The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-03-23
THE OMAHA "SEIGNIORAGE."
The Western JOkers Are Merely Follow
ing the Example Set by Congress.
New York Tribune.

New York Tribune.
There are practical jokers in Omaha. The
detectives of the government secret service
70 and quite little nest Of them the other
day The jokers had got up to the
"seigniorage'' game proposed by the pres
ent Congress, and were playing it for all
il is worth. As they understand the game,
the government had been buying silver for
a long time at varying prices and after
putting certain marks on it selling ii to
the public at a handsome profit 1t not be-
ing handy to move, the government ceased
putting marks Oh 1t and paying it out, but
kept on buying it and issuing its own notes
in payment for il. The notes were made
payable in silver, but as nobody wanted
silver it was enacted that in the eye of the
government silver was as good as gold.
which, though it was all in the govern
ment's eye, served to keep the notes in
circulation. The main purpose in this was
TO maintain the volume of currency" so
that there should be plenty of money and
everybody would have enough to be COM
Portable, and mortgages would cease to
be grinding and oppressive after the mort
gageors had spent the borrowed money.
ume of the currency was insufficient, and
that many deserving persons engaged in
agricultural pursuits in the West. who had
bought farm lands for 81 or 50 an acre
and borrowed So or $40 an acre on mort
cages and spent the money like men, had
some difficulty in paying interest. Natural
ernors and legislatures and members of
Congress to fix 1t up. These statesmen are
getting ready to coin the seigniorage' in
order to relieve the distress.
The Omaha jokers began to study the
selSniorage question. They found that
the government had bought an enormous
quantity of silver and stored it in the
treasury vaults, and that at the market
price the notes issued for the purchase rep
government. But they also found that if
the government should take the entire
amount stored and stamp every fifty cents
worth of II as dollar there would be a
profit of $50, 900 to the government; and
that this was TO be the government view
of the matter. They observed that under
made profitable, and, what was more, that
1t was possible for the government to put
out more notes at the rate of dollars
worth of notes on fifty cents worth of
collateral The jokers thought that If this
was a good thing for the government they
might go into it themselves. But they
found that they could not borrow a dollar
on their own notes with fifty cents worth
OF silver as collateral. So they decided not
relieve the general distress by going into
the business of selling fifty cents worth
OF silver for a dollar, and SO maintaining
time they have been buying silver bullion
of the Omaha smelters, and, after stamp
ing 1t precisely as the government does
they are selling silver to the public at
precisely the same rate the government
They are reported to have put in circula-
ton something like 100000 The proceed
ing lacks Formally, but If the issue of
S05,OO0,C00 of certificates on the theory that
an obviously and undeniably losing trans
action has been profitable, and on the basis
or fifty cents worth of collateral to the
dollar, is wise craftsmanship and honest
Wandering and calculated to relieve the
general distress, what is the matter with
the performance of the Omaha iokers who
have been doing by shorter process and
with less fuss about il precisely what the
United States government IS dOine2
Strictly speaking, the seigniorage is the
product of a government prerogative but
the coinage of il is avowedly to relieve the
financial distress of agricultural -communi-
ties in the South and West by maintaining
the volume of the currency. That is what
the Omaha jokers have been doing i'm "A
question of course, as 10 how the distressed
agriculturists who complain Of the scarcity
OF money are TO get hold of the Omaha
dollars without paying for them; but the
same question arises with regard to the
issues of the government The jokers do
not concern themselves with that. No more
does the government. Both the iokers and
the government doing their best to
make money plentiful. II Is the business of
the agriculturists TO get IL in whatever way
they when the proper per capita is
treasury circles at Washington that the
Omaha fellows are carrying the joke too
far. and disposition is manifested to break
up the enterprise and send- the jokers to
State prison. This Is another illustration OF
the ingratitude OF republics