The Indiana State sentinel., 1886-01-13

to the clamor of the bondholders and vio-
lated the law by admitting their right to re-
fuse silver received at the Custom house
in payment of the interest or
degraded our standard silver dollar
by depriviDg it of its most important func-
ton as legal-tender; and now. having cap
tured the executive branch of the Govern
ment, the bondholders and their attorneys
are besieging Congress to enforce their de-
mand for gold alone in the settlement of
their claims, all law, justice and equity to
the contrary, Notwithstanding. by striking
down the silver of the standard value of
July, 1870, which they then demanded and
inserted in the face Of every bond they hold
as one of the CONS in which the bond
should be paid. 1t is hard to do justice to
their audacity in temperate language; l
hardly think am able to the task, aud will
not attempt it. 1 can, however, get the
facts before the people
The last report OF the Treasury, page 81
shows that the receipts at the New York
CuStom-house for the fiscal year 1885, were
paid as follows:
United States legal
tender $50 161 900, or IS per cent
United States gold
coin..........-........ l,544,OOO, or Upper cent.
United States gold
certificates.......... 4277e.oo0. 34I per cent.
United States silver
certifcates........... 4s6OOOO, or $50 per cent.
United States silver
coin................... 15s,OOo, or o.4 per cent.
Total............ sl25, ,SO2, 900. or 100 per cent
1t is fair to assume that the payments at
the other custom houses were made in sub
stantially the same character of money. 1t
will be observed that more of the customs
dues were paid in silver and silver certificates.
than were paid in gold and gold certificates;
all of it is by law special fund.- which can
not legally be paid or covered into the Treas
ury till the interest on the public debts paid
out OF it, and the bonds for the sinking fund
are purchased or redeemed.
These together, required about $1o5, ,000.-
600, yet not dollar of silver has been so ap-
piled; it is paid into the Treasury and held
there, and a cIamor is raised that it can not
be again got into circulation. If the law was
obeyed and the bondholdersrequiredt to take
the same proportion of silver dollars the
Government receives through its Custom
houses, the bondholders would have no diff
hculty IN getting them all into circulation;
and when ii is made their interest to main
tain and support the silver they own we
would hear no more about its being dis
honest money. The Secretary says (page IA
of his report) that the balance in the Treas
ury has been increased from the 4th of
March. 1885 to the 1st of November, 1895,
$5S, ,053, ,702.27, yet there has been no re-
duction of the interest-bearing debt land
that is a burden on taxpayers) since Novem-
ber, 1884, certainly not since March, 1885.
per cent bonds then outstanding, and pre-
cisely the same amount in November.
How is the surplus silver coin to get out of
the Treasury if the Secretary refuses to pay
it out for interest and refuses to call in the
bonds which are now payable?
There is no more effectual or pernicious
method of contracting the currency than by
collecting by taxation large sums in excess
of the needs of an economically admins
tered Government and locking it up in the
Treasury. Every dollar needlesslv taken
from the taxpayer wrongfully deprives him
of that much capital. which he needs and
labored to obtain, and when it is locked up
the circulating medium which all the people
want is wrongfully withheld from
them. The thief who steals and
squanders an unneeded surplus locked
up in the Treasury vaults
would infilct less injury on the country and
its business if the money he stole was put in
circulation, than Secretary who holds and
hides in vaults currency which the people
want, and refuses to use it IT, pay the debts,
especially interest-bearing ieots. which the
men who own this money owe. 1t is to raise
clamor about a surplus, but it will DE more
difficult to explain to the people why such
vast amounts of the money they have been
so heavily taxed to furnish is lying idle in
the overloaded Treasury vaults, and they de-
prived of its use, while interest is running
against them on bonds which can be and
ought to be paid The idle money when paid
out for interest on bonds would at once be
released and restored to circulation.
Speaking of circulation. We are constantly
told that there is now great abundance of
it outstanding; indeed, we are officially ad
vised that the legal tonder notes and the
silver certificates should all be withdrawn
presume because of the superabundance of
currency. Let us look for few minutes at
the effect of these recommer dations, if car
ried out, and see how far these certificates
are now used as currency.
1t was the avowed purpose of the advo-
Gates of both gold and silver certificates and
/ was one of them, to furnish safe, conven-
lent paper currency, every dollar of which
could be used just as the coin paid
! for il could be, and which would be
secured by the deposit OF an equal amount
of coin in the Treasury. No better security
| could be asked or given. 1t was not thought
| desirable to have the coin of either metal ex-
value by the abrasion which necessarily ac-
companies its active use. The transporta-
| tion of both was known to be dangerous and
expensive; all the expense and risk, as well
| as the deterioration OF the coin, was avoided
| by the use of the paper substitutes, while the
| United States were sure TO be amply COM
| pensated for all the expenses incurred for
| vaults, custodians, and everything else.
Wei mean by we all the people-re-
ceived a coin dollar for every paper dollar
| issued. We only pay out the com on the
paper brought back to our agents. All of it
that is lost by fire, flood or the thousand &C.
| cidents that all transito-y thiRgs are subject
| to is our gain. We had experience in opera
| tions of that sort, and knew that they were
| profitable. Forty-five millions of dollars of
| fractional currency was issued. We after
ward called it in for cancellation, and we
| now know that SIS, ,0O0, 900, or one-third of
| it, has been lost or destroyed. We made $751;
| coo 900 out of that issue, as we received full
| consideration for the whole amount issued.
| We only redeem such National Bank notes
| as are returned; and the amount now known
| to be lost is so great that the Comptroller
Is devising all sorts of ingenious plaus in
his report to get it away from us for the
| benefit of the banks. None of them lost
any of it. The people who borrowed it or
worked for it, after the banks got value re-
| ceived for it, were the sufferers; yet the
| Comptroller wants it all for the banks 1
expect they will get it. They have as much
right to it as to have their interest and prin-
| cipal paid in gold alone, or to have our sill
yer stricken. down. / have no idea. that
$500, 600, 600 of the $346, 600 600 OF greenbacks
charged in the reports as outstanding could
be returned if they were called in to-day. All
lost is clear profit to the Government. 1t is
1 ff4n.o 10 oil fbo oil oil