St. Paul daily globe., 1895-05-15


facts. His reports are bound bun
dies Of facts. He has no Imagination
or theories. His business is to find
facts; to know them when he finds
them; to detect the spurious and re-
iect it. He doesn't reason about them
or build conclusions with them. He
leaves that for some other one to- do.
He is the lumberman in the forest OF
facts, gathering the raw material
that others work up into economic
furniture and structures. We say
the official statistfcian to distinguish
him from the political statistician,
who is always more or less farce
and sometimes a fraud, especially in
census matters.
But to return. We said there are
some facts anent this money question
that 'rnen who want to think right
and be right should keep in their
minds in some handy place, easy OF
call and ready of access. Sn many
people take the wrong path and go
far astfay simply because they put
facts away in some corner of their
memories and forgot where they are,
if fthey. even do not forget that they
have them. We will give some OF
these facts that the official statis-
tician gives us in the reports of the
treasury department of our federal
government, and we will put them IN
a shape either to be remembered, or,
if your memory is poor, 50 that you
can cut them out and paste them in
your hat as the point nearest the seat
of your memory.
From the establishment of the mint
in 1893 to 1873 there were coined
S,031, ,541 silver dollars. During the
same time there were coined in halves,
quarters, dimes and half-dimes, $l54,-
54S, ,440.60. 1t is asserted, but not by
the official statistician, that all the
dollars and, before 1858, most of the
smaller coins either left the country
or went into the melting pot, but this
is a statement on the side.
From 1878 to 1894 there were coined
423, ,127,O39 standard silver dollars,
which is nearly fifty-four times as
many as were coined in the preced-
ing eighty years OF these dollars on
the 30th of last month there were
369. rs, $50 in the vaults Of the treas
ury and So, ,413, 709 in the pockets OF the
people, or 81 cents a head of the pop
ulation. In spite of the efforts of the
treasury to get the actual silver dol
lars out Of the vaults and in
circulation = at one time paying
the express charges for carrying them
to the man who wanted them-the
largest number ever in use was in
December, 1892, when there were
1892, 1886 out.
The same fact-gatherer and teller
says that if the people are 50 unwill-
ing to use the silver coin in their
business they are not averse to using
it when it is represented by bit OF
paper that is lighter to carry, and that
the silver dollars lying in the vaults
are represented by certificates assur-
ing the holder of them that the United
States will pay him the number of
silver dollars expressed on the race
on presentation at the treasury, and
that 323, 1921 of these dollars were
thus represented and doing work by
proxy on April 80. So it appears that
on that date, between the silver dol
lars and their paper substitutes,
there were 1915, ,62S, ,4S0 of silver
currency in circulation, or forty
seven times as many dollars as
the country got along quite COM
fortably and proftably with for eighty
years. 44z
Another fact couples with these,
and that is population, for two men
need more money than one does. In
1890 the population was 3,929,214. By
1870, covering the period Of the coin
age of the 100000 dollars, the popu-
lation had grown to 3S,55S,971, nearly
ten times as many BY 1890 the popu-
lation was g., 1922, $50, nearly sixteen
times as many as in 1890, but not twice
as many as in 1870. And still be-
tween 1870 and 1890, when the popu-
lation had not doubled, the currency
of the country was increased by sill
yer coins or paper substitutes forty
seven times as much as there was
while the population was increasing
ten-fold. These are facts that he
who wants to think right in order that
he may act right must take into all
his calculations.