al right to put
in it 15 grains of gold instead of 23, or 300 grains of silver instead
of 412 1/2, but you have no power to say how many bushels of wheat the
new dollar shall buy. You can, if you choose, cheapen the dollar under
your power to coin money, and thus enable a debtor to pay his debts with
fewer grains of silver or gold, under the pretext that gold or silver
has risen in value, but in this way you would destroy all forms of
credit and make it impossible for nations or individuals to borrow money
for a period of time. It is a species of repudiation.

The best standard of value is one that measures for the longest period
its equivalent in other products. Its relative value may vary from time
to time. If it falls, the creditor loses; if it increases, the debtor
loses; and these changes are the chances of all trade and commerce and
all loaning and borrowing. The duty of the Government is performed when
it coins money and provides convenient credit representatives of
coin. The purchasing power of money for other commodities depends upon
changing conditions over which the Government has no control. Even its
power to issue paper money has been denied until recently, but this may
be considered as settled by the recent decisions of the Supreme Court
in the legal-tender cases. All that Congress ought to do is to provide
a sufficient amount of money, either of coin or its equivalent of paper
money, to meet the current wants of business. This it has done in the
twelve years last passed at a ratio of increase far in excess of any in
our previous history.

* * * * *

Under the law of February, 1878, the purchase of $2,000,000 worth of
silver bullion a month has by coinage produced annually an average of
nearly $3,000,000 a month for a period of twelve years, but this amount,
in view of the retirement of the bank notes, will not increase our
currency in proportion to our increase in population. If our present
currency is estimated at $1,400,000,000, and our population is
increasing at the ratio of 3 per cent. per annum, it would require
$42,000,000 increased circulation each year to keep pace with the
increase of population; but as the increase of population is accompanied
by a still greater ratio of increase of wealth and business, it was
thought that an immediate increase of circulation might be obtained by
larger pur chases of silver bullion to an amount sufficient to make
good the retirement of b