THE FARMKR AND TIIK CURRENCY. 365 



except by some demagogue who hopes to win favor from the 

 ignorant. At any rate I decline to consider it as a debatable 

 question or include it as a " question of the day." 



Secondly, in the event of the adoption of free coinage of 

 silver, is tlie United States to stand pledged, as it is now, to 

 maintain all silver coined by it at a ratio of sixteen to one 

 with gold ? This question, so far as I know, lias never been 

 made a matter of prominent popular discussion. No demand 

 has ever been made by the advocates of silver for any change 

 in the existing law, and in the absence of a change the United 

 States would stand so pledged. At present prices of silver 

 bullion, under such an arrangement, any one with $100 in 

 gold could buy silver for which, wlien coined, he could get 

 -|200 in gold. It is needless to say that we should all of us 

 drop everything else antl do this. It is the belief of the 

 advocates of free coinage that this scramble for silver to dumj) 

 onto the country would result in the immediate rise of silver 

 to its old ratio with gold. That some rise would occur is 

 practically certain; that any such rise as would fully protect 

 the treasury would occur, no competent person believes; at an}^ 

 rate, the risk would be too great; the United States alone can 

 not afford to pledge itself to make good the difference in value 

 between the silver and gold of the world; none of us are 

 willing to be taxed for any such purpose, or to take any 

 chance of it. I shall assume, also, that this is not a practical 

 question, but that should we adopt free coinage of silver, the 

 United States, as to all silver coined after that date, would 

 assume no responsibility excei^t for weight and fineness. 

 The- new dollars must take their chance. They would be legal 

 tender. 



Under such an arrangement no competent person will 

 undertake to predict what would happen, except in a very 

 general way. The more competent the person, the more cer- 

 tainly he would not predict; but all well-informed persons 

 believe that gold would immediately disappear from circula- 

 tion in this country, and that silver would rise, as compared 

 with gold, to some ratio intermediate between that at present 

 existing and the nominal ratio of sixteen to one. The real 



