St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-01-14

Another term might better fit it if ore
could regard it as 4 serious proposition
or ole likely to be received with favor.
We believe that this is the maiden effort
OF the senator as a constructive states
man during his long term Of service.
HIS physiognomy indicates the fighter,
the destroyer. the iconoclast, rather than
the builder, and this proposed measur
of his is in keeping with his physiog.
nomy. He would issue legal tender
coin notes. redeemable in gold when
the reserve was above 500, 900. 900, and
in silver when below it, and with them
retire all the issues now in vogue. With
no provision for maintaining or increaS-
ing that reserve, the first and immediate
result would be run Oh thej treasury
for its gold, which would put the re-
serve down to silver redemption basis.
This would effectually stop the receipts
of gold. and we would drop to silver
basis at once. Gold would go to
premium, pass out of circulation, be
boarded, and this under the impulse OF
the law of selfspreservation acting In
the financial affairs of men. Mr.. Vest
fails to take human nature into his &C
count as a factor in finance.
The other feature Of Ills bill is treat
ment of silver which the GLOBE has
urged so often as the only one that will
admit of its full and free use without,
on the one hand, giving silver produc-
ers practical bounty, or, on the other,
endangering the basis of all our cur
rency. 1t is virtually an exchange at
The minis Of silver bullion for standard
dollars on the basis OF the market value
OF the bullion. The advantage OF this
plan is that it rem owes the cause of the
claim Of injustice to the white metal IN
volged in its exclusion from the minis,
and would clear the way for it to regain
whatever value it can under the law OF
demand-in the arts and cOlnage-and
supply. When that position shall have
been attained and held for a sufficient
time to assure stability of value that
would Justify it, there could then be a
reimbursement of ratios and q recOlnage.
But the bill OF the Missouri senator
defeats whatever merit there is in the
plan by requiring that the bullion Oh"
tanned by the government III this eX-
change as seigniorage should be coined
and used in defraying ordinary eX-
penSeS. 1t is difficult to treat this prop
OStiOn with the respect its source calls
for. 1t is neither wise nor honest. His
method is an admission that the dollar
coined is not an honest dollar; that the
producer of the bullion IS not entitled
to have it coined into dollars at what
the law prescribes as a legal dollar;
but under it the government prac-
tically buys his bullion at 60 cents
an ounce, pays him in dollars worth 90
cents an ounce, and then coins 1t into
dollars worth Sl.29 an ounce, and forces
their acceptance by everybody under
its legal tender power.
Waving the manifest dishonesty of
this, it is not wise. Nothing is more GER
tain than that some day the government
will have to make its silver dollars COM
modify dollars; make them have the
actual value their stamp expresses just
as its gold coins nave. Whether the
number is increased or not this will
have to be done. The country will be
plunging about in the boys of financial
distrust until it is done, or policy
adopted assuring its being done some
time. In short, the country has got
to get back to honesty in its money.
But the use of the seigniorage proposed
by the senator would increase the diff
Guilty Of ever doing this. 1t would add
to, instead of diminishing, the load. 1t
would deplete the supply Of bullion
which the government would have to
draw on when the time for readj
ment and recoinage comes.
More than this, it would inevitably
tend to further depress the value of the
silver bullion by adding so Immensely
to the debased coinage in existence.
The accumulation in the treasury now
is standing menace TO the value of the
entire silver product. The further in
crease would be but increasing the
threat. Besides this, there is the eX-
perience Of the treasury i'll trying to
force out the standard dollars. If from
1878 only some 60,000, 900 have been &C
cepted by holders Of treasury obliga-
lions or in payment of expenses, how
can it be expected to force out this new
flood? Those received by the bullion
owners at the minis would find their
way into circulation, but those coined
on government account would largely
stay in the treasury vaults.
Between the two measures, eliminate
ing the coinage Of the seigniorage and
the issue of coin notes from Vests and
adding to McPhersoD's some of the feat
ures suggested last week as probably to
be found in the new bill, we can see the
possibility Of framing a measure with
compromises in it to meet the Eastern
and Western views that would be feas-
ible and acceptable. But neither one
of these can pass alone.