St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-05-09
A REPEATED SUGGESTION.

a REPEATED SUGGESIlON.
Evidently the question of what shall
be done with silver is one that has come
to stay until 1t is settled. As the GLOBE
sees the conditions they are controll-
ingly these: 1t is impossible, owing to
the persistence of the silver producers,
backed by sentiment of mixed fgno-
rance and conscious dishonesty, held by
large part of the people, for the gov
ernment to do either of the two things
it should do-demonetiZe silver until
the metal has attained an equilibrium
of value, or to readJu5t the ratios to the
market values of the two coin metals.
The same force which prevents thi S
Will prevent the unconditional repeal of
he SHERMAN act. They want "sOme-
thing just as good" in It's place. There
is large element favorable to the free
coinage of the white metal at the pres
ent ratio of 16 to l. There is another
element favorable to The demonetiza-
ton of silver.
Under these conditions what can the
government do that is nearest to what
it should do and involves the least sac
rifce of sound principles of coinage?
Amid the multiplicity of eXpedients
which have been presented the GLoBE
ventures to again present the Sngges-
ton it made nearly two years ago, and
which then had the approval of Mr..
CLEVELAND. 1t was not made as any,
thing but choice of evils, for the
GLOBE believes that the true way is the
old way of REIMBURSEMENT of ratios, to
which sometime the country will have
to come.
1t is Stoutly claimed that the depreci-
alton of silver as compared with gold
IS due more to artificial than to what
may be called natural causes; that it is
not due so much to the increase in the
production Of the metal as to the i'm
menSe loss of demand growing out Of
its decentralization by the nations Of
Europe. 1t is frequently asserted that
this cause is a removable one, and one
to the abandonment of which the ma
tions will be ultimately driven.
Assuming that this is the case, the gov
eminent can safely permit the free
coinage of silver if conditions are i'm
posed which will prevent the owners of
the bullion from getting greater value
for their metal than they could get in the
market. If coinage were free and it
produced no disturbance of relative
values, its effect would be to give the
bullion owners not only the 81 cents an
ounce, which is its present market
value, but they would realize S1.29 an
ounce, the coinage value. No sanely
honest man would think for an instant
of giving the miners such bounty on
their product.
At present under the SHERMAN silver
purchase act the government buys the
silver bullion and stores it, issuing
notes redeemable in coin. The Cbjec-
tons to this lie on the surface, but the
underlying objection is that it is not a
proper function of a government to buy
commodities and issue its promises to
pay for them. Under the act, however,
the mine owners get no more for their
product than its market value.
The suggestion of the GLOBE was that
the government permit the free coinage
of metal atits minis, delivering to the de-
position of the bullion standard dollars to
an amount equal to the market value Of
the metal deposited. If 100 ounces of
silver were deposited for coinage the
government would deliver the depositor
at present eighty-four standard dollars,
retaining the seignorage as a reserve
against the time when it would have to
make the dollars issued actual instead
of nominal dollars.
1t is submitted in support of this sug-
gestion that it is the nearest approach
to the proper policy possible. 1t is hon
est, giving no one al undue advantage.
1t gives the miners a market for all
their output at its current value. 1t
avoids the complications in the cur
rency resulting from the SHERMAN act.
The GLOBE believes it worthy of seri-
Gus consideration.