Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-06-12
The New Silver Proposition.

A proposition has been drawn up by
Mr.. Warner, member of Congress from
Ohio, Senator Jones of Nevada and Major
Weaver of Iowa as the principal parties,
which is intended to form the basis of
legislation on the silver question in the
next Congress. 1t is of the nature of a
compromise between the extremists on two
sides of the financial triangle, Mr. War
ner and Senator Jones being silver men
and Mr.. Weaver a pronounced greenback-
er. 1t might have been eXpe cted, of
course, that in trying to make these, eX-
tremes meet, some pretty serious gaps,
as well as some strong stretching would
result. The proposition is thus outlined ::
First-Issue certificates on the deposit
of silver bullion at its market price at the
time of deposit, expressed IN dollars which
shall stand as the declared value of the
certificates while in the hands of the pub
lie. The average value of silver for the
previous month might be taken as the
market value at the time of deposit.
Second-Such certificates to be made
legal tender for all purposes except in
transactions between private parties.
Third-They shall be redeemable in
lawful money, or at the option of the gov
eminent in silver bullion, at its market
price at the time of redemption. When
received into the treasury for dues to the
government, or redeemed in lawful mon
ey, they shall be held and paid out again
as other currency but when redeemed in
silver bullion, to be cancelled and destroy
ed
Fourth-The coinage of silver to be sus-
pended until required again to meet an
actual demand for silver dollars. On the
coinage of any bullion the certificates rep
resenting the bullion shall be cancelled
and destroyed
Fifth-Fractional silver, or at least the
half dollar pieces, to be made full weight
and full legal tender, and the redemption
of subsidiary silver to be discontinued.
SiXth-Withdraw the one and two dol
lar legal tender notes without reducing
the total volume of greenbacks also the
five dollar bank note, and issue one, two
and five dollar coin notes, based on the
silver dollars now coined, dollar for dol
lar.
Seven-Redeem and recon the trade
dollar into standard dollars or fractional
coin.
1t will be plain from this statement, if
from nothing else, that the silver men
were in the majority. On some points it is
decidedly misty. For instance, as to
the issue of certificates-is it to be com
pulsory or discretionary with the Secre-
tary of the Treasury Must the secre-
certificates for it, or can he stop short of
this and issue certificates only to such
amount us he thinks best The probable
intention of the trainers is that the issue
of certificates is to be compulsory If sol it
would give the silver men, practically, the
control of the treasury If they could be
assured, in this way, of an unlimited
market for their bullion, the United
State treasury would soon be overwhelmed
with their deposits, not only of native
silver bullion, but perhaps of silver coin
from all over the world, What would
there be to hinder combination, of our silver
kings with the producers and holders of
silver in other countries, making "cor-
ner" in the metal which should raise its
market price, and then unloading on to
Uncle Sam The fact is, we have too
much silver in the treasury vaults al
ready. What is wanted is legisla-
ton, not to increase the supply, under
whatever pretence, but to dimin-
ish it. This the silver men, of
course, will never agree to, in any