The advocate and Topeka tribune. [volume], November 23, 1892, Page 3, Image 3

About The advocate and Topeka tribune. [volume] (Topeka, Kan.) 1892-1894

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be drawn by the secretary, countersigned by the comptroller, and registered by the
register.
Q. I ask the general question whether any money can be paid out or received
into the treasury without the warrant going tnrougn your officer a. n cannot.
Q. You keep all accounts of the government, do you not, where money, or
bonds, or anything which relates to the financial condition of the government is
concerned? A. Yes, sir.
Q. When was the register's office established? A. At the beginning of the gov
ernment, by the act of 1789.
Q. When was the secretary's office aa a warrant division established? A. The
secretary always isauea tne warrants, uut x tnin& me warraub uivituou as ii now
exists is of recent origin.
Q. Can you give us the time? A. I cannot without looking it up; I think
about 1870.
The constitution, article 1, section 9, clause 7, provides that " no money shall be
drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law, and
regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money
shall be published from time to time," and it is by law the duty of the register to
keep all accounts of receipts and expenditures of publio money, and of all debts
due to or from the United States. ' In view of these provisions, surely the secretary
of the treasury has no right to order the register to change his reports after they
have been officially made to congress by former registers and secretaries.
(To be continued.
MONETAE! COMfflSIOff.
Beport of the United States Monetary
Commission, Appointed by Act of Con
gress August 15, 1876.
NO. XXI.
Recent fluctuations in relative value of gold
and silver.
As this branch of the investigation ap
- pertains especially to the probabilities of
future steadiness in the value of silver,
a resume of the facts connected with the
recent panicky changes in the relative
value of gold and silver would seem
. to be necessary, in order to form a cor
rect judgment as to whether there is any
cause to apprehend their recurrence in
the future. On the one hand it may be
said that the possibility of such changes,
proved by the actual fact of silver hav
ing been sold in London at 46 pence in
gold per ounce, is sufficient to impair
confidence in its future steadiness. On
the other hand, it may be said that the
divergence in the relative value of the
metals was wholly due to a rise in gold.
A comparison of general prices in 1873,
when the German demonetization of sil
ver went into effect, with present prices,
will show that the purchasing power of
both metals has increased, and gold
more than silver, to the full extent of
the divergence. But even if it were due
equally to a rise in the value of one
metal and a fall in the other, or entirely
to a fall in silver, it may be demon
strated that it can not be other than
temporary, and that the concurrence of
the causes producing it can never again
be possible.
The relative value of silver and gold
of 15 to 1 which is equivalent to G0
pence in standard gold for an ounce of
standard silver had not varied in the
London market very materially, or for
any great length of time, during this
century, until 1875.
The average quotation during 1875
sunk as low at 58 pence.
During 1876 the range of fluctuation
in the London market in each month
was as follows:
January 664 64
Februaiy MS 63
March 64 52S4
April 64 63'4
May 64 62
June 63 60
July 6i H 4Vi
AUJtUit 531 60
September 62 16 61 H
October 63i
November 65
December K
62
634
63
In their circular of January 4,1877,
reviewing the business of 1876, Pixley &
AbelL bullion brokers in London, state
that on the 8th of July there was 44 an
exceptional sale at I6.n Such a quo
tation is of no more value than the max
ixanm gqld quotation of Black Friday ia
New York.
The causes which, in eonourrenoe,
yxoduoad the fluctuations in the relative
yalme ! gold and silver wbith fulmi
nated in July, 1876, were
First The demonetization of silver,
by Germany in 1871, by the United
States in 1873 and 1874, and by the Scan
dinayian states in 1874; the limitation on
the coinage of silver imposed by France,
Belgium, Switzerland and Italy in 1874
the closure of the Holland mint against
the coinage of silver on private account
in April, 1375; the refusal of Switzerland
in 1875, to coin silver at all, and in the
summer of 1876, by authority given to
and actually exercised by the president
of the French republic, the suspension
of the silver eoinage altogether; the
Spanish royal decree (1876) closing the
mint of that kingdom against private
depositors, and delaring the purpose of
that government to demonetize it for all
sums exceeding $28 at the earliest prac
ticable moment; and the submission
(1876) to the Dutch legislative chambers
of a ministerial project of demonetizing
silver in Holland, and of extending to the
mint in Java the restriction against
coinage for individuals already imposed
(April, 1875) upon the mint in Holland
Second A serious decline, for the
time being, in the India demand for
silver.
