The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-08-12
LITTLEEIELD,s IGNORANCE.
fAnaconda standard.l


Mr. Littlefield of Maine is making cam
paign speeches. In one If his most re-
cent addresses he essayed TO treat GER
tain phase of the silver question The
synopsis which we find in the Boston
Herald indicates that Mr. Littlensid
would do we'll to confine himself TO the
constitutional law involved in the au-
mlnistratiOn'S foreign policy and let the
complex money question alone unUl ne
has learned more about it. He was re-
plying 10 statement made the previous
day by a Democratic speaker that the
ratio OF is to 1 was the proper ratio be-
cause that is the proportion TO each other
in which the Almighty had placed them
IN the earth. Upon this point Mr. Little
Held IS reported as saying: Mr.. FRANK
must have had conference with the
Almighty. If Mr.. Frank really speaks
from authority. why is it that silver has
been mined all these years thirty-tWo
times as fast as gold?"
Mr.. Franks statement was foolish
one, and shows rather superficial
knowledge OF the subject but Iittlefeid's
IS worse. There is no way of determining
IN what proportion the two metals occur
IN nature, because their relative produc-
ton Is continually changing. During the
last century II has run all the way from
four or i've ounces of silver to one OF
gold, up to fOrty-five or fifty ounces of
silver TO one of gold And yet. if we
lump the world S production, as Indicated
by the accommodations of coin. until with
In the last five or six years the statistics
showed just about sixteen times as much
weight of silver as of gold This. how
ever, has had very little to do with the
maintenance of that ratio. During the
whole period referred to until the war
fare upon silver began. the prevailing ra-
ito was that of France and the other
states of the Latin union, which, as is
well known, was and is l512 to l. And this
ratio was steadily maintained in the face
Of the most radical changes of relative
production.
At the present time. according to the
United States mint reports, the guam
tity of silver in the form of coin is prob
ably n0t-InOre than eleven or twelve times
that of the gold coin. The quantity of
either metal in the world is something
that no authority would attempt to de-
termine with eXactneSS- Nor Is it a mat
ter that is especially important, save as
an approximate statement VIII show the
absurdity of the idea of the United
States being flooded with silver under
free coinage.
If we take the five years ending with
1885, we find that the production has been
a little less than sixteen ounces Of sill
yer to one ounce of gold. The production
of gold is gaining upon that of silver
right along, in 1898 the silver exceeding
the gold less than twelve to one by
much less. 1t is doubtful if the output
Of silver was much if anything more than
eleven times that of gold.
So, upon what Mr.. Littlefield bases his
assumption that silver has been or is be-
ing mined thirty-twO times as fast rs
gold, it is rather difficult to see. Prob
ably he took IL for granted that his hear
erS knew no more about the subject than
he did, and that away down in Maine.
ANY old thing in the way of a state
ment or assumption would stand as a
complete REPUTATION Of the contentious of
the silver lunaticS. F"