Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1893-03-23
The sequestration Of Gold.

given up all hope ofrepealing the Sher-
man silver purchase act. They do
not want special session OF congress,
at least not until next fall, and that
mainly because they are by no means
prepared to carry out the pledge to
repeal the Mckinley act or do anything
tending to promote the single gold
standard policy.
The plan proposed now is simply for
the purchase of silver to be suspended
until the amount now in the treasury
uncoined has been minted into dol
lars. That would take about all the
term of Mr.. Cleveland's administra-
tion, and would be a long step toward
the single standard, especially nnder
the administration of secretary of
the treasury controlled by Wall street.
The constant agitation of this sub
Ject is having a pernicious effect. If
this country would only settle down
to bimetallism, without any variable
ness or shadow of turning, the effect
would be most wholesome and reas-
suring. Every time shipment ofgold
is made to Europe the fact is heralded
far and wide. Every goldite shrugs
his shoulders and puts on a look OF
alarm, as much as to say: "There,
don't you see the United States will
lose all itsgold if it continuesit its silver
policy?" The evident policy is to try
and frighten the American people into
giving up the attempt to maintain the
double standard. Therein lies the es-
pecial danger of the present situation.
As m after of fact theforeign drain
on our gold is not so serious matter
as the sequestration of it by private
parties. The supply of this coin in
the vaults of our government and OF
all other governments, also in the for
eign banks, which are the fiscal agen-
cies, largely, of their respective govern
ments, is matter of record. Anybody
can keep tab on that sort of gold.
But when a bank quietly lays away
gold by the bagsful, and especially
when private eindividualsa and corpora
tions lay by stocks OF 1T in safety de-
post boxes, there is no record made
! OF the sequestration. The only way
to get at the matter is by broad a2-
gregate estimates. Enough is known,
however, to warrant the conclusion
that the process of gold secretion
which is going on is of itself aRple rea'
son for not so much as entertaining
the idea of single gold standard.
An expert estimate OF the visible
supply OF coin in the United States
Europe and Australia is: Silver, ST.
900, 100000; gold, S1,S5O. 900 900,
From this it will be seen that there is
nearly twice as much gold as silver in
sight, and that the talk of the glut in
silver is arrant nonsense. Nor is that
all. At the present ratio OF increase
it will not be very long be,ore the sup
ply of gold will be more than twice the
supply of silver, ior last year the in
crease in the latter was only 10000,
900, while the increase in gold wa:
twice that. 1t is true that Russis
added $50, 100000 to its gold supply
last year and France S74, 4,0OO,OOC
and Austria is now laying in larg'
stock OF the yellow metal. But form
idable as these figures are they do moi
possess the real significance of the fact
that $4,000, 900 of tine gold coin wa
drawn from the "visible supply" o
this country right here at home, be
sides what was shipped abroad, ant
was put away in the traditional cl'
stocking of the people, those stock
ings being in large measure in safet.
, deposit boxes. Ii those boxes coul'
think and talk they could unfold
most interesting chapter in American
finance.
, To put a stop to this seauestratioI
, is the financial requirement of tn
situation. Let it be once UNDERSTOOD
, that the United States governmen
will not discriminatein favor of eithe
metal and will always make them In
: Interchangeable at par over it's owl
| counters and there will no longer b
, any occasion for sequestration. Th
banks will be able to say positively t
} their depositors, "any time you wan
E your money in either coin you ca
, have it, Only if the amount is largeyo
: must give us time to get it, if nece'
! sary, from the sub-treasury, wher
= there will always be enough and t
D spare of both metals. Inter Ocear