The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1894-05-04
Friday, May 4, 1894.
What Shall be Done With the Silver.

in government vaults sufficient to aggre.
gate sum of $572, Io7, 96I according to
the St. Louis Rebn6kic. We presume the
statement is correct. Very few persons
realize what this hundreds of millions of
silver dollars mean in avoirdepois.
Let us figure little. A silver dollar
weighs 412H grains. There are 4So grains
in an ounce, $572, 1o7, 1850 therefore con-
tain 235, $685. 58,eI2 grains. Divide this
sum by 4So, the number of grains con
tanned in one ounce, and we have 49I,-
1874 ounces, which being divided by 16,
the number of ounces in a pound avolr-
dupois, the product is 3o,92S,e92 pounds.
In order to reduce this sum to tons we
divide it by 1000, the number of pounds
in ton, and we find that Uncle Sam has
locked up in his silver safe repositories
the enormous quantity of 1854 tons and
eo2 pound, dropping fractions. Ten tons
is fair load for freight car, and any
person can cipher out the trains of freight
cars this immense pile of silver would
load.
Against this silver there have been
$3.50, 900, 600 of silver certificates issued,
and about $50, 100000 treasury notes
under the Sherman law of 1890, the pur:
chasing and issuing clause of which is
now repealed. Whatever the future Of
silver may be the problem confronts the
country: what shall be done with these
thousands of tons of silver and silver
dollars? They cannot lie in iron vaults
year after year, as utterly useless as SC
many tons of granite or pigiron.
There is but one sensible and business
method by which this enormous quantity
of silver can be put to active use as
money. In place of the nearly foul
thousand national banks chartered by the
government and placed in the hands Of
private corporations, Congress can estab
lish as many government banks, to be
controlled by its own officers as the post
offices are, and distribute this silver
money, having coined the bullion in its
possession, amongst those banks, whose
vaults and safes would hold it as securely
as it is now held. This, at present,
useless, or rather held out of use, silver
could then be loaned to the people, who
would use it in their legitimate business
and return it to the banks i'll the shape OF
deposits, just as they do at present, the
money in circulation, to the national and
other banks. The object of boarding
these fifteen thousand tons of silver is
said to be to meet the de1nands-when
1nade-by the holders of $3.50, ooo, 900 OF
silver certificates which have been issued
against it and are doing business as money
in place of the silver.
When we had no other banks than
State banks, whose money was nothing
but due-bills or promissory notes, bearing
no interest, the. bank was considered very
sound and prepared to stand the heaviest
run in those panicy times if it held one
dollar in specie for three of its notes i'll
circulation. In fact if the depositors
were convinced of this they would not
run on such bank.
Everybody knows that if there were
government banks established over the
country wherever the demands of bus
mess call for such bank and the boards
of silver dollars distributed among them,
that they would be ready to cash every
certificate presented, land there wou1dn' t
be one in a thousand presented for such
purpose) and in addition the banks could
issue 1886 millions additional currency,
and be perfectly sound if we consider the
question only on the specie basis system
of the old State banks, for it is utterly
inconceivable that the people of this
country would load up with fifteen thous-
and tons of silver dollars for fear the
government banks would break. We
are leaving out of the argument the SOW
ereign power of the government to make
all of its currency legal tender, backed
only by law of Congress giving force to
the edict. Every one who has made the
financial question a study sufficiently
searching to comprehend it, is satisfied
that the specie basis" is an arrant hum
bug and cheat. But in order to confront
and confound those who from any reason
are. not ready to admit this, we have
based our proposition on the old State
bank Specie basis" delusion, i'll order to
convince even the greatest skeptic that
the government with its millions of silver
dollars, in place of issuing $3.50, 900, 900 Of
paper currency, could, through system
of banks under its own management
issue one thousand eight hundred mil
lions, and at the same time meet every
demand for silver out of the $572, 200, ooc
held as "specie basis"
There could never be a run" on q
government bank which guaranteed the
depositors. In all the years from 1875
the silver certificates have circulated
freely and there has been no demand tc
have them cashed. And it is one of the
most brazen cheats to store these tons o.
silver away in steel and brick vaults and
tell the people 1t is for the purpose o.
cashing certificates. Fifteen years have
rolled away, and not certificate in the
knowledge of the public has been pre-
scented to be cashed with silver dollars.
When this question of finance is calmly
viewed with all the experience of the
past, it is matter for establishment how
the people will submit to be swindled and
robbed bY lot of money sharpers. head.