Evening star., 1923-02-18

liver, that precious metal, basis
Of coins the world over for centu
IL ries, Is fighting a battle for exist
ence. The American market is
oversupplied. Europe is either casting
i; aside or. what is worse. debasing it,
and four London brokers are absolutely
fixing its world value based on the de-
mand in China and India.
| American mining industries, it's
greatest producers, declare that the
law OF supply has been ignored in the
price fixing and. alarmed at the ap
preaching termination Of the Pitt
man act. providing for purchase of
the metal by the government to main
tain the Treasury's balance, have ap
pealed to Congress for legislation to
save the industry.
Even the American silver dollar,
which has retained its purity, despite
the upheaval in Europe. Is still in
danger, It Is declared in this appeal
which points out the demoraliZing ef-
feet which resulted several years
ago when the price of bullion eX
ceeded the value as a coin.
| Revival of the old bimetallism con-
troversy. once even a presidential is
| sue, is not beyond the bounds of the
present situation. according to some
m enbers of Congress.
DebasinE Silver Coinage.
Already Sweden, Norway and Dem
, mark have abolished silver coin for
all fractions Of the krone, substitut-
| ing an alloy of nickel and copper.
Added to this is the alarming extent
! to which the debasement of silver has
already reached. In England silver
coinage has been debased from 925 to
500 fine: the Netherlands and Dutch
Indies have debased their silver coin
| from 945 to 720 fine; Canada from 800
| to 500 fine; Honduras from 600 to 500;
San Salvador from 900 to 500; Singa-
pore or Straits dollar from 900 to 500,
first, then to $50: Mexico and Peru
have both debased their currency to
500 fine.
The chaos in Europe has swept sill
yer out of circulation in Austria, Bel
gium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Fin
land. France, Germany. Greece. Hun
gary. Italy. Jugoslavia, Poland. Por-
tugal, Rumania, Russia and Turkey
There Is no shortage in the supply
of silver. The nations of the world
have just forsaken> precious metals
as a medium of exchange fo- the
more stable m misunderstanding of
goods. manufactured and raw. Eu-
rope with its topsy-turvy exchanges
has followed suit with Germany
buying from the United States and
accepting credits in American money
rather than suffer the great losses in
currency Of their own realms during
its transmission.
The situation was brought before
the American Mining Congress several
weeks ago and committee named
to investigate is expected to urge
upon Congress the passage of a joint
resolution providing for the appoint
ment of a commission, consisting Of
two senators and two representatives,
to confer with two Representatives of
the Industry and submit recommen da-
tions.
World Supply Unknown.
There is not an unlimited supply Of
silver in the world ready for mining,
the producers have pointed out to the
Senate, who add that. the current
production of silver is not the meas
ure Of the supply and that fiscal leg
! isIation largely controls the demand"
The available world silver supply
| has never been estimated, but expe-
Irience has shown that when 1t reaches
a sufficiently high prfce--a value in
bullion in excess of its value as coin
l-enormous quantities flow from hith-
erto unknown sources.
During the high prices Of 1921 tens
OF millions of ounces Of foreign coin
were shipped to the refneries of the