The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-12-01
THE SILVER QUESTION.
POSITION OF THE NEW YORK CLEAR
lNG-HOUSE.
something That viii Have to BE Soon At
tended to - Danger to the Gold Re
serve-The United States Treas
urer's Statement.

ASHINGToN CITY, Dec. There is one
passage In the report of the treasurer of the
United States which will attract the atten-
ton of the friends of the silver dollar The
treasurer observes that, notwithstanding the
law of July IL 1882, which prescribed that
no national banking association shall be
member of any clearing g-hOuse in
which such [gold and silver certifcatesl
shall not be receivable in settlement of clear
ing house balances" neither standard silver
dollars nor silver certificates havo been or are
now offered in settlement of balances at the
clearing house. The associated banksdii after
the enactment Of the law referred to, pass
esolutlon which provided that the resolutions
adopted Nov. IL, 1878, be amended so far as
they conflict with Sec. IL of the act of July
II, 1852 The resolutions of November,
1878, prohibited the payments of balances
at the clearing house in silver certifica ses or
silver dollars, except as subsidiary coin
IN small sums-say under SO. The
treasurer adds that "the treasury
has refrained from taking any steps
to enforce the receipt of either these de-
scriptiOns of funds, which have, therefore,
not been used i'll payment of obligations pre-
sented through the clearinghouse" the
statement will doubtlers be made in congress
that the clearing house has violated the law
of July H. 1892.
The silver men will doubtless find it very
difficult to understand why the treasury
should continue this obsequions couse toward
the New York clearing house, and why
it is the same percentage of the sill
| yer dollars now used in other
ranches of the treasury service should
not to he used in the settlement of the
| clearing house balances. The statement OF
| the treasurer, which is simply q report OF
facts unaccompaned by argument, indi
Gates very clearly how strong the opposition
in the treasury department and in the sub
treasury at New York is to the recognition
of the silver dollar in any form.
As a consequence of the inability of the
treasurer under existing practice TO ust
| either silver dollars or silver certificates IL
its settlements with the New York clearing
house, whereby the far greater part of it
disbursements is made, available golC
ran down from Sl55, 900 January l
1884, to Sll6,479,979 August H. 1884
while silver dollars and bullion Oh
hand, represented by silver certificates out
!
81, ,2C6, ,097 to S4s, 603, ,05S As temporar.
expedient to stop the drain of gold from tn
treasury, the assistant treasurer a
New York was directed to use il
payments to the clearing house Unite'
States notes to the extent 0
one half its payments. But the amount o
these notes in the treasury, which, at tn
time of the commencement of this mode o
payment, had accumulated beyond its needs
has now become so much reduce
that they are no longer ayailabl
for such payments to any considerabl
extent If return to the forme
practice of making payments entirely in gol
Or gold certificates shall result in a continI
ous loss of gold to the treasury, not made u
to sufficient extent by receipts Of gold frol
other sources, the question must soon ari
for decision by the department as to whetht
it will continue to make in gold or its repr
sentative payments now made throue
the clearing house, or use in its payment 81
YER dollars or their representative certiticat
in some proportion to the relation whio
,iver dollars in the treasury not held fl
certificates outstanding bear to availab
as is, and to an extent similar TO that Whit
they are used at other offices of the treasur