ld....................... 1,371,278,000

Gold produced 1792-1892, inclusive... $5,633,908,000
Silver produced...................... 5,104,961,000
Excess of gold....................... 528,947,000

Thus are we confronted with the truly startling paradox that during all
the century and a half when the production of silver was nearly twice that
of gold, and the two centuries back of that when it was more than twice,
the variation in coinage value never rose to 9 per cent., and for many
years at a time corresponded with the ratio set by the mint; but at the
end of a century during which the gold production was half a billion
greater than that of silver, and at the end of half a century when it was
nearly a billion and a half greater, the really scarcer metal has declined
in terms of the other nearly one-half! And all this, the monometallist
tells us, because there has been an excess of silver produced amounting to
less than a quarter of a billion in twenty-three years. Belief in such a
proposition would indeed be a triumph of faith over figures. And to add to
the trial of our faith, we find, on bringing the figures down to the close
of the year 1895--and we cannot bring them later on account of official
slowness--the amounts of silver and gold in the world, as presented in
values at our ratio, are almost exactly equal, the greatest divergence
claimed by the most extreme monometallist being 16-3/10 ounces of silver
to one of gold!

I do not indulge the hope that the figures herein presented will affect
the opinion of any pronounced monometallist. There seems to be a
mysterious power in gold which blinds the eyes to deductions from
statistics and experience; the internal conviction of the monometallist
that gold stands still while everything else changes in value resists all
logic. In this country, that is. In England, where it has not become a
political question, and no one is interested in denying the facts,
monometallists almost universally concede the appreciation of gold and
defend monometallism on that ground. It is to the laboring producers of
the United States, still open to conviction, that I present these figures,
which to me seem absolutely conclusive.

IS BIMETALLISM PRACTICABLE?

Can this great nation coin silver and gold on the same terms, at the ratio
of 16 to 1, and maintain a substantial parity?

This question, like all others in political economy, may he argued
theoreticall