We are told that if silver is given free access to the mints we shall be
flooded with it from all parts of the world. Does anybody show where the
flood of silver is to come from? Where are the reservoirs that contain
it? Not in England, where it is difficult for the people even to get a
sufficiency of it for small change to transact the business of the
country: not in Germany, where the scarcity of money was so pressing
that the government had to abandon the idea of selling silver. Though
the stock in France is large her people will never give it up. Silver
has been the "shield and buckler" of the French Republic. All she has is
coined at the ratio of 15-1/2 ounces of silver to 1 of gold, and its
shipment to this country would involve a loss to France, not only of the
3 per cent. difference between the French relation (15-1/2 to 1) and
ours (which is 16 to 1), but of 3 per cent. additional in the cost of
gathering and shipping it. And after that could only exchange them for
Treasury notes. The silver stock in India and the Orient is performing
indispensable duty as money, and no "flood" of it can be expected from
that quarter. From time immemorial India has been absorbing all the
surplus silver of the world. She has never got so much as to appease her
appetite for more. So insatiable is her desire for that metal that she
has long been known as the "Sink of Silver." China has not a piece of
the metal that she can dispose of. Mexico has no stock whatever of
silver on hand, except the limited number of coined pieces forming her
moderate money circulation, and not a dollar of it can be spared. No
country of Central or South America has any surplus silver. Every piece
of coined silver in every country in the world is part of the monetary
circulation of that country, and even when of short weight and
classified as a mere "token" is passing at par as full valued money. No
gain could possibly accrue, therefore, to the owners of coined silver
anywhere by shipping it to this country for any purpose, and there is no
surplus stock of bullion anywhere.
If anybody doubts this statement let him make the attempt in all the
money centers of the world to buy from accumulated stock even $5,000,000
worth of it. He will fail to get it in London, Paris, Berlin, Calcutta,
New York, or San Francisco, or in all combined. There is no source from
which to get silver except the current supply from the mines, and
whatever that is now it is not likely ever greatly to increase. The
occupation of mining is not attractive to many, and in the nature of the
case the number who follow it will always be comparatively few. The
Argonauts of old were but a small band of hardy adventurers; those of
the new era are destined to bear no larger proportion to the population.
But even were this not so, nature herself draws the line. To the eye of
the experienced prospector silver mines are as discernible on the
surface of the earth as are mountains, and the world has been explored
in vain for further "finds." Those who talk, therefore, of "floods" of
silver coming here for coinage simply show their ignorance of existing
conditions.
I may add that of all the shafts that have been sunk for silver mines in
the world where they have found silver croppings on top in ninety-nine
out of every hundred, and I think I am stating it moderately, the veins
have not penetrated the earth, mineralized, fertilized, to the depth of
50 feet, rarely have they penetrated the earth to a depth exceeding
1,200 feet, and the most prolific yield of silver mines has been from a
depth not exceeding 800 feet.
The very fact, Mr. President, that, with all the world searching for
gold and silver mines--a search that has continued throughout all
history--the amount of the two metals yielded by the mines is about
equal, shows that the historical relation existing between them is the
relation at which they can be profitably produced.
It is apparent that if there were a great advantage in the production of
silver over gold, at the relation of 15-1/2 to 1, that advantage would
be seen in the largely preponderant production of silver; but instead we
find that the result of thousands of years of mining has given us about
equal quantities of both metals.