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BULLETIN OP THE 



some that gold on the contrary has absolutely risen in price. The 

 causes which have occasioned the fall of silver have, it is urged, 

 been inverted as to gold. The change from silver to gold in 

 Germany and Scandinavia has created an abnormal and great 

 demand for the latter metal, and mining statistics indicate a 

 diminution in the gold yield of America and Australia when the 

 last ten years are compared with the preceding twenty. It 

 seems very probable that gold has actually risen. It is, however, 

 extremely difficult to say how much even very approximately, and 

 an exact determination of the amount of fluctuation is imprac- 

 ticable. On the whole, the amount of change in the value of gold 

 has probably been small while the absolute depreciation of silver 

 has with equal probability been very great, being represented by 

 much the greater part of the difference between the former pre- 

 mium over gold and the present discount, i. e. between 103 in 

 1869 and 87^ in 1880. 



The Act of February 28th, 1878, must ever be regarded by 

 students of money as one of the strangest and most unjustifiable 

 actions ever performed by a legislative body in dealing with 

 monetary affairs. A century ago almost any nation might have 

 committed an extravagant financial blunder. Sixty years ago 

 any nation excepting England, France, and Germany might have 

 fallen into serious error about its money. But that a nation 

 having so much wealth and intelligence as the United States 

 should have rushed pell mell into such a trap in the last quarter 

 of the nineteenth century without the slightest pretext passes 

 comprehension. The Senators and Representatives of Congress 

 taken as a body are a class of able men, worthy of the great 

 nation they represent. They passed this act in response to 

 what seems to have been an overwhelming movement and senti- 

 ment coming from the masses of voters, and probably felt, inde- 

 pendently of their own convictions as to the merits of the question 

 itself, that they were in duty bound to vote upon it in conformity 

 with the views of their constituents. Most of them however, 

 probably accepted the popular view of the subject and believed 

 in it. Yet, that view is antagonized by nine-tenths of the stu- 

 dents "of money and financiers of Europe and America. Any 

 writer upon the subject must discuss it with a profound de- 

 ference for the opinions of our "conscript fathers." Yet in the 

 two years which have elapsed since that bill was passed, it has 

 been subjected to careful analysis and criticism, and the general 

 bearing and effects of the measure have been made much clearer 

 than they were then. The result of that criticism I believe to 

 be a clear showing that the act remonetizing silver was unwise, 

 Impolitic, and unless reversed, is now fraught with great im- 

 pending evil to the country. 



The arguments used to sustain the measure were numerous. 

 The most conspicuous one held up to the U noxxoi was the catch- 

 word of " the dollar of our fathers." It would be a needless 



