Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-11-03

FOSTERING CARE OF SILVER.
A who hold to the silver side Of the
currency question claim that silver has
not been fairly dealt with by the gov
eminent, and that the present low
price Of silver bullion is largely owing
To legislation adverse to silver as a
money metal. Not only is this claim
utterly without foundation, bur, on
the other hand, the government has
persstcntly, and at great expense, en-
deaVored to maintain silver on parity
with gold as a medium of exchange.
The following communication makes
very plain indeed the fact that silver
has been more Disseminated against
by the American people, themselves,
in their everyday business, than
by their representatives in congress:
EDITOR or TIE DEMOCRAT: Under
the law of 1873 the treasury was EN-
powered to purchase and coin not less
than 100000 worth of silver bullion
each month. As you see, this was an
annual purchase and coinage of $24,
100000 worth - an amount about
equal to the yearly output of the
American silver mines. As this pur-
chase practically absorbed the quantity
produced it sustained or did much to
sustain the declining market price of
silver. And this was the thinly dis
guised purpose of the silver bullion
holders in urging the passage of the
law; it forced the government into the
market as buyer of silver. Now, what
happened? At the end of June 1879,
OF total coinage Of $36,000,000, the
treasury held in its vaults no less than
S2S,0Oo,00O. Two dollars in nine dol
lars was in circulation. Here 49,
100000 was taken by taxation from
the people and paid out by the gov
eminent for silver bullion which, when
coined, was simply stored away.
The treasury department has made
every effort to get the dollar coins out
o. its hands and into circulation
among the people. Let him who
doubts this read carefully what fol
lows:
Congress has each year taxed the
people a certain sum to enable the
treasury to ship the silver dollars, free
Of expense, to all who apply for them,
in any part of the country.
The great bulk of those sent out in |
this way return to the treasury almost
at once. Even the silver certificates
of $40 and $40 denominations, issued
IN place of the coins, did not circulate
as was expected. To increase the
circulation of the coins and the Ger
tiicates, in 1880, 1881, 1882, 1888, a
plan was entered into between the
treasury and persons having payments
to make in the west and southwest,
whereby the cost of shipping cash was
saved to those persons; tits partly un-
loaded the treasury Ct accommodating
coins and certificates. To aid in put
ting silver and its Taper representatives
into use among tie people, in 1879, it
was decided tfat no more national
bank notes of .ess than IS should be
issued; this made an opening for the
coins and. to some extent, for the Ger
titicates.
Again, the inevitable decline of
national bank note circulation from
The latter part of 1882, due to the
retirement of United State bonds upon
which they were based, made room for
more coins and certificates. Notwith-
standing all of this, from the beginning
of 1884 to the middle of 1886 the cir
culation of the coins and certificates
remained stationary, and in July,
1886, there was of dead silver in the
treasury, S94,000,0Oo
Going back one step, in June, 1885,
the government stopped issuing green
backs of less than IS denominations,
for the express purpose and in the
hope of increasing the use of silver dol
lars and certificates, yet at that time
there was nearly S45.000,000 in certifi-
Gates lying idle in the treasury.
In 1886, another law was passed
having the same motive, that of in
creasing the use of silver, allowing the
issue of silver certificates in denomi-
nations of SIS, SIS, and SOS, which,
while it did not help to move the
coins, did increase the use of the
Certificates representing the CONS.
In view of these facts, and remem-
bering that the government is
liable to put money into circulation at
all, except as it pays it out in interest
on the public debt, in pensions, toua-
ties to men to get them to raise
sugar, and to the Indians, in salaries
to the different departments, and in
the purchase for redemption of its