permanence may not be absolutely certain, unless the late transcendent
fickleness of the supply and demand subsides, or unless the ratio of
value can be adjusted with more consummate accuracy than has hitherto
been found by any single nation to be practicable. One-tenth of one per
cent. difference will always exclude from use one or the other metal;
but here a difference nearly one hundred times greater has been
proposed. The double-standard nations and the differing single gold- or
silver-standard nations doubtless contributed something to the relative
equalization of values so long as they furnished an available market for
any surplus of either metal, but this they are doing no longer. Silver,
though not yet universally demonetized, is thrown upon the market in
such masses and from so many prolific sources as to be governed by the
inexorable laws of demand and supply. Its magic as coin, if it has not
hopelessly departed, has been, like the retreating soldier, fearfully
"demoralized," and is passing to the rear.

* * * * *

It cannot be for the interest or the honor of the United States, while
possessed of any healthy national pride, to resort to any expedient of
bankrupt governments to lower the money standard of the country. That
standard should keep us "four square" to the world and give us equal
rank in the advanced civilization and industrial enterprise of all the
great commercial nations.

I have failed of my purpose if I have not shown that there has been
so large an increase of the stock of silver as of itself to effect a
positive reduction of its value; and that this result has been confirmed
and made irreversible by the new and extensive European disuse of silver
coinage. I have indicated the advisability of obtaining the co-operation