Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-02-05

ouuce tTVy uotiat W YOU Eta"'- s"s.
prising nine tenths silver and one tenth
copper alloy. forming in truth the true
standard dollar; and this ratio Of alloy
corresponds exactly with that OF
France, though their denominations Of
coin vary from ours, while their fincness
is the same.
But our present legaltendcr dol
lar has only 412I grains weight,
which would 60 to show that the metal
had largely appreciated. though deprc-
ciation of il is claimed and doubt
less exists to some extent. This de-
probation has arisen from the coinage
Of legal-tender dollar Of short weight,
and is really only nominal deprecia-
ton Of bullion occasioned by such spu-
rious coinage. Silver is in this way de-
prived Of one Of its important uses for
the Government thereby actually
restricts its coinage TO what itself will
buy, and while it buys at one rate or
price il coins at q less rate or value; it
cut off Of the $50 grains composed ofnine
tenths of pure silver and one tenth Of
copper slug Of 67} grains and stamps
the remaining 4l2i grains as legal
tender dollar. having 14.0625 per cent.
less than its proper weight; and there
fore holder of silver bullion can get
no more for his 4S0 grains Of silver
than a fellow-citizen can get for .
legal-tender dollar Of 4l2l grains.
and thereby the Government monopo-
Lies the silver-money markets. as
the holder Of bullion has either to sell
his bullion to the Government or ship
abroad, when, If he had his choice, he
would have il coined at home by the
officers Of the Mint, and have the full
weight of silver put in the dollars so
coined for him. which he could then
readily pass into circulation, and the
banks would then have no objection to
these dollars Of full weight. Silver,
then, by this limitation as to one of its
uses. receives blow to it's value, which
accounts for its depreciation as bullion.
IL the purpose Of Congress in directing
the coinage Of short-weight silver cur
rency was to restrain its export to other
countries-a possible notion of some
Secretary of the Treasury-how can
we Justify such injustice to the public,
who are thus made to take false
weight coin arising from sheme to
circumvent the laws Of tradeg What
is due to other countries will have to be
paid in some way.
A bank officer assures us that the
Government has made some twenty
millions by this plan of cheating in the
weight of the silver coinage. That is
to say. that it will have cleared such
profit when it shall have passed off all
of its silver coin so coined at the fraud
ulent weight of the short dollar Of
4l24 grains. What sad spectacle
have we here in this sleight-ofhand
work of the Government, prac-
ticed upon its confiding people,
who should now demand that every
dollar of such money should be
called in and recoined at its true weight.
The Constitution, in comforting on Con-
gress the exclusive power to coin money
and regulate the standard value thereof,
designed to secure for the people a me-
tallic currency Of purity and regular
standard value and weight of the de-
nomination stamped on the face of the
coin, and not that the very agency it
selected to secure this object should
actually engage in fleeing the people
by cheating them in the weight of their
coins.
But its fraudulent-weight coin is still
largely in it's own Golfers. and will there
likely remain, since it is obliged by law
to pay mainly the interest on it's bonds,
as well as the bonds themselves, in gold,
and it can onlypay out silver for other
dues, and that so paid is soon returned
TO it again.
And vet all these disturbances of
values and questions of money vexa-
tions to the public mind are traceable
directly to the Government s inter-
ference with the currency of the country
and attempting 20 direct its banking
business. The most pure and vigorous
specimen of health, interrupted and pol
luted by disease. breaks out in numer-
Gus disorders that are too often ascrbed
to inadequate or indifferent causes and
.,,,, 90 IL tbo =, cra ct,nno ne ths iawa of
trade, of the violent and powerful nature
of governmental Interruptions, develope
forms of business arrangements that are
too apt to be laid at the door of dissem-
bling causes that political tricksters in
vent ora ramysterious class of philosophers
affect to discern. In fact. even very
many of the people engaged in the busi-
ness Of money-changing are given to re-
garding it as evolving strange functions,
and not of the nature of other values,
subject to the laws Of supply and de-
mand, and thus whole communities are
gradually drawn into the notion that
money is knotty and unmanageable
question that must some way be tied up,
or, if let loose, would, like a deyouring
beast, destroy everything. Money is
simply a commodity, and ITS quality
and quantity Of supply in the markets
Of IL riH regulate its rdIue or price.
Its quantity in bullion at least can
never be limited otherwise. Govern
ment, indeed, for time may put atioat
a short-weight dollar, which may circu-
late under the encouragement itself af-
fords by receiving it back for Govern
ment dues, but these fraudulent coins
will nevertheless be repulsed by some ;
and the great object Of currency being
acceptability to all, and uniform mea-
sure Of value in all directions and with
all monetary institutions, it should be
the aim and unfailing duty Of Govern
ment at least to maintain the true
standard of fineness and weight Of its
coins. L.
Kauun Neu-s Cbrfaffan AnAOrt ffOu.