Mexico weekly ledger., 1895-05-23
Mr.. LlaWeIlYn-His Facts.
Ffesiandenoe Of Iha Ledger.

SpiiSaimhASliAp ~ thp IfpaSpf+
a~REENylLlE, Miss, May ia,-Mr.
Lleweilyn In a fair representative of
the gold monometalliat outside of the
great capital and speculative eenters'
lie Is sincere and honest in his belief.
But let us see how fallaeioua are the
grounds for 1t.
He asserts that 1--WE have minted iii
i5 years sixty times as many silver
| dollars as we did in eighty years, but
| the people will not have them; only
| about one-tenth are In circulation.
| Has not the experiment been tried far
enough to satisfy every one that we are
a gold producing country and can have
| gold in abundance?" AS to the latter
part of this assertion, the Treasury
department would pay him a large
bonus to show them how to do it. Mr..
Cleveland stated in the most impress
i've manner to Congress that we were
on the brink of utter depletion of the
treasury of gold, and gave this fact as
the excus for the repeated issue of
bonds and by solemn compact, in the
last issue, stipulated the gold was
to be drawn principally from abroad,
paying therefor a high premium. In
fact, all Europe is grabbing for gold
in the language of Bismarck-in a
scramble for a blanket too short to
cover all. l am astonished at such an
assertion from a man of Mr.. Lew
ellyn's intelligence as well as at the
other part of the statement: That only
one-tenth of the silver coinage is in
circulation. The fact is, the Treasury
reports show that every dollar of it is
represented by silver certificates in
circulation, except such as circulates
as coin or is held in the Treasury for
current expenses; and from the straits
the Treasury is in this latter must be
very small. About the only silver in
the Treasury not represented in circu-
lation or available for expenses, (sala-
ries and other ordinary expenses of
the government are paid in silver or
other current funds is the uncoined
seigniorage. In obedience to the needs
Of the Treasury and the popular de-
mand, Congress passed n bill for its
coinage, but the President vetoed it
and instead issued Understanding
bonds to replenish the Treasury.
The growth of population, business
and change of business methods do
not enter into Mr.. Llewellyn's proper
tionment of the coinage. And when
he says 'sThe silver dollar has been a
useless and unused coin" the best an
swer would be to invite him to a stroll
around the square and take note of
the cash drawers of the business
houses and the bank counters and re-
port the result, especially the number
of gold dollars found, his favorite unit
of value. l I'M afraid he would have to
report another "useless and unused
coin." Nor does he take into account,
in his statement of the small amount
of silver dollars formerly coined, the
large amount of fractional silver(some
ninety-seven million dollars) doing
service for the dollar as well as the
foreign coins, Spanish and Mexican,
in use at the time, and which acts OF
Congress made legaltender, estimated
to be as much more.
81 have been unable to find any
debts except the national debt, that is
twenty years old" says MI. L~lewellyn.
What has become of all the state and
debts, amounting per the
United States census of 1890 to 81, 135,-
210,442, and the many county debts,
for some of which Judges of County
Courts in Missouri suffer annual imp
Andthe railway indebted
ness is given by Peers Manual at So
1853, 611, 204. Besides there are the mort
gage debts of business enterprises, re-
atty, street railways and manufacto-
ries, not to speak of loans from banks
of saving, insurance and trust COM
panies, the total rising into many bill
lions, estimated by some statstiicians
high as forty billions of dollars, in
Guiding the national debtof S9000Oo0o0.
Yet, according to MIR. Llewellyn's re-
search, all this load of debt has been
made within 20 years, during which
period 1--WE have increased in wealth
until we are the richest people on
earth"
But the most surprising statement
in Mr.. Llewellyn's communication is
'sthat the act of 1873 made no differ
ence in our financial condition. 1t
merely put into written law hat which
had been the practice since 1884" Yet
tame and harmless a proceeding
has been mathematical by national
conventions as the great 'crime" of
our legislative history. What are the
facts? By the original act of 1892 es-
tablishing III coinage, the silver dollar
was made the unit of value, and gold
pieces were valued i'll these units or
dollars, the ratio fixed at Is to /.
Both were made full legal tender in
payment of all debts, and given equally
the privilege of unlimited coinage at
the mint. Nothing occurred to change
the status of either metal until 1884,
when the amount of pure gold in the
gold piece vas reduced from 24.7
grains to 1872 grains, the standard sill
yer dollar remaining the same. An
other slight change was made in the
gold coin in 1887, adding .02 of a grain
to IL. But the standard of 371i4 of
DAINT crack.