The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1886-01-16

complaining Of being overwhelmed witt
Q they would be doing their duty more salts
: factorily than by the course they are nov
pursuing.
The President says:
"a special effort has been madeb by TIN
Secretary OF the Treasury to increase tn
amount of our silver coin circulation"
Let him make one more effort and pay
out the $50, OOO, 900 or SIS, 900, 900 HI
| received for customs dues, and which h,
| has no use for, in payment OF interest anC
! in the redemption OF the bonds now re
deemable, and the ordinary expenses o
the Government will keep the vaults rea
sonably clear of all, not represented by
certificates or bills, which the people have
: a right by law to demand or making a de
post Of coin. No public creditor other
than the bondholder has ever complained
, when payment Is made to him in silver or
; silver certificates. All other creditors are
entitled to the same consideration as the
!, holders of our bonds. We as a ~tax-paying
!, people are not interested in keeping Our
bonds "a per cent. above par when we
must DOR buy them with our surplus rev
J eDues
Fl 1 may observe here that silver certif.
CdI6S dF0 HOW duu udNC dlWdNS Uccu q
popular currency.
The Treasurer in his last report, page "a
says:
The issue of silver certificates by Treas.
ury officers in the South and West for gold
coin deposited with the Assistant Treasurer
at New York, under departmental circular
of September Is, 1880. was discontinued in
January last. The amount which had
been issued in that manner to the date
named was $50. 73O, 500.
The Treasury order referred to reads
thus:
TREASURY DEPARTMENT,
SECRETARY'S OFFICE, ;
WASHINGTON, D. c., September IS, 1880:
Until further notice the United States Assist
counter standard silver dollars or silver certifi-
Gates in sums of $40, or any multiples thereof. In
exchange for like amounts of gold coin or gold
bullion deposited with him.
United States in this city of an original certif-
cate of deposit. issued by the United States AS
sistant-I at N 's;s York S;I, stating Ia5a gs that there here
bullion in the sum Of $40, or any multiple
th"reOf, payment of a like amount in standard
silver dollars or silver certificates at the counter
or any United States Assistant-T Treasurer desig-
mated by the depositor, will be ordered.
JOHN SHERMAN, Secretary"
The Treasurer of the United States in his
report to Congress dated November l,
1880, says:
1.-The demand for silver certificates under
the circular OF the department dated Sep
TENDER 1S, 1880, authorizing their ex-
change for gold coin and bullion has been
quite extensive at New Orleans, st. Louis,
Chicago and Cincinnati, and there were
paid out at these points during the month
of October So, 1856 900 in silver certificates
for an equal amount of gold coin deposited
in the sub-treasury in New York.
And in December, 1881, the Secretary OF
the Treasury in his report says.
"The Department has issued silver GER
tificates at the several sub-treasury offices,
upon a deposit in gold coin in like amount
with the Assistant Treasurer at New York,
and through this means certificates lave
been issued for nearly all the silver held by
the Treasury. These certificates amount
to $66, 900 1000 and are now outstand-
ing"
The condition of things doubtless rend-
cred the following order necessary, as all
or nearly all the silver coin in the Treasury |
was represented by outstanding silver GER
t~ifcates
TREASURY DEPARTMENT,
SECRETARY's OFFICE, :
WASHINGTON, D. c., November l., 1881.
Until further notice the exchange of silver GER
~tificates for gold coin deposited at the office of
the United States Assistant Treasurer at New
1OrK Will De SuSpenQeQ, ana department C1rcu- |
lar No. rs, of September IS, 1880, Is hereby modi-
fled accordingly. H.. F. FRENCH,
Acting Secretary"
Subsequently this restriction was re-
moved for a time and over $50, 900, 900 OF
silver certificates were taken principally by
the Poop e of the South and West in ex-
change for gold coin. The privilege was
finally withdrawn in January. 1885. l ask
in view of these facts how it can properly
no cha ruaC thot tho roD~1n will p.f ~ tho |
silver coinage, that they are boarding gold,
that the deprecated paper WILSON greatly
impair the purchasing power of the poor
mans wages, and that we are on the verge
Of a financial crisis unless We bring all our
transactions at once to a gold basis?
1t must not be forgotten that all the
gold coin deposited for silver certificates
became at once the property OF the United
States it was not held in the Treasury
for their redemption. An equal amount
Of silver coin took it's place for that pur-
pose at Once. Men who owned gold all
over the South and West, in Louisville,
Indianapolis, Nashville, and other places,
as well as those cities named in the report,
sent their coin at their own expense to the
Assistant Treasurer in New York in or
der to AVE silver certificates delivered
to them for use as currency at home. Yet,
during all that time, the bullion value OF
gold in London wal at lease Is per cent.
more than silver. and the country was be-
ing periodically alarmed. and Congress ad-
vised by our officials that gold was leaving
the country, that silver was a degraded
standard OF value, and that it's coinage
must be stopped or it's weight increased or
ruin would speedily be upon us because of
it's depreciation in the London market.
The facts l ave stated overthrow all the
OF the theorists. Our bust.
ness men gladly exchanged their gold coin
for silver certificates and did not ask any
better security for the PAPER they took
than the silver dollar deposited in the
Treasury. So far from boarding gold be-
cause OF it's greater bullion value in a
foreign market, they sent it to a distant
depository to get the paper we are advised
Is or 20 per cent. below gold in Lon
don. l have thus imperfectly outlined
the reasons why l cannot sustain at this
a policy which seeks to withdraw
either our legal-teuder notes, the silver GER
t%lficates, or stop the silver coinage. and l
see no propriety in increasing the weight Of
our silver coin beyond the standard value
by law in July, 1870. under and by
all our outstanding bonded indebted
ness is regulated. l am convinced that we
no longer look with safety to the Ma
banks to furnish the country with a
stable currency.
I insist that every creditor of the Gov
is by law entitled to be paid in
the same coin, and that our Treasury Of
6cials should be required to pay silver as
we'll as gold when received for custom
dues to our b~ondholders, as they do all
others who have legal demands upon the
Treasury; that done, there will be no need,
at least for years to come, to strike down
silver in any form. The country is now
from a long period Of depres-
sion. All railroad securities recently fell
per cent. on the average in eighteen |
Wheat, cotton, cattle, hogs. all !
arm products, are even now so depressed
hat they leave no profit to the producer,