The Director of the United States Mint has issued a
state- ment explaining the fall in the price of silver. It is due, he says, first to an immense accumulation of the metal, caused by the American holders' determination to await the passing of the Silver Bill, the release of this stock at once drowning the market. Moreover, Europe began to export silver, so that between May 1st and September 30th, five months, the Union—which ought, according to precedent, to have exported 6,000,000 oz. more than her import—imported 5,000,000 oz. more than her export. Finally, the price set all the suspended silver-mines at work,—a fact of which he had personal evidence, having just visited the West. The meaning of all this, of course, is that the great effort to raise the price of silver artificially has failed, and that the Silver Law will improve the position of the metal only to the extent of the purchases actually forced upon the Treasury. Unless, there- fore, the new law in China making a dragon dollar the legal currency of the Empire should unexpectedly increase the de- mand, the price of silver will not rise, and the "silver kings" will be compelled to agitate for a free coinage. The President, however, stands pledged to resist that dangerous experiment.
Previous page