Third An increase in the production
of silver in the United States, considera
ble in fact, but the effect of which was
immensely increased by exaggerations,
and by the persistent error that the
yield of the Comstock lode was wholly of
silver, when it was really about one-half
gold.
Foarth The summary suppression by
Germany of $130,000,000 of bank notes
and the consequent demand for gold to
take their place.
Fifth A law of the United States,
enacted in 1875, ordaining a resumption
of payments in gold January 1, 1879, and
thus menacing the world with another
enormous demand for that metal.
In respect to the effect of the last two
facta, it may be observed that the British
resumption of gold payments in 1821
raised the value of gold relatively to sil
ver 5 per cent, although at that time all
other countries had either the double
standard or the silver standard, and
there was, therefore, no such competition
for gold as exists now. If the circum
stances existing then had been similar
to those existing to-day, England either
could not have resumed payments in
gold at all, or would have caused a much
greater disturbance of the relation of the
metals by such resumption.
Upon this enumeration of the causes
of the recent divergence in the relation
of gold and silver, it may be safely con
cluded that they will never exist again
concurrently. At certain periods there
may occur a great increase or decrease
in the yield of either or both of the
precious metals from the mines; or at
certain intorraij thare may occur mone
tary crises and stagnations in commerce
and industry. It is always possible that
governments may tamper with their
money standards, or may suspend or
limit the coinage of either gold or silver.
Each and all of these circumstances
would have a greater or less effect upon
the value of the precious metals, relative
or otherwise. Overmastering exigencies
sometimes compel national suspensions
of specie payments, and neither national
suspensions nor resumptions can occur
without a perturbing effect upon the
value of the precious metals relatively to
other things, nor without such effect
upon their relative value, if the countries
suspending or resuming have their
money standards baBed on a single metal
But it is not probable, nor scarcely pos
sible, that all the causes of a divergence
between the metals which have been
operative in the recent case can ever
again be acting simultaneously and in
one direction within any period which
need be covered by the foresight of legis
lation. There is an equal chance that
all these causes may operate hereafter
simultaneously in the other direction
and if it be wise to legislate against re
mote contingencies, gold should bo de
monetized as well as silver.
The tendency of the two metals to re
turn to their old relation, or of silver to
recover from its fall, if the latter mode of
expression is to any persons more ac
ceptable, was manifest very soon after
the silver panio of last J uly, and has
made a degree of progress which tends to
confirm the belief that, in any event, the
full recovery of the old relation may be
relied upon. The partial recovery actu
ally realized, while the causes of the
widening of the relation of the metals
still continue active, proves the existence
of great forces always at work to steady
the relation. No mints closed to silver
have been opened to it; no law demone
tizing silver has been repealed; no threat
of demonetizing it has been withdrawn
and the supply of silver from the mines
continues undiminished, although some
of the exaggerations concerning it have
been corrected. Nothing has been done
by our government since July, 1876, to
raise the gold price of silver, except the
continuance of the coinage of subsidiary
silver, authorized and commenced long
before, under the resumption act of Jan
uary, 1875. The influence of this demand
has been more than offset by supplies
from the increased sales of silver by the
German government since last summer.
The gold price of silver has advanced
since July, 1876, not by the aid of gov
ernments, but from its own inherent
strength. Its value rests securely on
the magnitude of the existing stock, its
universal diffusion, and the universal
demand for it by the people of all coun
tries, and especially by the teeming pop
ulations of the east.
