Page:Coin's Financial School.djvu/41

Rh All the seats were filled and many persons were standing. Perfect order prevailed as began his lecture.

"The ratio between silver and gold," said "prior to 1873, in the United States was fixed at 16 to 1, and for the purposes of coining token silver dollars is still the ratio. That is, the silver in a silver dollar is just sixteen times as heavy as the gold in a gold dollar. Or to reverse it, the gold in a gold dollar is just $1⁄16$th the weight of the silver in a silver dollar.

"Up to 1834, when the ratio was 15 to 1, the gold in a gold dollar was $1⁄15$th the weight of the silver in a silver dollar. When the ratio was changed to 16 to 1, the quantity of gold in the gold dollar was lessened and made $1⁄16$th the weight of the silver in a silver dollar.

"The quantity of silver in the silver dollar was not disturbed. It being the unit, was respected, and remained the same. The gold dollar was cut down from 24.7 grains pure gold to 23.2 grains of pure gold. So that now it is one-sixteenth the weight of the pure silver (371¼ grains) in the silver dollar. This is what ratio means."

Mr. Lyuian Gage, president of the First National Bank of Chicago, interrupted the little speaker.

He had been watching for an opening, and he now thought he had it, where he could deliver a telling, and follow it up with a knock-out, blow.

He rose to his feet. All eyes were on him. In Chicago Lyman Gage is at the "top of the heap." His word is law on the subject of finance. "How does he happen to be at the head of the largest bank west of the Alleghanies, if he does not know all about it?"