Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1885-12-09

the silver coinage act is negatived by
the fact that up to the present time only
about 50,000,000 of silver dollars so coin
ed have actually found
their way into circulation,
leaving more than one hundred
and sixty-five millions in the possession
of the government, the custody OF which
has entailed considerable expense for
the construction of vaults for its deposit.
Against this latter amount there are
outstanding silver certificates amount
ing to about 500, 100000.
Every month S2.0o0,000 of gold in the
public treasury are paid out for 2, 100000
or more of silver dollars, to be added to
the idle mass already accumulated. If
continued long enough this operation
will result in the substitution of silver
for all the government owns applicable
to it's general purposes. It will not do
to rely upon the receipts of the govern
ment to make good this decline OF gold,
because the oliver thus coined, has
been made legal tender for oil debts and
dues, public and private. At times dur
ing the last six months fifty-eight per
sent of the receipts for duties have been
IN silver, or silver certificates, while the
average within that period has been
twenty per cent.
GOLD AND SILVER.
The proportion of silver and its certif-
Gates received by the government will
probably increase as time goes on, for
the reason that the nearer the period APP
proaches when 1T will be obliged to Of
Ter silver III payment of its obligations,
the greater inducement there will be
to hoard gold against the depreciation
In value Of silver, or for the purpose of
speculation. Thus boarding of gold and
silver has already begun. When the
time comes that gold has been with
drawn from circulation, then will be APP
parent the differences between the real
value of the silver dollar and dollar in
gold and the two coins will part COM
papy.
Gold, still the standard of value and
necessary in our dealings with other
countries, will be at q premium over the
ailver. Banks which have substituted
gold for the deposits of their customers
may pay them with silver bought with
such gold, thus making
handsome profit. Rich specn.
lators will sell their boarded gold
to their neighbors, who need tito liqui-
date their foreign debts, at ruinous
premium over silver and the labor
ing men and women of the land, most
defenceless of all, will find that the dol.
lar received for the wages of their toll
has sadly shrunk in its purchasing
power. 1t may be said that the latter
result will be but temporary and that
ultimately the price of labor will be ad.
jnsied to the change; but even if this
| takes place the wage worker cannot pos
sibly gain, but must inevitably lose
since the price he is compelled to pay
for his living will not only be measured
| in a coin heavily deprecated and flnctu-
ating and uncertain in its value but
this uncertainty in the value of the pur-
chasing medium will be made the pre-
text for an advance in prices beyond that
justified by actual depreciation.
The words uttered in 1884 by Daniel
| Webster, in the senate of the United
States, are true to this day: The very
man OF all others who has the deepest
interest in q sound currency and who
suffers most by mischievous legislation
in money matters is the man who earns
his daily bread by his daily toll" The
| most distinguished advocate of bi.metal.
| ism, discussing our silver coinage, has
lately written: "No American citizens
hands have yet felt the sensation oil
| cheapness, either In receiving or expend
| ing the silver act dollars. and those who
live by labor or legitimate trade never
will feel that sensation Of cheapness.'
| However plenty silver dollars may
| become they will not be distributed as
gifts among the people and if the labor.
ing man should receive four deprecated
| dollars where he now receives but tive
| he will pay in the deprecated coin more
| than double the price he now pays fol
all the necessaries and comforts OF life
| Those who do not fear any disastrous
consequences arising from the continued
compulsory coinage of silver, as now di
rected by law, and who suppose that
the addition to the currency of the
country intended that its results will be
| a public benefit, are reminded that his
| tory demonstrates that the point is
easily reached in the attempt to float oil
| the same time two sorts OF money OF diff
| ferent excellency. When the better viii
cease to be in circulation the boarding
of gold, which has already taken place
indicates that we shall not escape the
| usual experience in such cases.
So if this, silver coinage be continued
| we may reasonably expect that gold and
its equivalent will abandon the field OF
circulation to silver alone. This, oil
course, must produce severe oontrac.
tion of our circulating medium, instead
of adding to it. Ii will moi
be disputed that any attempt
of the government to cause the circula.
ton of the silver dollar, worth so cents
aide by side with gold dollars, worth l0(
cents. even with the limit that legisla