5 88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to dispose of; the Bank of France has one hundred and forty odd 

 millions in its vaults, that is a source of great present disquietude ; 

 England has a fair stock, and as creditor of India is likely to become 

 the holder of much more ; she is deeply interested in seeing the price 

 of silver sustained, and would be very grateful for relief from any 

 quarter. It is from these sources the silver would flow if the United 

 States should decide to assume the function of pulling chestnuts for 

 the entire commercial world, and these are the men who would profit 

 by remonetization provided that step should have the effect on the 

 price of silver that is claimed for it. But the assumption that it 

 will bring the gold and silver dollar upon a par is entirely unwar- 

 ranted. 



The Monetary Commission, of which Mr. Jones was chairman and 

 Mr. Bland a member, are at great pains to show, in their report, that, 

 owing to the magnitude of the stocks of silver and gold in the world, 

 the value of the precious metals cannot be visibly affected by current 

 production; that no current supply was ever yet sufficiently great to 

 affect the value of the metals except slowly and by almost imper- 

 ceptible degrees. This may or may not be so, but it is a little curious 

 to note that the same gentlemen who in their report maintained that 

 the effect of an annual supply of $65,000,000 or $70,000,000 would have 

 no appreciable effect on the price of silver, are now gravely arguing 

 that an annual demand of say $25,000,000 the utmost capacity of our 

 mints would at once enhance the price by 10 per cent. Here they 

 forget the insignificance of the amount in comparison with the enor- 

 mous accumulated stock of the world. 



A further decline in the price of silver is far more probable than 

 an advance, and it is only because the old silver dollar is worth but 

 90 cents, and likely to be worth less rather than more, that it is so 

 loudly clamored for. The avowed object of its restoration is to re- 

 lieve those who have debts to pay. 



Neither in motive nor in method does this differ from the dis- 

 reputable frauds of the feudal princes who adulterated their coins 

 that they might pay their debts more easily. Both the act and its 

 consequences are identical. The image and the superscription of the 

 monarch lied in the older example : in the modern instance the image 

 and the superscription are no less lying ones. And the consequences 

 will in no wise differ. Henry VIII. was enabled to cheat his creditors 

 in precisely the same unscrupulous way that is proposed for the 

 United States to cheat theirs, by paying them in coins of diminished 

 value ; and the losses he entailed upon his subjects far exceeding his 

 own gains were precisely those we should suffer. All creditors are 

 placed in the position of the creditors of the swindling government. 

 Debtors are indiscriminately benefited at the expense of creditors. 

 To pay the public debt in a depreciated currency, whether it can be 

 done legally or not, is to weaken if not destroy public faith. If they 



