Evening star., 1917-09-25
S|LVER'SADVANCE
AWAR-T|ME FREAK
White Metals Jump In Price
Touches Remotest Corners
of the Globe.
SOME OF THE CAUSES

When Joseph e. Ralph, director of
the bureau of engraving and printing.
told a Senate committee the other day
that the government might soon be
compelled to revert to the shin
plasters." or fractional currency, of
civil war time. he touched upon a sit
uation that has become one of the most
interesting financial phenomena of the
world war.
We're 1t not for the Presidents proc
lamation Of an embargo on both gold
and silver. the United States might
face even now the extremely embar-
RAISING problem of seeing the bullion
in its silver coins jump above the face
value. This would be annoying. to
say the least. Holders of silver cer
tificates would have a perfect right to
ask for their redemption in silver coin
and then sell the coin at an advanced
price for bullion.
Even If that did not happen 1t might
be possible for silver to become scarce,
and If the demand also were light for
It to remain below face value and yet
not be available in quantities large
enough to coin enough silver money
to meet the demands Of war time.
q. s. Pays Record Price.
Treasury officials believe neither of
these possibilities Is imminent. So far
the government has had no difficulty in
getting silver. and though 1t has been
compared with prices of recent years,
1t has obtained plenty Of it, and now
has a good store on hand.
But the price has jumped high
enough. and there are such radical rev.
olutions in the demands in all four
| quarters Of the globe for silver that
no one may Be quite sure what will
happen next
Yesterday the price of silver in New
York was s1.1sk cents an ounce. That
means there was yesterday 90.1 cents
worth of bullion in a silver dollar. The
ratio is slightly less in subsidiary coin
that is. in half dollars, quarters and
dimes.
Highest Point Since 1885.
While that 9o.1 cents still leaves
nearly a ten-cent margin before up
setting our silver money scheme, it
marks the highest point in actual value
the silver dollar has reached since
1885. Even in the heydays Of silver,
back in the early nineties. when Bryan
| nations fiscal ideal. silver was not
quoted at s1.16h. and the average
quotation for the high silver year of
1890 was only fraction above S1o4.
of silver was 55.3; for 1915, SIS cents.
To reach the point where the silver in
dollar would be worth more than
the face value of the coin silver would
have 20 exceed s1.29 an ounce, in re-
lation to our silver dollars, or S13s an
ounce in relation to our silver coin.
In 1877 silver was worth S1.20 an ounce,
while in 1875 it was worth $1.24 an
ounce.
These prices prevailed of course, be-
fore the development of the great sill
yer mines of this country and Mexico.
the two countries which give the world
most of it's gold.
War Turns World Upside Down.
Financiers say they could foresee no
condition short of an exhaustion of the
worlds supply which would induce
silver to perform its present antics,
except, of course, this war, which has
turned the world upside down in so
many ways. Lord Northcliffe remarked
when in this country that the thing
about the war that staggered his i'm
agination was not the miles of battle
fronts. the millions of men on the fight
ing line. nor the immense industrial
machinery needed to keep the war go
n
affected every last living person on
the globe. from the Eskimo, who won
ders why there is SO sudden a demand
for the oil he loves to eat. to the semi
Sarbarous African. who wonders why
such huge gifts are being bestowed
upon him to do more than his erstwhile
share of game killing. Tracing the
reasons for the rise in silver presents
labyrinth that reaches from far away
India down to the German intrigues in
Mexico. and from the preparation of
our own soldiers to fight for world de-
mocracy to the other side of the globe
in Japan and China.
some of these causes as outlined by
Treasury officials follow:
Governments are "gra bling" their
gold and holding on to it, Meanwhile
the public, on both sides of the great
battle lines. is boarding silver, needed
in trade. Especially is this true in the
central powers, where paper money
labors under a growing suspicion of the
inability of the governments to back it
up. There are reports that Germany.
to save her gold. has demonetized it,
her paper money is becoming literally
scraps of paper" and the people are
garnering the only substantial coin
left-silver. In all European nations
except Spain silver production is neg
ligible, but silver money has been
much more widely used than in the
United States. Therefore the demand
for our silver to make continental coin
has been increased.