More Of The "crime Of 1873."

It is one one the stock complaiuts of tlie free silver parüsans that the „crime of 1873" is the cause of the depreciation in the piïce of silver. When the fact is pohited out to theni that increased productiou of silver, like increased production of any other commodity without a correspondiugly increased dernand for it, necessarily lowers its price, they reply that the trouble in this particular case is the demand and not the supply. They contend that the closing of the mint to the free coinage of silver decreased the demand and thus lowered the price. The obvious answer to this argument, of course, is that a mint, open or closed, can never affect nor create the demand for any metal, be it gold, silver or lead. The demand must come f rom the people, and the value is dependent on both the supply and demand. The mint merely stamps the metal with a certification that it weighs so much and is of a certain quality. It neither adds to nor takes from the value the metal liad before it was stamped. But obvious answers do not go with people whose minds are poisoned with false logic and appeals to prejudice and supposed self-interest, so it may be worth while at this time to repeat the well-known facts as to the course of silver production and price both before and after the passage of the law of 1873. For eighty-one years, 1792 to 1873, when the United States mint was open to the coinage of free silver, the demand for silver was so great in proportion to the supply that little or none was offered for coinage. It was worth more as bullion than as coin, and what little did happen to get through the mint was promptly melted up agaiu. During that period the price fluctuated, just as it bas since, in proportion to the supply, with a gradual downward tendency as the supply increased. .In 1855 the world's output of silver was 31,300,000 fine ounces, the average price that year was $1.344 an ounce. In 1865 the output was 39,800,000 ounces, and the average price was $1.338. In 1875 the annual output had reached 62,262,000 ounces, and the price had dropped to fl.248. By 1885 the output jumped to 91,652,000 ounces, and the price feil to $1.0645, while in 1895 the output was 165,000,000 ounces, and the price $0.6549. During the twenty years from 1855 to 1875 the United States mint was wide open to silver for the greater part of the time, but only a few hundred thousand silver dollars were coined. During the twenty years from 1875 to 1895 the mint was partly open to silver the greater part of the time, and the whole credit of the government was exerted to maintain the price of the metal, but without avail. It was only when the credit of the government was on the verge of collapse that the effort was given up. In that time 420,000,000 silver dollars were coined, and additional silver bullion to the amountof over 140,000,000 ounces was purchased, which is represented in oirculatiou by Treasury notes. Yet in spite ot' all this the price of silver lias continued to decline as the production has increased. In 1870 the population of the United States was a little over 38,000,000 persons; in 1890 it was about 70,000,000. In 1870 the total supply of money in the United States was $722,868,461, or a per capita supply of $18.73 ; but none of this money was coin except a few million dollars in gold on the Pacific Coast. In 1895 the total supply of money was $2,398,290,534, or a per capita supply of $34.32, of which over one-half is gold and silver in about equal proportions. How the "crime of 1873" did contract the inoney supply !