The Portland daily press., 1895-06-22
THE SILVER QUESTION,
To the Editor of the Press:

IL Obo AutOOf " CHC Goo
Only small part of the exchanges now
effected throughout the world owe anv-
thing whatever to specie, whatever NAV
be it's intrinsic value. The great hult,
not only of domestic but of foreign trade
is conducted on a cash basis by bills of
exchanges, checks and government and
bank notes. Of the payments made aft
the bank of France for the year 1885 ~
per cent. were made by bank notes, AZ .
by other instruments of credit, and only
4 1-2 per cent. by coin. The daily average
exchanges in the bank of England for the
same year were by drafts and checks 81
IA per cent, by bank notes 10 1-9 per
cent, and by coin IA of per cent. The
London banks for the same year used in
payments 1-2 per thousand of coin, and
for the following year only 1-2 per thou
sand.
Similar facts have been triumphantly
cited by the New York Tribune, as they
have by other advocates of the gold
standard, to prove that it is perfectly safe
to discard silver altogether from our mon
etary system because coins perform SO in
significant part in the commercial ex-
changes of the world The facts are well
enough, but the argumentative use of
them is sophistical and misleading. I
nnd III them a strong reason for retain
ing and strengthening silver as an essen
tlal or our monetary system. The legiti-
mate argument would be: bills of ex-
change, checks, bank notes, greenbaeks,
coupons, clearing certificates might, and
already do, form SO largely the instrument
THllt1RG ON I,o+
one OF the metallic coins might be dis
pensed with. But which of the two
would 1t be most convenient to give up.
MY personal expenditures are as modest
as is my condition, but 1 manage to pay
my way and keep my head above water
But do not think have had in my pos
session gold coin of any kind for the
last five, perhaps the last ten years. I
do not think my case at all peculiar
one. Specie payments were resumed in
1879. do not believe that gold coins for
purchases and payments were ever so lit
tie used in the United States as since that
date. Certainly not during the regime
OF suspension, when most everybody had
to provide himself with gold if he had
duties to pay, or if he was about to travel
outside of the limits of his own country
| think I might safely appeal to the
business usageS of my neighbors in this
city in asserting that if they have pay
ment to make in thousands, they use
checks, in hundreds, they use checks and
larger bank notes, in tens and cents they
use bank bills, and for fractional parts of
dollars, silver coins. Gold does not seem
to be necessary, and is not in fact used
anywhere in these transactions J. can
contemplate without apprehension its en-
tire disappearance from our circulation,
which mighs occur without loss or alarm
and go on for years without anybody's
n ico ryn7.iy, + +1,D 70lx,
coined money was to be medium of ex-
change gold is evidently dispensable.
OTHER UTILITIES OF COIN.
Besides serving as a medium of ex-
hange, or, using terms which seem to me
more Ineligible, as an instrument of
purchase and payment, economists have
assigned to coined money these other
functions and utilities:
/. 1t is standard or measure of value.
2. 1t is a standard for deferred pay
ments
8. 1t is store of. value least liable to
depreciation.
| have devoted chapter to show 1, that
for standard of value-a purely abstract
idea-it might be convenient, but is by
no means necessary to keep in the Treas
ury, the mint or the bank specimen coins
of each denomination as tests, just as
sealed weights and measures are kept for
the same purpose; but coins devoted to
such use are not money.
B. Coins kept as 'fstore of value''
are strictly boards, and writers agree that
boarded coins are not money.
4. This service of coins is already in
Guided under the head Medium of Elk
CHANGE or ,''standard of value,'' or g.
ffstore of value
But I omit the whole chapter from this
publication as only Indirectly bearing on
the Silver Question.
COINS AS THE BASIS FOR A PAPER
CIRCULATION.
Under modern commercial usages,
which more and more prevail expect in
dealings with the uncivilized people of
Africa, Asia and the Pacific islands,
coined moneys both silver and gold have
been largely displaced by treasury notes,
bank notes, the coupons of governmental
and corporate bonds, mercantile checks,
bills and notes. The clearing houses of
large money centres, like London, New
York and Chicago, and the daily pay
too perhaps by some instru-
ment of credit transfer-of only the bal
ance of the aggregate buyings and sell
ings, has enormously lessened the de-
mand for coins as instruments of pur-
chase and payment
Indeed as medium of exchange the
coins under more stable and solid sys-
tenn of public and corporate credit, a |
higher grade of mercantile honor, more
liberal international comity-certainly
all gold coins-might without serious in
be entirely disused. A frac-
tional paper currency might take the
place of the subsidiary silver and would |
have this advantage over it-portability |
and transmissability by mail, through it's |
weight and bulk, and |
these disadvantages to speedy |
wearing out. capability of being the We.
hicles Of dirt and even of disease, and ex-
posure to loss by accident OF the $45, 900.
GOO of fractional currency issued during
our suspension of specie payments more
than 5000, 900, or twenty per cent were
lost The loss Of the holders
however was exactly offset by the gain of |
the public-the tax payers.
But upon what however does this vast
structure of credit, transferred every day
from hand to hand by bills, notes.
checks &c rest? All these instruments |
are stated in terms of pounds, dollars,
shillings. francs, pence and CENTS which |
though denominations Of abstract yalue