The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1888-10-16
Qhe Sntelliotttfer.
THAT AWFUL SURPLUS.

How Forty Million Dollars of 1t is FictitIoul
Tho Profits oil Silver COInHge-A CloH
Statement of the Case.
The Iron Age,
There seems to be be good deal {
uncertainty us to the amount Of the SUI
plus in the United States Treas
ury. Some say there is practically non
at at all. Some say there is more tina
Sl0o,0O0,0oO. Some say there would b
none II the imperatively necessary eS
penditures for National objects and TO
the payment OF the actual obligations O
the Government were provided fol
Some say that il there is n surplus, ]
should be spent in buying bonds Vi tn
Government not yet due. And, 0
course, there are many schemes good
bad and Indifferent, for disposing OF th'
surplus, II there be one.
Strangely enough, no one seems Il
realize where part OF the surplus hai
actually come from. tits apparently &c
copied by all parties that this money ha'
been taken "irom the pockets Of the peO
ple" through the medium OF an excessive
collection OF revenue. Why las moi
some keen economist recognized the fact
that SlO,OO0,OOO nominally in the Treas
ury has never benin the pockets of the
people at all, but is simply the profits o.
the Government, derived from the sim
pie process OF buying silver bullion al
the market rate, and coming it into dol
lars at the rate Of 81 90 per ounce? The
last report OF the Director OF the Mint
shows that the "seignorage" on silver
coinage during the fiscal year ending
June so, 1887, was nearly $4,000, 600, and
that the total net profits Of this business
during the nine years OF its continuance,
after deducting cost OF coinage, losses oil
metal, and money paid by the Govern
ment in shipping silver dollars free to
all parts OF the country, in order TO
facilitate their circulation, amount to
SIS, GOl,277. Estimating the results oil
the three months which have since
elapsed, it is safe TO say that these PRO
Gts' now amount to Si0,000,000. We are
therefore justified in saying:
|. II the United States had made the
same purchases OF bullion, ut the same
prices, as has been actually the case, but
had coined dollars OF full value, SO as to
make no "fat" profit on the business,
the silver producers would not have
been affected; there would have been
no diilereuccin the course OF trade, but
there would now be surplus OF only
$50 600, 900, instead OF the Sl2O,0OO,OO6,
which the Treasury officials claim it
to be.
.. Ii the United States had coined the
same number OF dollars as it has done,
but had made them OF foil value, the
silver producers would have had the
benefit OF $iO0O0,000 additional pur-
chases OF bullion; the price Of silver
would have been to that extent supper
ted and there would now be so much
less surplus.
3. II the United States should desire
to enter into IN international agreement
for the demonstration of silver through
out the civilized world, it would be
Obliged, rs clearly appears from the re-
port Of Mr.. Edward Atkinson on that
subject, to recall and recon its silver
dollar coinage. This would involve two
losses: first, the loss OF the fictitious
value attached to the coins over and
above what the metal actually cost the