Jevons, who advocates the gold stand
ard for Europe, said two years ago
(Money and Exchanges, page 142):
The hundred! of millions who Inhabit India
and China and other parts of the eaitern and
tropical regions, emplo? a silver currency, and
there Is ni the least rear that they will make
any suddm change in their hablu. Although
the pouring out of forty or fifty millions sterling
cf silver from Germany mar for som years do
press the price of th metal, lc can be gradually
absorbed without difficulty by the eastern na
Uons. which have for two or three thousand
years received a continual stream of the pre
cious me'als from Europe. If other nations
h"uld. one after another, demonellzs si' ver. yet
the east may be found quite able to absorb all
that is thrust npoa It, provided that this be not
dons too rapidly
In Asia, as elsewhere, the demand for
money, in the sense of desire for it, is
unlimited and insatiable. Undoubtedly
the effective demand of Asia is limited
to its capacity to pay for silver, but this
guarantee of the value of silver, which is
its money, is nothin short of the entire
mass of the disposable commodities of
the Asiatic world. It is didrult to see
how any amount of silver which Europe
has left, whether thrown upon Asia
" rapidly " or otherwise, can have any
thing beyond the most transient influence.
The evidence on this branch of the
subject all goes to establish the con
clusions that the Asiatic .demand alone
will be sufficient, within a comparatively
short period of time, to absorb the sur
plus stock of silver in Europe and over
take the current supply and place silver
at its old relation of value to gold, and
that, if the United States should re
monetize it, the practical resumption
of specie payments could not be more
than fairly begun before the old equiva
lency between the metals would be re
stored. It is apparent that the current
supply of silver is too nearly stationary,
and the surplus European stock too
nearly exhausted, to resist much longer
the appreciating effect of the old and
continuing demand from the east But
it this old demand were reinforced by
the new, great and increasing demand of
the United States, as it would be if
specie payments were resumed and silver
remooetized in this country,, the relative
value of the metals would be almost in
stantly restored.
The opportunity to obtain silver, be
fore the disposable Earopean stock is
entirely transferred to the east, ought to
be seized upon by the United States. If
it is lost by an indecisive and procrasti
nating polioy, no equally favorable op
portunity is likely ever to present itself
again. Asia never gives up silver. There
is no reflux in the current of silverwhicu
setsjto the east If this country waits
until Europe is exhausted, it may be
come as difficult to obtain silver for cob
payments as it is now to obtain gold tor
that purpose.
THE POLICY OP" REMONETIzma SILVIB
CONSIDERED IN REFERENCE TO THX
BIGHTS, DUTIES AND SPECIAL IN
TERESTS OP THE UNITED
STATES.
Summary of the monetary lata of the
united, states.
In 1785, the congress of the United
States, under the Articles of Confedera
tion, adopted the silver dollar aa the unit
of money. On the 2d of April, 1792, con
gress, in the law establishing a mint,
enacted that "The money of the United
States shall be expressed in dollars
or units." the dollar "to be of the
value of the Spanish milled dollar, as
the same is now current,'' and contain
3714 grains of pure silver. The same
act fixed the weight ot pure gold in the
eagle at 217.5 grains, or 24.75 grains of
gold to the dollar, which made fifteen
pounds of coined silver equivalent in all
payments of one pound of coined gold.
In 1834, the weight of pure gold in the
eagle was reduced to 232 grains, and, as
no change was made in the silver dollar,
the equivalency between gold and silver
became 16.045 of silver to 1 of gold. In
1837, the quantity of alloy in both the
gold and silver coinage was changed, so
as to make the coins ot both metals nine
tenths fine. The quantity of pure silver
in the dollar was not changed, but the
quantity of pure gold in the eagle was
increased to 232.2 grains, so that the
equivalency between gold and silver be
came 15.988 of silver to 1 of gold. Since
1837 no change has been authorized in
the weight or purity of metal in either
the gold or silver dollar. It will thns be
seen that in the whole history of the
United States the weight of pure silver
in the silver dollar has never been
changed, while the weight ot pure gold
in the gold dollar has been changsd
twice.
Gold and silver have, been monsy is
this country since its first settlement, by
force of the English common law, aa!
(Coniinuid on peg ia,)