Show SILVER AND ITS VALUE tire THE new york tribune Tri buns a short abort time ago had the following in relation to silver much current complaint is ia doubtless due to the fact that prices are low the range of commodities being about 13 per cent lower than a year ago when the effects of the short crops of 1890 were most felt that Is ie silver being a commodity like all others of the kind kind it is subject to market fluctuations in reply to this the san ban francisco chronicle asks if it is fair to require a producer d who borrowed 1000 last year C to pay it back this year in gold the commodity produced by the debtor declined in selling price 13 per cent not because what he produced has been produced in excess or because it was produced reduced rod more cheaply but simply because the scarcity of gold and aad the legislation making it the only legal tender money has increased its purchasing power the producer to is thus compelled to pay 15 per cent more than he would have been called on to pa pay T if the currency were bimetallic the Chro chronicle nible further say but it is hardly necessary to draw tipon the tribune for testimony to show that it is in gold that is increasing in value and not silver declining the experience of centuries proves that under the be metallic me tallio system there could have been no serious disturbance of the ratio by pr production what our contemporary Is is pleased to regard as an extraordinary increase ease in production sinks into insignificance bythe by the side of previous phenomenal outputs between 1850 and 1870 the world added to its stock of gold and only silver this was an excess of gold production over silver amounting to an annual average of 94 oo oooo yet at the end of the period the value of an ounce of fine silver had not increased a quarter of a cent the english commercial quo quotations beirl being 1316 an ounce bunce in 1850 and 1328 in 1870 |