The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-23
THEY HAVE NO PENNIES.
Their Absence Felt by CalIfOrninns
In Financial Circulation.

From the San Francisco Chronicle.
1t is starnge that the penny mas not been
brought into use on the Pacific coast, since
ii would benefit the buyer and producer
and work no injury to the seller except
possibly increase the volume of his bust
ness without proportionate addition to
his profits. Its direct benefits would be
so great and widespread and its second
airy advantages equally so positive and eX-
tensiYe In the way OF cultivating frugal
lty that II is indeed remarkable that We
should be so inhosptable to the introduc-
ton and use of the small coin. No prob
lem in Euclid can be demonstrated more
lucidly or unequivocally than that the use
of the penny would add a substantial in
crease to the wages or salary of every
workingman or clerk. Thus, II man buys
half dozen eggs Tor cents ana must
pay 10 because small coins to make the
change are not in use, he loses cents,
or 20 per cent. of the purchase price. If he
spent his wages in small purchases OF that
character he would lose 20 cents in every
dollar, and If he were a Wage-WOrker at
$l.50 day he would lose by the end of the
month 49, The saving of such an amount
would be equivalent to an increase in his
wages of 20 per cent. OF course all of a
mans wages are not laid out in small
purchases but IL one stops to think, it is
remarkable how much a man of small
means buys in small quantities;
If a man can save in his purchases from
5 TO 20 per cent of his income, he has just
that much more to expend for other arti-
cles If the workman saves 2cents in the
purchase of half a dozen eggs, he has
that additional amount to lay out for an
annie or an orange. His purchasing pow
er has been increased and consequently
the man who produces has Just so much
greater demand to supply. Thus the pro-
Queer is benefited to the degree OF the
increase in the buying power OF the peo-
pie.
1t may be said that the seller would
lose this odd change in the transaction
and this is true. Yet, if he could sell the
half dozen eggs for cents and thereby
get a fair profit, he ought not TO complain
because he cannot charge 20 per cent ad-
ditional. Furthermore, the buyer would
probaly spend for some other article the
amount he saved on one purchase, and the
seller would make a profit on that trans
action.
A careful study of the daily purchases
of a workingman with a small family will
show that he loses from 50 to 50 or 50 a
month because he does not receive exact
change from the seller. And this amounts
to a substantial and important sum. There
is also a secondary benefit bestowed IN
the use of small coins which should by no
means be despised. 1t is the advantage
derived from the impulse to frugality and
economy which it gives. If a child be CIV
en- a cent to spend instead of a nickel. II
has a great more respect for the nickel
and looks on 1t as of greater value than
though ii were the smallest coin in use.
What Is true with the child is true with
the man, and these subtle impressions
on the mind have an unconscious effect
lDon the opinion a man forms of the val
ne of money. 1t is said that the old Cali
fornian who used to measure values by
the rude way of weighing gold dust threw
the nickel in the street when ii was first
given him in change. But who would now
give up the nickel, or who can estimate
the benefits its use has brought to the
people? The penny is just as useful, Just
as beneficial to the people as the nickel,
and its coming should be warmly well
coined.