result is that it costs from fifteen to twenty-five times more to keep
silver afloat than it does to maintain the same amount in gold. To
sustain the silver standard would annually cost about one per cent. for
abrasion; but that of gold would not exceed one-twentieth of one per
cent. This is a trouble-some charge, forever to bristle up in the
path-way of a silver standard. It must also be borne in mind that the
mint cost of coining silver is many times greater than that of the same
amount in gold. More than sixteen tons of silver are required as the
equivalent of one ton of gold. As a cold matter of fact, silver is
neither the best nor the cheapest standard. It is far dearer to plant
and forever dearer to maintain.

A double standard put forth by us on the terms now proposed by the
commission or by the House bill would be so only in name. The perfect
dual ideal of theorists, based upon an exact equilibrium of values,
cannot be realized while the intrinsic value of either of the component
parts is overrated or remains a debatable question and everywhere more
or less open to suspicion. A standard of value linked to the changing
fortunes of two metals instead of one, when combined with an existing
disjointed and all-pervading confusion in the ratio of value, must
necessarily be linked to the hazard of double perturbations and become
an alternating standard in perpetual motion.

The bimetallic scheme, with silver predominant--largely everywhere else
suspended, if not repudiated--is pressed upon us now with a ratio that
will leave nothing in circulation but silver, as a profitable mode of
providing a new and cheaper way of pinching and paying the national
debt; but a mode which would leave even a possible cloud upon our
national credit should find neither favor nor tolerance among a proud
and independent people.