Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1883-12-24


is also indispensable to enable us to
reform and to vastly improve our an
nual display of coinage, which IN
1882 was equal in amount to one-half
of the combined annual coinage of all
other leading commercial nations.
There are in circulation at the
present time 1913, 953, $50 of our sill
yer coinage. There are also S141,-
337, 1913 more in the treasury which
the government would be only too
glad to unload. Halt as much of
fractional silver and about three
times as many silver dollars are now
in the treasury as are neld by the
people. Where is it to go! Gu
bono? The treasury is thoroughly |
gorged, and the stomachs of the peo-
pie are suffering from hopeless indi-
gestion. 1t can hardly be doubted
that the two or more millions of sill
yer bullion which has been bought
every month. and by the overtasked
mints converted into more millions
of dollars, amounting in five years
and seven months to the prodigious
sum of S154,370,S99, would have
been more largely accepted and held
as ready money by the people if the
government had left silver to stand
on its own merits, and had not en-
listed in what seemed almost a cru
SADIE to force an excessive and I'M
natural amount into circulation. So
Der Legislators appeared to rely upon
coercion to popularize the diffusion
Of silver, and also upol the ponder
Gus creation of an absolute supply to
create an equally absolute demand
but the public, wandering in unbe-
lief, declined to be coerced, and sub
sequent experience, to consldera-
BILE extent, may have confirmed the
general and more pronounced lack OF
faith. Binding itself as a perpetual
purchaser has placed the government
too nearly in the attitude of the reck-
less spectators of the stock ex-
change, or of buying silver to make
''corner'' in order to squeeze some
| outsider. But the action of the gov
eminent is as bootless as was the
stamp of the tyrant's foot to raise az
mics. We have nothing to show for
it except our own perspiration. The
patronage of government, bestowed
upon silver mines, or nickel mines;
OF copper mines, to secure their per-
manent prosperity, is unreliable, and
no more should be sought after by
them than can be justified by the ac-
tual requirements of the government
1t should also be forever borne il
mind that the annual production o.
our gold mines, heretofore much thu
largest, is now little less than ou
silver mines, and no more favoritisn
should be shown to one than to tn
other. When our standard money i
of universal value, circulating with
out loss elsewhere as well as at home
the increase OF decrease of its vol
ume does not materially effect til
price of commodities. The inter
communication of the markets of th
: world preserves values at nearly
S universal level, and redresses fluctus
e tions at the bare cost of the trans
: portation of coin. 1t would obv
ously be to our great hurt if our sp'
Gle shc uld lack harmony with tt
standard of other commercial ns
tons with whom our chief intercour:
must be maintained. Different stan'
ards of money are worse and mo
- inconvenient than different langua
" es. Whatever disadvantages ma
~ now Or hereafter arise from adver
exchanges must be borne exclusive
by those who adhere to the lnferl
~ standard. If we make one dollar
~ gold, OF one dollar in silver, of t
= same Intrinsic value each bares
n London, Frankfort, and Paris,
Sc may coin few or many without a
lit preciable effect upon prices or VI
5. ues. Great Britain is supposed
id have large control of the gold stan
wv ard of Europe; but, if so, it is L
er derived from her abundant coinaS
,e- no gold having been coined there
n 1882, and only f209,880 of silv
&C. Others may soon find that their int
h. ests can only be permanently prom
Ii ed, not by a scramble with all
lin world for gold, but by uniting W
1ni lis III giving to both silver and g
m al least fair trial to hold univer
and harmonious relations. Me
time, whatever others mag do,
'' vital interests of our own people C
" not be effectually guarded by Il
10 handed imposition of the silver sta
my ard.
60 When our fractional silver str
''' into Canada it is hailed as an intr
nc CT, and cannot pass at less t
Tue twenty per cent discount, or
uo- half-dollar shrinks to forty cents,
oe the quarter to twenty cents; but
cry madam silver coins are plentiful
-ry' our northern borders, and, tho
-oiy really of less value than our tract
leh' al silver coins, they are generally
re- cepted at their full nominal va
Tue Canadian silver should be sternly
oe- fused in all American markets,
oaii subjected to a discount 1872 per C