The Hawaiian gazette., 1893-09-05
A FAIR AND PRACTICABLE
PLAN.

Professor George Gunton, president
of the School of Social Economics,
New York, and editor of the Social
Economist, is a fair, clear-headed
man, and neither silver nor a gold
bug.
He does not believe in demonetizing
silver. nor does he believe that its
value should be artifcially enhanced
by our government buying it and stor-
ing it in the vaults of the treasury, OF
giving it free coinage on any other
basis than a gold dollars worth of sill
yer in dollar; or, if silver certificates
are issued against deposits of silver
bullion, it should be on the same
basis
This is what most business men be-
lieve. They do not want the volume
of circulating medium decreased by
having gold drive silver out of circu-
Iation, nor by having silver drive gold
out of circulation; but they want both
to circulate on an equality which will
give every producer and laborer a dol
lar for his produce or labor that will
buy dollars worth of other things
he may require.
Professor Gunton, in the Social
Economist, says:
frThere is no financial or economic
reason in either practice or theory
why silver should be demonetiZed,
and there are strong industrial and
social reasons why it should not.
"There is every reason for believing
tIok S;I ,,oaY, rr-ho IN mot ipHnanoa1
by mere shark impulse to force the
government to create a market for
Overvalued silver will be found per-
fectly willing to repeal the Sherman
act provided some rational measure
can be substituted by which silver
shall be allowed to remain per-
manent part of our currency. A
thoroughly practical way of doing
this was suggested by the Social
Economist for June, namely, to pro-
vide for the free use of silver at its
bullion value, just the same as gold,
making every silver dollar and every
silver certificate redeemable on de-
mand in a dollars worth of silver.
This would permit every one to have
all the silver he wished converted
into money if he had any interest in
doing so, and such money would
always be worth its face value in the
metal it represented. No one could
lose by receiving it, because, like gold,
it would always be convertible into
its face value in bullion or coin.
'To put the case in more specific
form, we would say that congress
should
81. Repeal the purchasing clause
in the Sherman act.
"2. Authorize the secretary of the
treasury to use the silver now in the
government vaults to redeem the sill
yer certificates issued under the Sher-
man act at their face value in silver,
thus making every silver dollar or
certificate as good as a gold dollar or
certificate the world over, by being
convertible on demand into a dollars
worth of silver.
49, Authorize the secretary of the
treasury to issue bonds to an amount
equal to the deficiency of silver in the
treasury, to meet the outstanding GER
tificates at bullion value.
~. Provide that hereafter, except
as fractional currency, silver shall be
put on the same basis as gold; that is,
it shall be freely issued as coin or GER
tificates at its full bullion value, a
dollar of either always being redeem
able OH demand in dollars worth of
silver.
rs. In order to secure government |
against loss through depreciation of |
silver, the secretary of the treasury
shall be empowered to charge two per
cent. for issuing coin or certificates,
and increase the charge proportionate-
ly as the price of silver declines, suf-
to keep the aggregate amount |
Of silver on deposit equal to the aggre
gate demand against it in coin and
certificates in circulation, the charge
rising as the value of silver falls, and
falling as the price of silver rises.
"6. If the administration would
propose such measure, no serious OPP
position would be offered to it by the
silver men and absolutely no danger
could come to the community. We
should then have both free silver and
| sound money"