New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-05-16
grains of the metal which he can buy in the London


First, few hundred owners and producers of silver
bullion in this country, class composed almost ex-
clusively of capitalists bankers and spectators.
The advocates of this bill are loud in their pro-
fessons of devotion to the interests of the people
as against capital. How honest they are the
people may Judge by their support of this measure,
which requires the Secretary of the Treasury to
buy silver with the peoples money and pay Is per
cent more than the market value for it. 1t may be
said that the Government pays nothing for the
bullion, but simply issues piece of paper for 1T
which has cost nothing, and that when the certf-
cafe is redeemed it will be paid in the same bullion
for which it was issued. Very true, but nobody
will present the certificate for redemption so long
they worth 1S per cent more than the metal
he has changed for them. and the only way that the
certificates will return to the Government will be
in the form of taxes and duties. When they come
in for those purposes the silver which they repre-
sent will become the property of the Government,
and as this bill denies to the Government the prv-
lege which it accords to every man on the face of
the globe of having the silver which 1t owns con-
vered into dollars, the only way in which that
part of its receipts represented by silver certificates
can be made available will be by the sale of the
bullion IN the market and at the price which 1t VIII
command there By this process the Government
actually becomes the purchaser of silver at IS per
cent above its market value, which in the end IL
must sell again for no than its market value.
Nor does the loss of the Government stop with
this sale. The purchaser Of the bullion has the
right under the provisions Of the bill to make inn
mediate deposit of the silver bullion he has just
bought in the Treasury and receive certificates for
it, which in return will come back to the Treasury
in the form of taxes and duties on imports. Thus
the Government might be called upon to shoulder
loss of Is per cent on the same lot of bullion many
times in a single year, and at the end of the time
have no more bullion on band than after the first
deposit was made. The loss would appear in the
reduction of the proceeds of its receipts.
Secondly. the people of Great Britain. France.
Germany, and every other European nation which
is now wrestling with the silver question and try
ing to devise means to escape the enormous losses
incident to the depreciation of silver, would be
greatly relieved by the passage of this bill. Very
few people in this country appreciate the loss which
English trade is now yearly sustaining on account
Of the fall in the price OF silver, or the effect
that loss is having upon public opinion con-
corning standards of value in that country.
Referring to this subject recently. The London
Economist said: Uncertainty must attend on
many if not on most trading ventures, but when to
that uncertainty an additional risk Of loss ranging
from per cent to 10 per cent each cargo, is
added it is no wonder il tho most cautious find
themselves deceived in their calculations, and
merchant after merchant admits that In lieu of
profit he has for some considerable time reaped
nothing but loss from trade with silver-using
countries"
But the remedy which the Editor Of The Economist
has suggested proves more than any bare statement
can, into what straits Great Britain has been
brought by the condition of the silver market for
the last four years. Estimating that Germany still
has about ELS, 100000 about $75 ,OOO, 900 worth
of silver still to land believing that the existence
of this amount which may be thrown on the
market at any time, is one of the principal causes
of the present depression in the price of silver he
suggests that the Bank of England be authorized
bv the Government to purchase one-third or one
half of Germanys surplus stock and lock it up, on
condition that Germany agrees TO sell no more for
the next five years. This is desperate remedy for
a desperate case.
But the author Of the Warner bill offers to these
countries way out of all their difficulties. He not
only proposes to open the doors of the United States
Treasury TO the silver of all the world, but to pay
premium of Is per cent to foreign owners OF the
metal to pour IT into this great reservoir. In 1876
il was fashionable for the nhatonlsts in and out
Congress to accuse those who had been instrumental
in bringing about the decentralization of silver and
those who opposed Its RECOMMENDATION after II had
been deprecated of having being bought up with
British gOld.p OF course this was absurd,
because the closing of the mints of the United
States to the coinage OF silver since t9e decline IN
distress in Great Britain, and has been deDored by
English business men and writer's on finance ever
since the subject began to be generally discussed.
But what shall be said now of the men who not only
propose to help England out of her trouble by taking
out of the markets of the world the surplus silver
that Is causing much disaster TO the business OF
that country, but to pay the owners OF II Is per
cent more than they could get for 1t III Lom6ardst
OF course they have not been bought up with Brit
ish gold. -,
The provisions for the redemption of subsidiary
silver coins and for the reOpenlngof diplomatic ne
gOtiations for the establishment OF common mint
ratio between the values OF gold ana silver, are
about the only redeemng features of the bill 1t Is
remarkable that the author of such monstroslty
should ever have allowed them to become part OF
his measure.
THE EFFECT OF THE BILL.
The plain effect of the bill. should it become a
law, would be to pile up in the Treasury an i'm
mense hoard of silver The $7500O,O00 worth now
held by Germany for sale would be in
the Sub-Treasury vaults in New-York
in less than month. The mines
of the United States, producing nearly as much
more every year, would empty their entire product
into the hands of the Government. Every ounce of
silver due to any European country in Its foreign
trade would irresistibly flow into the same reser-
voir
On the other hand we should lose an equal amount
| of GOLD The German Government would sell its
oliver certificates in NewYork for god and take the
latter away and we should rapidly become mono
metallic silver nation and the disasters that have
come upon India, threatening to produce pubic ana
private bankruptcy. would be experienced here
Having taken the whole burden of redundant
silver upon our own shoulders, European nations
would politely decline to assist us in carrying 1t
even though we should be crushed beneath the Load
The whole theory of this bill is wrong, and It's
-; a.ta 1lnO
AofIonists They believe, or pretend to believe,
that the people who have little or no capital