Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1898-05-13
AS REGARDS PARITY.
ABSURD IDEAS ON THIS SUBJ
JECT DISCUSSED.
UndeA free Coinage the United States
Could Consume the Whole Annual
Surplus Product of Silver and Gold
Would he Cheapened.

make you adhere to the gold standard,
because they contend that we must re-
store parity between silver bullion and
gold bullion at the ratio OF IL to be-
fore silver can be coined into money.
There are four thousand millions OF
silver now doing duty as money, and 1t
is just as good money in the country
where 1t is used as gold is in the coun-
try where 1t is used.
But silver bullion does not sell for
as much as gold bullion in the mar
ket.
Certainly not Because there is not
as great a demand for silver to coin
into money as there is for gold to
coin into money, and consequently the
price of silver is not as great as the
price Of gold. But all the silver pro-
duced is coined into money except
what is used in the arts. There never
has been as much as twenty-five mil
lion ounces of uncoined bullion in the
world at any one time 1--WE mean bull
lion that has not been coined into
money or consumed in the arts).
Do you mean to say that there are not
hundreds of millions of silver bullion
that would be brought to our mint I'M
der free coinage?
Certainly do. There are not TWEEN
ty-five millions in the world to come
here.
Would not all the people of the world
melt up their silverware and bring it
here?
Manufactured silverware is worth
more to-day for the use to which 1t has
been put than it's money value would
be to melt up. They did not melt 1t
up in former times when silver was
just as plentiful as gold, and they
would not do it now If the bullion
rose in the market to what it was be-
fore silver was demonetized.
What do you think would be the eff
feet then upon the value of silver If
the United States should adopt free
coinage?
The probabilities are that 412k
grains of standard silver would be
worth just as much as rs $40 grains
of standard gold. There Is no reason
why it should not be, because the
United States needs more than the lit
tie surplus to use as money and which
bears down the market.
Would not the silver drive all the
gold out of the country If the mints
were opened?
No; certainly not. That is ridicu-
lous. The secretary Of the treasury
says we have about six hundred mil
lions of gold in the country, and there
are not twenty-five millions of lincoln
ed silver bullion in the world.
Would not the millions of silver coin
in the silver standard countries come
here?
Certainly not. The silver standard
countries are using all the silver coin
they have as money, and they cannot
part with their money. They do not
use gold as money, and they could not
part with their only money-silver. 1t
would break them to take as much as
two hundred millions of their money
away from them, and we need more
than that amount. When silver went
up in 1890 to S1.21 an ounce, because
they supposed We were going to adopt
free coinage in this country, did the
Asiatics give up their silver because
| they could get better price in this
country? Not at all. Silver rose there
as much as it did here, and, so far
from wanting to get rid Of their sill
yer, every country in the world was in
the market buying silver, because it
was going up.
Would that be the case IL our minis
were opened? Would every country in
the world want silver If its price went
| up?
Yes; unless you can change human
nature. Everybody buys on rising
market and tries to get rid Of what
they have on a falling market.
The gold men tell us that gold would
leave the country in case of free coin
age and we would have no money what
ever to do business with, and they say
it would leave before silver could get
here. What effect would that have.
1t would put prices down SO Violent
ly as to destroy all business. Every
foreigner would be rushing here to buy
things cheap.
But they tell us that after the gold
is all gone the silver dollars would be
worth only fifty cents. How would
that be?
If the gold was all gone and prices
were lower here than in any other part
of the world, and the silver dollar was
worth only fifty cents, you could buy
more here with fifty cents than you
could in any other country for dol
lar. Prices will find their level. The
gold could not and would not 60 until
silver came to take its place. If gold
| left to such an extent as to make sill
yer more valuable in this country than
gold is elsewhere, silver dollars would
be better here than gold dollars any
where else, and the gold dollars would
come here to find good market. Both
gold and silver go where they will buy
most. That is the law Of trade.-Sil-
| II .-I~k 4o1,v