The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-03-04

llilt u - 49, - -T-9f - d.
svsry one Of them. and \ requires No eift q
prophecy v forcsse that y must continue 20
lsil 40 long % ~ interest Constitutes CON
trolling factor ii the b1siness Affairs Of men.
without trespasying upon your patience to
review the monetary history Of other copn-
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 II was determined to adopt q
monetary system for the United States and
establish q mint, Alexander Hamilton and
Thomas jefferson, two men who dinered
widely. upon almost every public question and
whose names as founders and leaders OF their
respectiye parties will live as long as our po-
itical literature Is read agreed that in deter
mining what should BIO 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 were
statesmen and patriots, and when they were
called on to consider this great business ques-
ton affecting all the private affairs of their
fellow citizens they gave 1t thorough and
impartial investigation upon its merits, with
out regard to the effect their decision might
have upon their own political fortunes or
The "Fathers" Not Disturbed by This De-
fusion.
These great men were never disturbed FOR q
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 values of pound
of lead and 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 1t was entirely competent, IN
fact necessary, for congress to declare the ra-
ito upon which the two metals should be coined
at the mint, II they were to be coined ut all,
but they knew equally well that II the ratio SO
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 tlme
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 1872, 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 37l14 grains of fine silver and
the gold contained 24s4 grains of fine gold, but
made and that 57lL grains Of fine silver were
not in fact equal in value to 24sz grains of fine
gold, and the consequence was that, although
the difference between the value OF a silver
dollar and the value Of gold dollar was only
about one cent and one-eighth of a cent, silver
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 1854
and 1887
The fact that the silver was put into the
form of u coin and made legal tender the same
as gold, and that both dollars were declared
to DO worth 100 cents each, did not increase
the value of the 87ll4 grains Of silver to any
extent whatever. The people could not be de-
ceiyed by mere words printed in 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 1t 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 were 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 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
himself, who had then become president Of the
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 1885, 80 years afterward, and
then only 1000 Of them were issued from the
mints.
Restoration of Gold Standard In 1884.
Gold having left the country, congress, in
1884, during the administration Of Andrew
jackson, determined to restore it to the circu-
lation and, in order to accomplish that result,
the legal ratio was changed from Is to to
about 10 to THAT Is the law so amended as
to provide that the gold eagle, or $40 piece,
should contain 1872 grains Of pure gold, which
made the dollar consist of 70 Is grains, but by
the act of 1887 it was changed to 23.22 grains
which now constitutes the dollar and unit of
value. This was q slight generalization Of gold
in the coinage, because 1922 grains of fine gold
were not in fact worth as much in the mar
kets rs 3Ill4 grains o. fine silver. Although the
difference in value was very small, 1t proved
sufficient to change the whole character OF our
metallic currency, and under this ratio gold
and silver exchanged places Silver went out
of the country and gold came in and from
that time until after the passage Of the act OF
1873 we had practical gold recommendation,
except during the period Of the war, when we
had no metallic money Of any kind. When the
great civil war began, we had no silver in
circulation except the subsidiary coins author
lied by the act of 1868, but We had gold and
paper redeemable in gold and it was not long
before we had another practical illustration of
tho natural law that the inferior or less vulu-
able legal tender currency will expel the gu
perior or more valuable legal tender currency
from circulation.
Paper Currency of War Period.
~,
opinion, authorized the issue of legal tender
paper to circulate as money, ind the usual and
Inevitable result followed. Gold ceased to be
used as money and the banks and the treasury
having suspended specie payments, the coun-
try was flooded with deprecated currency
worth at times less than 80 cents on the dollar.
Later on fractional paper currency was au-
thorized by congress- and the effect of this
was to drive out Of circulation even the light
weight subsidiary coins, and for many years
not single piece Of metallic money of any
kind was used by the people except on the Pa
cihc coast, where gold continued to circulate
at Its actual intrinsic value without regard to
the fictitious value which the acts of congress
attributed to the legal tender paper.
l win endeavor to show you hereafter what
effect this deprecated currency had upon the
wages of labor and upon the prices Of com.
purchase with their wages, my purpose at the
present moment being simply to prove, by our
own experience, that 1t Is impossible to retain
in circulation at the same time legal tender
gold and silver coins Of the same denomins-
ton at any ratio which does not correspond
with the actual commercial values OF the two
metals in the markets Of the world, and that,
therefore, the free and unlimited coinage of
legal tender silver by tho United States alone
at tho ratio of 10 to l. when the true CONNER
cial ratio is about 81 to l. would instantly con-
tract the currency by the expulsion of all the
gold now in the country.
II the generalization Of silver to the amount
of q little over per cent in the coinage law OF
1872 expelled gold and established silver mono
metallism and If the generalization of gold to
the extent Of less than per cent in the acts of
1884 and 1887 expelled silver from circulation
and established gold monometallism, not the
conclusion irresistible that the free and un-N
limited coinage Of legal tender silver at the
present time at an generalization Of nearly
100 per cent, would at once place the country
upon monometallic silver basis2 This ques-
ton does not seem to mo to be open to serious
argument and when 1t Is proposed that the
United States shall, in defiance Of our own ex-
perience during II period Of 50 years and in de-
fance of the experience of other nations dur
ing many centuries, authorize the free coinage
of legal tender silver at such u ratio, 1t Is the
duty Of the people and especially the duty OF the
laboring people to pause before it is too late and
carefully consider whether they will deter
mine to overthrow their existing monetary
eyuEor, nd in it's pl1rp thp upura-