Tombstone epitaph., 1919-12-28
HIGH SILVER MAY MEAN MELTING POT


 This fact very little to the arevage American Even when he is told that silver worth but IS cents back in 1914 and that the present price is nearly three times that figure. he is not perturbed.
 But there is unusual element in this The silver dollar which is used as currency this country worth metal than money when silver goes above $1.29. When an individual may take hundred silver dollars and melt them and sell the resulting metal for than hundred dollars there to be peo pie here and there who will go into the dollar melting business As matter of fact there no law to interfere with the melting of silver coin. Anybody who has dol lar and wants to melt 1t may do so.
 So il appears that if silver goes much higher ther" will be the danger of large industry growing out of dol larncng. If such an industry develops it IS obvious that silver coin will rapidly disappear from crc,laton If the government attempts to replace it the result will be but to increase the material from which the melter may make profit. Sooner or later the end of the silver supply of the United States would be reach ed and then when the coin is melted. there would be to take it's place.
 This is theoretically what would happen when sl- yer goes ahoue $1.30 $l29 to be Of the price would need be several that amount to pay for the melting and to yield profit that worth the effort The dollars must be new. also. for old dollars have lost of their weight So it is apparent that the metal must be up S1}5 better before there will he much melting. It has not quite reached that figure yet.
 The government would not worry much if the silver dollars should be melted It has coined silver dollars for a long time It may never coin them again. It is about converted the belief that only subsidiary coins those of the fractions of dollar. should be of metal U less policy changes the old iron is destined to take
 
 But the subsidiary coin We must have Dimes and quarters and hafdollars indispensable. Were there danger of the silver meltcls getting busy subsidiary coins there would be occasion for real worry.
 il happens. however. that tine con-lnakcrs. ill the very beginning. took precauton which its exactly i'll the present situation It would be interesting know If that action from fOrcs gt by accident Any way. they put less silver in proportion to their value m to the subsidiary coins than they did into the silver dol lars. Ten dimes. four quarters. halves weigh actly the amount when they from the mint But dollar of these subsidiary weighs less than does dollar coin. While silver must be worth than $1 % affect the dollar coinage coinage.
 of fact it will have be around $1 145 or $15o to pay for the trouble take of abrasion and pay anything like worthwhile profit the melting busi ness
 So the government is not yet worrying about having its dimes and quarters melted When the point of da- reached there several lines of action possible. During the there an embargo on sil- yer. If this embargo put back the demand would be cut off and the price might tumble Then there is the possibility of prohibiting the melting of subsidiary coE This would discourage the industry. The treasury has fly replace lesser losses There is much silver ury vaults ill bullion There are vaults ill New York Philadelphia and Denver, in which gold and silver is stacked up like sacks in grainary. It is measured i'll tons. III carloads, even i'll shiploads
 To appreciate the present silver situation go back to that 4S cents i'll 1914 He fol- tow the record and find that the price has played back forth from o cents to 70 cents for 30 Never before since 1880 has silver gone above dollar ounce. Not since lS66 has 1t been to its present price, Until this the decline has been constant since the Civil war. Before the Civil war silver ranged regularly in those days from $ 30 to $1.5 It probably in those days that the present amount of 1t be put into coins thus giving them actual intrinsic value about equal to their face value.
 The present boom in the silver market is due to the demand fOI the metal in the Far East There is likewise demand from several of the European nations that have issued large amounts of paper money and anxious get metal back of 1t to steady that currency But the chief demand is from Inda China and Japan all of which are on a silver monetary basis