prefer
II a change must be made is that the
whole civilized world should join in the
experiment, and so divide the inevitable
loss among, say 460.O00.OO0 of people in
stead of making 7O,OOO00O of Americans
shoulder all Of it.
Your correspondent also intimates that it
Is only an assumption, and is one of the
points at issue, that the fall in the price
of silver is due to overproduction From
the first table, on page 81 of The Evening
Star Almanac for 1890. it will be found that
the excess in the worlds production of sill
yer over gold between 1873 and 1884 was
nearly twelve and one-half millions Of
dollars per annum, which in the previous
similar period, say, from 1855 to 1S7I the
production of silver was less than that of
gold by S14,OOO0O per annum. That is to
say, relative deficiency of S74UgLsW a
year was reversed to an excess of $4,000
600. and yet some people affirm that it is
only an assumption that the fall in price
should be attributed to ovarproduction.
Your correspondent also refers to the
discovery of gold in California and Aus
tralia, and says that no slump resulted in
the gold market in consequence. But why
should 1t, with no chance of accumulation
here? Let us limit ourselves to our own
case: When gold was discovered in Cali
fornia the United States was cursed by an
acute periodical attack Of British free
trade, which required the e$portation of
more than all the gold we could dig. in
order to pay off the balance of trade
against us. In few years more the war
came; after that the partial payment of
our war debt, and in the meanwhile several
other uses were found for the precious
metals besides that of coinage
He also points out that the ratio in the
values of gold and silver has not changed
by equal step with the production of The
two metals. But the vagaries of the money
market cannot be expected to follow a hard
and fast rule; the very paper which con-
tains your correspondents remarks tells of
a further fall in silver, but rise in whaat
and cotton (Which, by the way, is contrary
to one of Mr.. Harvey Coins fundamentnl
laws of last year,. The fact remains how
ever (see page 1T6 of the World Almanac
for 1S9o) that our government increased
the annual purchases of silver from a
couple of million ounces in 1873 and "a To
over 1l,O0O,O0O in 1891 and 92, with q res,,lt
the very opposite of what was promised
for. In spite of that largely increased and
purely artificial demand, which should have
raised the price, our slippery friends. the
silver kings. increased the production of
their mines by more than equal step and
brought about the present slump" as YOUR
correspondent calls it. We have paid
heavily for our experience, and yet we are
solicited by silver men who feeced us be-
fore to go still further in the same direc-
ton and make the purchase of their ex-
elusive goods free and unlimited! NICK.