New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-07-27
1 SOLUTION UHICH SOLVES NOTHING.

4 SOLUTION UHICH SOLVES NOTHING.
Solutions of the silver problem, remedies of
| financial ills are not by any means lacking in
number. The woods are full of them. But
some of them lack knowledge of the facts, and
some of them lack honesty of intention Those
which seek to rob the creditors for the benefit
of impecunious debtors deserve defeat for their
dishonesty. Those which aim to propose Just
and fair solution in almost every instance are
based upon mistaken ideas of facts. Thus
dispatch on Wednesday morning announced
that distinguished gentleman had proposed
new solution of the silver problem, which. he
maintained would be entirely just to all in
terests, and would at the same time satisfy
the demands OF the silver producers. His idea
was that all the paper notes in circulation of
smaller denomination than So each should
be at once retired. and he affirmed that room
in circulation would thus be made for nearly
all the standard silver dollars now in the
Treasury. This he argued, would only he
adopting a method which other commercial
countries have long ago adopted since the
circulation of small paper notes is not permitted
elsewhere.
1t will be obvious that this gentleman. how
ever distinguished, has made some important
mistakes 1t is not of importance that circu
ating notes of less than - each are to some
extent used in other commercial countries. But
it is of importance that the aggregate of such
notes now in circulation here is very much less
than the amount of standard silver dollars in
the Treasury This gentleman does not seem
to know that the United States notes of less
than So in denomination amount IL the aggre-
gate to less than SlO,OOO,0O0. The amount
of new Treasury notes Of that description in
circulation is about 81 5000 900. Thus, If these
two kinds of small notes were retired, room
would be made for only about $40, 900, 900
silver coins. 1t will strike every man as a
question of some importance whether the peo-
pie, who have strongly insisted upon crc,-
lation of small notes instead of standard dol
lars, would at the behest of Congress consent to
surrender their frequently declared prefer
ences. 1t may be admitted that it would be
advantageous if the use Of silver could be in
creased in that way, but il is unsafe to con-
cudc that it could.
1t may be said that there is a considerable
circulation of small silver certificates. This is
true but these only represent the standard
dollars against which they are issued. The
exclusion Of these small certificates from the
circulation would in no way make room for a
larger body of silver coins in use and would
be of no practical service to silver miners
But even if these silver certificates were also
excluded from circulation. the addition to the
amount of standard dollars in use would still
be so small as to diminish but little the pile
of useless silver in the Treasury vaults. The
trouble is that the demand of the people for
coins and small notes together nowhere near
approaches the amount Of standard silver dol
lars already coined and waiting for use so
that if the people were forced to the metal |
instead of the paper, the change would only |
lessen. without appreciate practical effect. the |
stock of unused silver accumulated.
The root of the whole silver difficulty is
touched here. The methods of trade through
out the civilized world have so far changed
that the quantity of notes coins representing
less than 50 each is utterly inadequate to pro-
vide use for the greatly increased output of
silver. No solution can be Of practical SER
vice which does not recognize this fact