The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-26
GOVERNMENTS SILVER STOCK.
FIFTEEN HUNDRED CORDS COINED
AND UNCOINED.
Nearly Two Hundred Millions Net
Loss Results From Stamping 1t at
Fictitious Value.

Loss Results From Stamping 1t at
Fictitious Value.
From the New York Times.
Fifteen hundred cords of silver is a
great quantity of metal for govern
ment to have in stock. Yet that is the
quantity that the Hon. w. j. Coombs has
calculated the United states has bought.
more than half Of which has been coined,
and all of which has deprecated in value,
as bullion, since the government bought
il.
I'VE get confused" said Mr. coombs, in
a recent talk with reporter OF the Wasn-
ington Post. when we speak of millions.
There are few minds that can grasp the
significance of such large figures, and OBJ
ject lessons are sometimes very useful in
enabling us to comprehend them. Permit
me to give a few. OF the $422,OOOOOO coined
by the government there are only 1000
900 in circulation, leaving in round NUM-
bers 1869, 100000 in the government vaults.
If this amount were placed. in boxes
fourteen inches long and eleven inches
broad and eight inches high, which As the
size used to hold 5000, they would &C.
cupy a space of l31, 1856 cubic feet. The
farmer who is claimed to be the princi-
pal friend of silver will know that this is
equal to about 1,O27 cords. ~
IF you add to the above the uncoined
silver that the government has bought
and paid for, and which now remains in
its vaults, awaiting a demand for silver
dollars, we should have 17s.OOO000 more,
which, packed in the sane way, woul1
occupy a space of 6S,36S cubic feet, or
nearly 800 cords, making together 1,527
cords of silver dollars. If the boxes con-
tanning it were placed end to end, each
box containing 5000, they would reach
more than sixty miles. or, in boxes four
teen inches long, containing $1,000 each,
10 miles of silver dollars that the people
have refused to take.
ut strikes me that if farmer had 15e7
cords of wood piled up, for which he had
for years tried to find a market and failed.
he would not think It worth while to make
further investments in timber land and
wages of workmen to supply land and
wages of workmen TO supply the demand
for cord wood. II might be impressed with
the idea that people needed fires, and that
wood was the most natural thing for them
to burn, but If they persiStently refused TO
buy it, and insisted upon using coal, he
would stop investing money in it. If he Is
a fair and reasonable man, he Will not try
to force his government to pursue a pol
lev at variance with his own practice
1.-THE silver bullion now in the treasury
we have on hand belonging to the gov
eminent 4728 clio tons of fine silver, which
cost us 1924. 323S82, but which at the pres
ent marked price is worth only s9l, sSS, $50
showing a loss of $50, 49O.O23 of the peoples
money in the transaction-if coined would
us, 320, AL silver dollars.
At call attention to the fact that in the
new movement for the free coinage of sill
yer we hear nothing Of a demand that
what the government owns shall be first
coined in order to meet the supposed de-
mand
1T looks very much as though the pro-
ducers of silver, having first loaded up the
government with 1t. now propose to let IL
lie there unused in order to make market
for their own holdings. Possibly that little
matter has escaped their attention, but the