Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-01-27

forbids national banks being members
Of any clearinghouse having rule cx-
GLIDING silver and silver certificates
from use in paying clearinghouse bal
ances. The New York clearinghouse
had adopted such a rule in 1878. but
abrogated ii when the act Of 1882 was
passed. The abrogation was merely
nominal, as there was substituted for
il tacit understanding that neither the
United States Assistant Treasurer nor
any other member should offer silver or
silver certificates in payment Of bal
ances. Upon that understanding the
United States Assistant Treasurer has
acted TO this day with the knowledge
Of the late and present Secretary Of the
Treasury.
Mr.. HILL adds:
"This is practical notification Of a
law Of Congress, and is the sole cause
Of there being any silver dollars held
and owned by the Treasury. If the
law Of 1882 had been carried out, or If
Congress can by new legislation compel
the present Administration to carry it
out, or if the incoming Administration
shall voluntarily carry it out, every sill
yer dollar now coined, or which can be
coined for years to come under the act
of 1873, will go into active circulation,
in the certificate form. and thereby up
hold prices and revive languishing in
dustrics."
In his last report, the Treasurer of
the United States also tells why green
backs are considered better than silver
certificates in New York city. He says:
"As consequence Of the inability of
the Treasury under the existing practice
to use either the silver dollars or the
silver certificates in its settlements with
the New York clearinghouse, where
by far the greater part of its disburse-
ments is made, the available gold ran
down from sl55, 400, 900 on January !,
1884, TO sll6,479,97S IN August II,
1884, while the silver dollars and bull
lion on hand, not rcpresc Ted by silver
certificates outstanding, increased du-
ring the same period from $27 200, 037
to $4S, 603, 95S.
GAS a temporary expedient to stop
this drain of gold from the Treasury
the Assistant Treasurer at New York
was directed to use in payments to the
clearinghouse United States notes
THAT is, greenbacksl TO the extent of
one half of the payments. But the
amount of these notes in the Treasury,
which at the time Of the commencement
of this mode of payment had accumu-
lated beyond its needs, has now become
so much reduced that they are no longer
available for such payments to any con-
siderable extent
We let Senator HILL answer still
further our correspondents question.
The Colorado Senator says:
"All the debts due from the Govern
ment, which, when owned by the New
York clearinghouse banks and pre-
scented for adjustment at the clearing
house. are paid by the Assistant Trea-
surer in gold or greenbacks, and never
in any part in silver or silver certit-
Gates, are precisely the same kind of
debts which, if presented at the Urea
sury at Washington, or at any place
where there is no clearinghouse, are
paid more or less, and sometimes wholly,
in silver or silver certificates. A draft
for the salary Of Justice of the Su-
preme Court, or a coupon of a Govern
ment bond, if presented at the Trea-
sury in Washington, is paid wholly
or partly in silver or silver certif-
Gates; but if the same draft or coupon is
transferred TO a New York bank it is
paid wholly in gold or greenbacks, In
other words, it is not the character of
the debt which determines under this
practice in what medium it shall be
paid, but il is the character of the party
to whom the debt is transferred and by
whom it is owned and presented. This
practice is based upon the strange
theory that the bankers Of New York
are entitled to the special prerOgativc
of refusing any kind of lawful money
to which they happen to have a dislike,
and that to pay them in silver will ruin
the public credit, while at the same
time that credit receives no injury if
the same silver is paid to other people
upon ;dentically the same claims against
the Government.
A Greenback Lunatc knows by
this time that there are potent reasons
(Which, however, Congress ought not to
allow to continue to exist why " silver
certificates fail to stand the test" The
real trouble is the incurable stolidity Of
New York fnancierS, who are so busy
that they have never had time to study,
much less to master, any financial ques-
tion--a stolidity which, as BENTLEY
says, "can battle all arguments and be
proof against demonstration itself"