The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-08-07
In Which He Presents In a
Mastery Manner
The Best Argument That Can
Be Made
From the Gold Standpoint on the
Financial Question Now Agita-
ting the Country-Al1 Should
Read Both Sides of This
Question.

( Friend MacLennah:
I don't often trouble you with COM
municauons, and therefore trust that
the enclosed will be given publication
| in your paper. z. WILDER.
Accompanying the note was the fol-
lowing communication from Mr.. Will
der, which our readers will read with
great interest. Mr.. Wilder is a well
posted man and we know no one in
Topeka better fitted than he to pre-
| sent the gold side of the present con-
trOversy Mr.. Wilder says:
In a communication from tx. X.'' as
to payment of general Office employees
| in silver by Cashier Copeland, published
| Wednesday, the CORRESPONDENT makes
the suggestion that the next payment
should be made in gold dollars served
out in a spoon under protection of a
microscope
While gold dollars are a legal tender,
their coinage was only provided for in
March, 1884, and up to September, 1890,
when their coinage was discontinued.
| only about 1919 millions had been coined
and they have long since disappeared
from circulation and cannot. therefore,
| be under discussion or comparison.
Even if coined and still in circulation,
there would have been about as little
wit or point in the suggestion as to have
proposed that to emphasize the incon-
venience of silver the payment should
be made in half and quarter silver dol
The standard gold coin was not the
gold dollar, which was not coined until
81 years after the opening of the mint,
when the double eagle was also intro
duced. but was and is the eagle, though
half and quarter eagles were also au-
thOrized in 1892.
As yoH suggest. Cashier Copeland
simply paid out silver dollars because
he had an inconvenient supply of them,
about II, 600, and if he could have
forced twenty of them on each of the
employees he could have worked off
about half his stock
AS the government has been able to
keep over $50 millions of silver dollars
at par by its promise to exchange gold
for them, there is no ''Object lesson
possible on the question OF intrinsic
value, and the silver question Of the
present is merely a question of con-
venience easily illustrated by Mr..
Copeland's monthly experience He
frequently has on hand lie, 900 to 20 600
silver dollars, which come in 5000 lots
from connecting lines, involving much
labor in carriage, counting, storing and
shipping, and vastly more inconVenient
than a check for S., 600. They are of
little or no use for circulation, because
Mr. Copeland cannot work off onto I'm
willing customers more than 500 per
day, except at pay day, and he is fire.
quently obliged to ship 10000 at once
to the sub treasury in Chicago and get
therefor a bank credit which is infn-
itely more convenient for voucher pay
ments
Our Office is but one of thousands in
the United States where a like embar-
rassment is the daily experience from
an inconYenient and bulky form of cir
culation. Even the Chicago sub treas
ury objected cOurteously to one of our
recent shipments because they were
full and of all my ten banks in Colo
RADIO and New Mexico Gree coinage dis
tricO seldom any Of them will respond
favOrably to my request to unload part
of our accumulation on them.
Foe
and the future of silver if free coinage
should prevail, using as I have else
where the official figures Of June 80,
1893.
Against a total coinage of silver dol
lars, about 430 millions, about $50 mill
lions are lying dead and useless in
Washington as q foundation for silver
certificates, which paper notes are no
better than, and really not as good as,
national bank notes based on govern
ment bonds.
These silver certificates are exchange
able for dollars or smaller coin at the
treasury and are redeemable in silver
dollars.
These silver dollars are a legal ten
der for any amount and are receivable
Tor public dues, are exchangeable only
for silver certificates and smaller coin
and are not redeemable.
Prior to 1873 about million silver dol
lars had been coined, and since then
419 million, and this enormous mass of
silver, together with our 1856 million of
government notes, has been kept at par,
Notwithstanding the continued depreci-
alton of our Mexican neighborS' dol
lars to about So cents, by the confidence
of the people in the governments abiI-
ity to stand by its implied promise to
exchange gold for silver or government
notes at any time
This promise rests on a gold reserve
of 100 millions, just as a solvent and
prosperous bank rests on it's promise
to pay its depoSitOrS in full with only
an available cash reserve Of 25 per cent |
in the east. or 40 per cent in the west.
All is well in either case until the
reserve is seriously diminished, or it
gets abroad that the bank or the gov
vernment has dangerous ideas as to |
payment of its creditors in an neon |
venient OF deprecated money. We all |
know what happens to a bank in such |
case.
If the government is committed to |
free coinage and the stimulated produc- |
ton and coinage into dollars of enor-
nous additional amounts of silver, VIII |
public confidence in the ability of the |
government to keep even the present |
large stock Of dollars at par continue? |
Loss OF that confidence would lead to /
a scramble for gold as possessing more |
stability Of value the world over than |
any other commodity It would not |
take long under such loss of confidence
for silver certificates to be exchanged
for silver dollars in order to exchange
them at once for gold under the neces-
Sary practice of the government in
maintaining the parity of the two met
ais.
With only 100 millions reserve, sus-
pension of the exchange would quickly
be inevitable and parity of value would
cease, and as in the case of Mexico our
silver dollars would be worth only their |
bullion market value.
The same universal financial and in
dustriaI paralysis would ensue, that
would follow in community the sus-
pension of its local banks, and in the
inevitable panic the man Of limited
means, encountered property, depend
ence upon the wages Of commercial ac-
Invites, and with little experience in |
financial cyclones would be TAR the !