Mexico weekly ledger., 1894-03-22
The seigniorage Bill Explained.


From the st. Louis Republic.
In order to have the country know
what the second section contained
the man who ought to know best
what it has in it, Mr.. Bland, was
asked to explain to the readers
of the Republic the nature Of the sec
ond section. He said:
To understand what the seignior-
age means, it is necessary to go into
the case somewhat in detail. There
is bullion enough on hand purchased
under the Sherman act, to coin
$3.50, 00O, 900 of standard silver dol
lars. There are $685. O0, 900 of
Sherman notes to be redeemed, so
that, when the whole amount of the
bullion shall be coined, there will be
80, OOO,0 900 silver dollars, in round
numbers, over and above the $125,-
DOC, 900 Treasury notes. This sur
plus of $50, 600, 900 is called the
gain, OF seigniorage, and the first
section of the bill provides to utilize
this gain or seigniorage Immediately
in the payment of public expendi-
lures, leaving 1926, o0O, 900 as a re-
demption fund for the Sherman
notes. These Sherman notes are re-
deemed in gold or silver coin, under
the Sherman law, at the direction of
the Secretary of the Treasury. That
discretion has been exercised by the
redemption of the notes III gold only.
"In order to avoid this, the second
section of the bill provides that after
the coinage of the seigniorage the re-
mainder of the bullion shall be coin
ed to redeem the Sherman notes,
and as fast as the bullion shall be
coined and held in the Treasury for
the redemption of the notes, when
the notes become the property of the
Government, they shall not be re-
issued, but cancelled and destroyed,
and the silver dollar or the silver
certificate representing silver dollars
alone shall be issued in the place OF
the Sherman notes. This in the
course of time will convert all of the
Sherman notes into a circulating
medium composed of the silver dol
lar or the silver certificate, and thus
prevent these notes from being pre-
sented tothe Treasury and gold paid
out on them. The gold standard
advocates object to this because of
its putting silver into circulation in
place of gold-that is, silver certif-
Gates in place of gold notes-and
because it adds to the silver circula-
ton of the country $3.50, 0O0,0 900 in
excess of what we have now"
This is the first full explanation Of
the second section of the bill that
has been made, and if the bill is
vetoed it will be on the second rather
than on the first section. As stated
before, however, there is reason to
believe that the President has not
yet made up his mind what he will
do with it.
For party purposes, a good many
men who are not friends of silver,
are urging the President at this time
to approve, in order that he should
convince the country that he is not
an enemy OF silver, per Sc, but only
opposed to general silver coinage on
the ground hat it would be dis
turbing to the financial interests of
the country, and that silver would
not be maintained on a parity with
gold without an international con-
ference. A majority of the people
here are still inclined to the belief
that he will approve the bill, and
yet nobody here can say with au'
thority or even with a basis for au.
thority what the President will do