The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-11-02


| fury, when its demand for bullion to
coin twice failed to raise the price but
per cent.
In 1860, the bullion in silver dollars
was worth $l.03 in gold and the gold
| dollar, measured by silver, was depre-
| ciated per cent Our minis were open
to the free coinage Of gold as well as of
silver. Did our demand for gold to coin
raise the price of gold to par with sill
yer? Although the worlds stock OF
gold is much smaller than its stock of
silver, and although it was only neces-
sary to raise it's price per cent, we
could not accomplish it,
This lasted from 1884 to 1860 and down
to 1873 The price of gold bullion was
not raised the per cent, and being the
cheaper currency, it drove the silver
out of circulation. And as no silver
dollars had been in circulation for over
thirty-five years, in 1878, after full de-
bate, this coin was omitted from our
coinage list.
In 1892, under the ratio of Is to 1, lin
force at that time) the bullion in a gold
dollar was worth three cents more than
the silver dollar; and the silver dollar
measured by gold, was deprecated
per cent. Silver being the cheaper,
drove gold entirely out of circulation
for more than forty years, i. e.. until
1884, when the government changed the
ratio from Is to / to 16 to /, with the eff
feet seen above.
In 1860 we were a nation of over thir-
ty millions of people, and had no silver
on hand. Now we are a nation of about
seventy-fve millions of people, but
have 49S000,000 of silver dollars on
handful. S. Treasurer's report, Octo-
Der 1, 19OO)
If, with all our power in 1860 we were
unable to raise the bullion value of
gold but per cent, how can we expect
to raise the bullion value of a still
larger quantity of silver not merely 3
per cent, but more than sixteen times
3, i. e., 40 per cent
If, with over thirty million of people
In 1860, we had been able to raise the
bullion value of gold just per cent. to
par then, being two and half times
as great a people now as we were then,
we might expect to raise the bullion
prices of silver two and a half times as
high that is 7 1-2 per cent, but how
could we expect even then to raise it's
price not IL per cent alone, but more
than six times Z 1-2 per cent, /. e., 40
per cent?-especially when the only
power we have to raise it with is our
demand for silver dollars, and that de-
mand is already supplied to the extent
of $49S, 900 600?
How futile any such expectation
must prove seems apparent.
Yet the price of the worlds stock of
silver is nearly doubled, the price of
bullion must, as we have seen, inevita-
bly, pull the value of the silver dollar
down, as bullion would be coined as
long as there was profit /. e., till the
values met.
At the present rate two such silver
dollars would be worth less than $1.02
in gold; and if you owe debt of two
hundred dollars to-day, and did not pay
it till then, instead of having to pay
two hundred dollars in gold you could
pay it with two hundred silver wollars,
worth only $102 in gold. While this
might save you ninety-eight dollars In
gold would not your creditor lose nine
ty-eight dollars, nearly half his debt?
Now if you have debts out, owing to
you, and you saw that congress was
going to pass law authorizing your
debtor to pay them in fifty-one cent
dollars, would you wait until congress
passed that law or would you insist on
your debtors paying you at once in
gold Cor its equivalenD so that you
should receive the same value that you
lent him-that is one hundred gold
cents on the dollar, and not about only
one-half of it? And would you not
proceed to collect In at the earliest pos
sible moment?
In short, every man who had money
coming to him and expected silver dol
lars to depreciate, would want that |
money paid him at the earliest possible |
moment, and would proceed to collect |
it with the least possible delay; and if |
he got it, he would Immediately put it
into gold if he could, to prevent it's de- |
preciating on his hands, and as there
are but 81 ,059 900, 900 of gold coin In the |
country, including that in the United |
States treasury (by the United States |
treasury report, October l, 1900 and as
the total amount of money in circula-
ton is S2,113, 900 (same reporD 1t Is
apparent that many of those holding
bank notes and silver certificates and |
silver dollars would be unable to get |
gold for them. So he must start In as
early as possible, and get in before
others, bent on the same object, and If
possible escape the crash and the crush.
The immediate effects then. of hav-
ing to face the passage of free silver
coinage bill three years hence would be-
first, a steady and ever increasing cur
tailment of credit a steady pressure to
collect all outstanding debts; and as
time progressed, more urgent and
strenuous efforts in this direction.
Business houses and other debtors
called on to pay up. would be compelled
to call on their debtors, and thus all
the debtors in the country would be
called on to pay up as expeditiously as
possible. The demands on and with
draWalS from the banks would gradual
ly compel them to call in their loans,
and if not paid, to sell or try to sell the
Debtors would be compelled to sell
their property at constantly diminish
ing prices, and where all debtors were
selling at once, the declines would be
such as we have never seen before be-
cause there has never before been such
a wholesale calling in of debts and
selling, as this would