The daily gazette., 1879-06-23
From the N. w. World.
Letting the Cat out Of the Bag-GOId
for the BO n0E older,
LET US HAVE A SILVER COMMISSION.

= LET US HAVE A SILVER COMMISSION.
Notwithstanding all that has been
done and said in Washington and else-
where about silver and silver coinage.
our four per cent. bonds are quoted Mt a
little over 102. Such of those bonds as
were issued after tine Bland-A lison Sill
yer bill are manifestly pa,able iu the
established by that law The Govern
ment may not deem it expedient to pay
out this silver for interest on these bonds
so long as the bullion value of the silver
dollar is 12 per cent. less than the gold
dollar, but its technical legal right so }
do cannot be successfully questioned.-
Very different is it with the bonds issued
and sold between the dates of the de-
nonetizaton of silver and the remone-
tization of silver. Morally and legally
those bonds should be paid only l.. gold
dates, was straining every poiut as
Secretary of the Treasury to sell The
four and half per cents, he officiall
assured all purchasers that he and the
President and all the member of the
Presidents Cabinet were at one in the
opinion that those bonds were payab 9
only in the gold coin of the law of 1873;
but no sooner had the Bland-Al llison bll +,
with its absurd ratio of16 to 1, become a
L w Juan lc udSttuCu w HdSttucI W wei
come it as an assistance to resumption,
on the ground that If the Treasury were
pre- ssed with greenbacks for redemption
in coin he could roll out the kegs of
silver dollars and make an end of the
pressure. The Bland Allison law making
the new silver dollars a legal tender for
the bonds issued after 1873 was a mea-
sure of flat reputation, pro tdnto, and if
Mr.. Sherman had been a man like Mr..
H.. l..
resignation rather than be an acquiesc-
ing party to such an act of reputation.
Instead of dong that he clung all the
closer to his office, and so far from exc
cutting the law has in effect and persist.
emily evaded its requirements. This
evasion it is which more than anything
else irritates and vexes the silver zealots.
Of about thirty-three millions of silver
coined Mr.. Sherman has only paid out
and kept afloat about seven millions.
Possibly this evasion of the law my
have tended to increase the selling pri Q
of the new four per cents, but it has
worked and is working daily Injury in
other ways, as every one can see.
The latest phase of the silver worry is
the propositi, to buy in the trade dol
lars with legal-tender silver 1ollars, dol
lar for dollar AT first sight one would
say it might be good operation for the
Government to buy 42O grains of stand
ard silver for 4l2l grains, or, in other
words, to buy 80 cents with 874 cents.
These trade dollars had queer origin.
When they were coined the bullion
worth of each in goli was 81 .O4, while
now it is only 80 cents. O5tensibly they
were coined for use in China, but they
were made legal tender at home for $5
and for all pay ments less tnan that sum.
That legal-tender power was taken away
subsequently, and now the trade dollar
is only disk ofsilver coined and stamped
The coins are many of them floating
about in the country, and they undOubt-
edly are nuisances in one sense which
ought TO be abated. But it seems rather
silly nevertheless to pay 81 for thing
which is now worth in bullion 80 cents
or thereabouts.