The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1895-07-25
"SILvER AS MONEY"

| EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: You still
continue your abuse Of the "use of silver q.
money" Suppose You get and publish I
sworn or certified statement by the U.
| Treasurer of the amount of coined silver or
hand, not in any way hypothecated. Try t.
be fair, aud people will place greater conf
| dence in what you say. Remember thu
crash of '93, when in New York City these
| same silver dollars were at q premium.-J
n. STEPHENS, Denver, Colo.
This shows the unreasonableness o.
some men. THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE
has never "abused silver as money
On the contrary, it has been foremost Of
all the papers in the country in urging
the practical rehabilitation of the white
metal. If the people can be persuaded
to take out of the Treasury the $780,.
100000 worth of silver stored up there
and put it into active circulation in
their daily business, they will do more
to restore it to IFS former position than
all the speeches made and all the books
written from now until the end of the
century. For more than three years now
we have been the only paper in the
country which has urged this plain,
reasonable course upon the friends of
silver. The American people have little
respect for theories which are not re-
duced to practice. They look upon
men who are daily shouting for silver for
somebody else, and yet never whisper a
request for silver in their daily dealings,
very much as they do men who preach
piety TO Others, yet allow themselves to
lead lives devoid of moral restraint.
There are enough professed friends of
silver in the country to take every dol
lar out Of the Treasury in a month, if
they would be consistent, and act in ac-
cordance with their theories. Yet the
stubborn fact remains that there are
$4,000 fewer silver dollars in circula-
ton this year than last
We have already published the state
ment Of the United States Treasurer
showing that there are from S4S,000,0 900
TO s5O,000,000 in the Treasury, "not
hypothecated." These monthly re-
ports are public property, and just as
accessible to Mr.. Stephens as they are to
us.
But this is evading the pith of the mat
ter. The overwhelming fact is that on
July and for years previous there were
stored up in the Treasury 81 ,306,057
silver dollars, and s124,479,S49 worth
of silver bars, which apparently nobody
wants, for nobody ever asks for them,
and which have no more actual use as
money than the bricks and stones of the
vaults in which they are stored. 1t does
not alter the fact to say that a great
part of them are represented by notes
in circulation. There would be some
force in this if it were daily occurrence
for men to take some of these notes to
the Treasury and demand silver for
them. But they don't do this. They
always want gold or greenbacks for their
silver certificates. and so these represent,
at last, the ability Of the United States
to pay gold for them. This is so clear
that any man ought to be able to see it.
Again, we say that if the silver men
are sincere, they will do as the French
use silver in their daily transactions,
and so take il out of the Treasury and
out Of sight-prove their faith by works,
by constantly buying and selling for
silver.