Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-11-12
The Popularity Of Silver Dollars.
Chicago Tribune.

The malignant hostility of the Treas
ury Department toward the silver dollar
has been unrelenting, and though Secre-
tary Sherman has been out of the
Treasury since last March this spirit of
opposition is still shown on all occasions
and by all the officers, Treasurer GilfiIlan
is the latest to exhibit his dislike to the
silver dollar.
The law Of March, 1878, directed the
coinage of silver dollars at a rate not ex
ceeding 81, 900, 600 nor less than So, ,OOO.-
600 per month. This was met by very
pronounced statements that the public
would never take, use, or handle the
money, and, lest the public might take
such money, the policy of the Treasury
has been never to pay any silver dollars
out of the Treasury unless the public
creditor insisted upon having them in
preference to gold or greenbacks. AS
the money was coined it was piled awav
in the public vaults, and the
Treasury officers made a special point
of referring to the fact that the silver
dollars were utterly useless and that the
public could not be induced to touch
them. Though the United States Treas.
ury expended for salaries and other pur
poses $25, 900, 900 month, the Treasury
Department declared that it was unable
to distribute the coin, which was ac-
cumulating in such quantity that new
building would soon be required to hold
the money. The New York banks in
duced the Treasury to unite with them
in an arrangement by which both banks
and Treasury were to exclude silver dol
lars from their financial transactions.
Following the coinage of the silver dol.
lars, there were no less than six months
during which the Treasury never paid
out one silver dollar, but boarded them
away in the Treasury vaults, at the same
time demanding the repeal of the silver
act because the people did not want the
money!
Up to tho last day of September, 1881,
the whole number of silver dollars coined
was 80, 242 655. These are all now the
property of the public. The handling
of silver dollars is different in one re-
spect from that of gold coin. Gold coin
is the property OF the persons depositing
the bullion at the mlnts; there is free
coinage of gold-that is, any person can
have it coined for him to any amount
for which he will deposit the bullion.
Gold is coined always on private &C
count. But no citizen can deposit silver
and have 1t coined. The government
has monopoly of silver coinage 1t
buys the bullion, and the coin as it is
minted is exclusively the property of the
government. Instead of paying out this
silver and placing it in the hands of the
people, the Treasury Department has
OF skc I.o
held it in the Treasury vaults.
But this policy has at last been broken
down. All the silver dollars coined are
now in use as money; the Treasury has
only small balance of silver now be
longing to the government. OF the
98, 600, 900 of silver dollars coined, there
are 80, 600, ,000in actual circulation among
the people, and there are 66, ,000, 600 cut
standing in the form of silver certificates.
so at this time there are no silver dol
lars IN the Treasury belonging to the
government; the ownership has been
transferred to the general public. The
silver certificates are redeemahle on de-
mand in silver dollars, and these $66, ,0OO,-
600 are added to the general currency of
the country.
But the Treasury officers, true to their
hostility to the silver dollars, always
speak of the silver in the Treasury as so
much coin refused by the people as cur
rency, ard carefully ignore the fact that
an equivalent in Treasury certificates for
every one of these silver dollars is out
standing. So that all the silver dollars
coined since 1873 are now practically cir
culating among the people The demand
for these silver dollars Is increasing, and
such is the demand for silver certificates
that the Treasury has recently been
forced to refuse to issue silver certificates
in exchange for gold. because of the
want of silver dollars to represent them.