The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-02-20
NO CHANGE IN
 SILVER VALUES
 FOR TEN YEARS
Shipments Abroad Will Tend to Keep Standard At
 Present Prices.
MORE ABOUT HIGH SILVER.
 (Go1den 4 pP !

In the last previous issue of The Golden Age we gave some of the facts respecting the silver situation, but few more have come to light which we think will be of interest to our readers. We are all interested in money; it is something that every body has to handle. Most of us could handle a lot more than we do, or we think we could, anyway.
 The value of silver in a silver dol lar has been a fuctuating one. In 1862 it was worth $1.04; in 1909 it was worth but forty cents; in 1915 it was worth fifty-two cents, and in 1918 it was worth seventy-hve cents, and in 1919 it was worth $1.0S. It is not believed by fnanciers that sil- yer can fall below $1.00 an ounce for the next ten years, however, on ac- count of the extraordinary market for it in India and China
 India and China have always been a market for the silver of Western countries, because they are accus- toned to require payment of their bills in actual gold or silver coins. They have always done business that way and during the war many of them became heightened and refused to accept any other kind of money. In India the situation was so serious that the natives made a run on the Treas ury, presenting notes for redemption in silver rupees. Just then the sit ua:tion in India was so difficult for the British Government to handle that they appealed to the United States to release a part of its vast silver holdings. So the Pittman act was passed, empowering the Secretary of the Treasury to melt down and ship abroad a maximum of $35o,00O,OO0 of Amerian silver dollars. Of this amount $260, 100000 <gas melted into bullion and shipped to India. Large quantities have since been shipped to India, China and Japan. Early in December silver was being export ed to the Orient at the rate of a mil lion dollars a day, but this was stopped by the Government under law which forbids silver exports, ex- cept for the specific purpose of bal ancing exchange.
 Another reason why the price of silver is high and why there is a scarcity of coin for circulation is be- cause of the hoarding and melting that is going on in various parts of | the world, and because of the with 1 drawal of gold coin from general use. | It is hard to enforce laws forbiddi g 1 the melting of coin when the silver 1 in the coin is worth more than the 1 face value of the coin, and in Mexico | the disparity between the face value | of the dollar and it's silver content is so great that silver dollars have | practically disappeared and the Mex ican Government has had to buy 50 | per cent of the output of the. silver | mines for it's own use. The United States differs from other countries in | I1ax- Jox 10 of coins and if the price OF stIver con- | tinues to advance the silver dollar is 1 bound to disappear. In fact, the claim is freely made that many thous- I ands of silver dollars have already disappeared in that way, and more are liable to follow them.
 After the Pittman act of April, 1918 was passed, and the bullion shipped to India, the silver money left in America amounted to $26O,oo0, 900; on November 1, 1919, the total stock in the country was s2oS,145,0oo,
 which amount $156, TIA was he16 lin trust to redeem silver certificates
 which are still outstanding. On No
 vember 20, 1919, the number of fret
 silver dollars in the country, I. e.
 dollars that were not held in trus 1 to redeem silver certificates, wa
 $67,124,669. Of this amount S10,
 000,000 has been melted and mad
 up into subsidiary coin---halves, guar
 ters and dimes On December 11u the free silver dollars in stocl ) amounted to $52, 2,193.53S3. It will thu be apparent that Uncle Sam is grad ua11y running short of change. Tn
 reasons here are the same as else where-hoa oarding and melting, beside
 exporting. New York is now tn
 market
 The Government has no way c
 knowing to what extent the stock c - silver in circulation has been deplete E by private hoarding or melting, br B it does know that the withdrawal ( H silver certificates by persons wh H$ anticipate redeeming them in siIve
 dollars was so great just before tn
 holidays as to cause 2, shortage
 small bills, greatly hampered reta
 trade. Federal Reserve Bank Note
 increased from S22S, S,165.OO0 on SeI
 tenber 12, 1919, to s257,680,O0O o | November 21, to make up for silve \ certificates withdrawn from circuls E ton.
 The weight of a United States si E ver dollar is 412.5 grams, or whic ! amount 90 per cent, or 371.25 grai1 A is of pure silver. There are 4S E grains in an ounce of silver, and R S1 per ounce the silver in a silv, dollar is worth seventy-seven cent ! When the price of silver goes ar I higher than S1.2929 the dollar l gradually heading toward the me1ti1
 pot, and the higher price goes b yond that the surer the dollar is
 land in the pot. On November A silver touched $1.375 at New York The subsidiary coins or the Unit ! States do not contain the same rat \ of silver as the dollar. While new s -minted dollar contains 371.25 graf
 of pure silver, the newly minted fra
 tional currency contains only 347.
 grains, so that the value of the silv in the smaller coins is less in a dC I lars worth of them than is the s yer in a silver dollar. When silv , is s1.382S per ounce, the silver in dollars worth of subsidiary coi $ is worth just s1.o0. The reason
 making the subsidiary coins less tn t their face value was to prevent tht
 being exported or melted.
 The disappearance of the small
 coins is largely attributed to hoar