Omaha daily bee., 1894-02-05
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II is announced that on Tnesiay the sill
yer question will again be thrust upon the
attention OF congress by tho bill proposing
tho coinage OF the selgnIorage. which has
been favorably reported. The purpose Of
this measure is 60 authorize the immediate
Issue OF certificates against tho selgnloragc,
amounting to about $50. 600 00g. and TO re-
qulre the coinage OF the silver bullion In
the treasury as rapidly as possible. The
Idea is that In this way the
threatened treasury dcacit can be
taken care Of, while at tho
same time silver will bc given n recognition.
MIR. Bland, :he author OF the hill, is quoted
as saying that there is no doubt as to its
passage. lie thinks That the feeling is far
different now from that which prevailed at
the time Of the repeal Of the silver purchase
clause OF the act Of 1890. and that his bill
VIII, get many votes that were given at that
time for repeal. The consideration Of this
mea,qare will, of course, involve a general
discussion of the silver question, but 1t will
not be prolonged. The plan is to get a vote
on the bill by Wednesday, and IL Is not sur
prlsing to learn that the advocates of the
measure expect that 1t will pass the house.
The plan of using the silver seigniorage
20 provide against the treasury deficit may
seem plausible to Il great many people, but
aa a matter Of fact It is simply a trick Of the
free silver men TO advance the cause they
advocate. BY seigniorage is meant the
apparent profit to the government
which results from coming go cents
worth of silver into a dollar and issu-
ing 1t as such. The idea that this
is a real profit, however, disappears after the
first transaction, for the government Is bound
TO receive the 60-cent dollar In payment of
public dues, and, not only so, but 1t is obli-
gated by public policy to keep it's silver cur
rency as good as gold, or in other words, to
use the technical language applicable to the
case, to maintain the parity between the two
metals. The proposition TO issue certificates
against this assumed profit of the government
in it's purchases of silver obviously amounts
to nothing more or less than a pro-
posal to create so much fiat currency
and thereby TO increase the demand upon
the gold resources OF the government to
maintain the parity Of the currency. II
the proposed bill Of Mr.. Bland should be
adopted there would at once be added to the
paper money of the country redeemable in
gold a sum of s56. 900. 900. and this would
necessarily increase the strain upon the abil.
tty of the treasury TO maintain resumption
and intensity the difficulties under which
that department is now l~aboring. The
policy of the government is to
maintain all forms of the
currency at a parity, and every addition to
the currency of paper augments the diflcul-
ties Of the treasury, as was clearly pointed
out in the last report Of the secretary.
From this point of view there can he no
benefit to the treasury from the proposition
contained in the Bland bill. On the con,
trary, the effect of such legislation could
hardly fail to be embarrassing to the treas
ury and injurious to the public credit. 1t
seems hardly probable that such a propcsi-
tion can pass either branch of congress.