The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-03-21
BI-METALIsM IN HAWAII.

it is about five years and half
since the first iustalment Of the pres
ent silver coinage OF this Kingdom
was received from San Francisco. .
The entire amount Of one million
dollars arrived IN the course Of the .
year following. There was much OBJ
lection made to this coinage at the
time; most serious approximations
were entertained by many persons
as to the effect upon our finances. |
The great silver war was raging with
severity at that time in New York
and Washington, between the mono
metalists on one hand and Mr. Bland
and his followers on the other, the
latter finally carrying the day so far
as to secure the passage by Congress
of law compelling the coinage of a
limited amount of silver every month.
That the great majority of our bust
ness men, and of those who had
given any special attention to such
questions leaned more or less
strongly to the mOnO-metalic side of
the controversy can hardly be
doubted. After five years expert
ence of the use of our present circu-
lating medium, some lessons may
perhaps be drawn; some light posi-
bly, thrown, even from our little state,
upon the vexed questions of bi-met-
alism and silver currency It is
strongly claimed by the advocates of
the bi-metalic theory, that our expe-
rience suggests little or nothing I'M
favorable thereto. The following
may, we think, be accepted as a brief
but sufficiently accurate statement
of some Of their leading arguments.
1t is claimed at the outset, that al
though a majority of our business
men regarded the introduction of a
currency of a million dollars of silver
as very dangerous experiment, the
dissatisfaction was much heightened
by the attendant circumstances, and
the thoroughly unbusinesshke way
In which the whole transaction was
managed. The seigniorage on the
silver used was entirely absorbed by
the parties concerned IN procuring
the coinage at the United States
Mint in San Francisco. The silver
required to make one dollar being
quoted at eighty-two cents, eighteen
cents was nominally expended In
minting each dollar, or about $780,
600 for the whole. But as nearly
half the coin was in halves, quarters
or dimes, weighing less in proper
ton, the seigniorage was in fact con
siderably more.
No satisfactory explanation was
ever made of where the seigDiorage
went, or how the Doodle was divided
Soon after this, the Treasury pro
ceeded to buy up at nearly par rates,
the old silver currency consisting Of
five franc pieces, Mexican dollars
and so on, reseling them abroad at a
loss, as we believe, Of something like
100000 These facts and others
which need not be recounted. pointed
so strongly to either criminal com
plicity on the part of our public Of
ficials, or scarcely less criminal in
competence and carelessness, as to
saddle the new currency with bur
den of unpopulanty which had no
thing to do with the soundness of
the bi- metallic theory, or the desira-
bility of a silver circulating medium.
One fear that was felt at the time,
was that it would be impossible for
community then numbering some
$4,000 people to absorb into general
circulation so large an amount of
coin. Time, say the bi-metalists,
seems to have proved this apprehen-
sion groundless. We are employ
ing the whole million of silver.
and perhaps half a million more of
Z. S. gold coin, all now in active
circulation, or nearly twenty dollars
each to every man, woman and child
in the kingdom. The same amount
of coin to each of the sixty million
people Of the United States, would
amount to S75O,OOO,OCO of silver and
S375,OOO,OOO of gold. According to
the latest statistics, the amount of
coinage of the respective metals