Mexico weekly ledger., 1896-07-23
ABOUT FREE SILVER COINAGE.
Director of the Mint Preston Tells
What It Would Do More Public
Buildings Would Be
Necessary.

WASHINGTON, d. c., July 15.-In
answer to many inquiries for infor-
nation Director of the Mint Preston
makes this statement of conditions
that would obtain under a free COIN
age law:
"The word unlimited as used in
the Chicago platform, means that
there shall be no restriction as to the
amount of bullion permitted to be re-
ceived and coined. Unless by legisla-
ton the coinage of silver should be
limited to the American product, our
mints would be open to all the silver
in the world, and it may safely be
stated that without such restriction
the United States would within few
years have the surplus silver of the
world. By surplus mean all the silver
not used by other nations as subsidiary
coin.
"Under a free silver law any one
possessing old silver spoons, silver
ware, or anything else containing
silver, would have the privilege of
taking such articles to the mints and
having them coined into silver dollars.
1t is not to be expected, however, that
the mints will be called upon to per-
form much work of this character. 1t
will be the smelters and refiners who
will do most of this work.
"There is mistaken notion as to
the class of people who take bullion
to the mints to be coined. 1t is gen.
orally supposed that mine owners do
this. AS rule they do not. Their
work is confined to taking ore from
the mines and selling it to the smelt-
ing and refining establishments. This
will be the routine pursued in the
matter of having bullion coined into
money:
SIT will be taken in person or ship
ped direct to the respective mints. 1t
will be weighed in the presence of the
despositor or his agent, and the weight
verified by the register of deposits.
The weight clerk and register will
then enter In their respective books
the name of the depositor, number
and date of each deposit, kind of bull
lion, weight before melting, and, if it
can be ascertained, the State or coun-
try from which it is derived. The de-
positor will then be given receipt for
the value of his deposit, If it is of such
character that its value can be ascer-
tanned before melting.
1t is not to be presumed that under
a free coinage law person presenting
bullion would have to wait for his
money until the material which he
has presented has actually been coin
ed. ALI that will be necessary will be
to wait until the actual value of his
bullion is ascertained. Nor is it to be
presumed that any great number of
people will 60 to the mints for their
silver dollars. The chances are that
you will not find any more cart wheel
dollars in circulation under free sill
yer law than there are now. The coin
is too cumbersome. The people may
want free silver, but they would rather
have government paper equivalent
for it than its actual weight in metal.
'The result will be that silver cer-
tificates will be authorized to take the
place of the silver dollar, and the
United States Treasury will have to
be a store house for the bulk of the
metal. This will bring up the question
of increased vault room at the Treas
ury and sub Treasures. Our vaults
in the Treasury are now overcrowded,
and there is no space left for erecting
additional vaults. A new Treasury
building may, therefore, be in order,
not to speak of the additional mints
located in Philadelphia, San Francisco,
New Orleans and Carson City. The
latter has been closed for some time.
A free coinage law will mean the con-
struction of at least half dozen ad-
ditional mints.
At the time of the establishment of
the United States Mint, Congress
agreed that the ratio between silver
and gold should be as 10 pounds to
pound, this being at that time the rel
ative values of the two metals. 1t
was subsequently found that this ratio
gave too high a value to silver. 1t
was accordingly changed to 16 to 1.
''By this action Congress jumped on
the other side of the stream. In Eu-
ropean countries the ratio had been
fixed at 151a to /. As result the sill
yer owners of the United States ship
ped all their product to Europe for
coinage, and until 1873, when the re-
vision of the coinage laws occurred,
only about s,000,000 of silver dollars
had been coined. Under the Bland
Allison act 400, ,0O0, 900 silver dollars
were coined, and these, added to the
notes issued under the Sherman act,
make the total amount of silver in our
currency more than $500, ,00O, 900, all
on 16 to / ratio.
"At the present time the value OF
silver in the markets of the world is
about 30 pounds of the white metal to
of gold. Our people would, there
fore, under the ratio of 16 to 1, have
53-cent dollars, which might circulate
for their face value in the United
States, but which would only be ac-
cepted at their bullion value abroad" J"
During the year 1895 Judge Lynch
carried out III executions in this coun-
try. Such a record Is by no means
creditable, but there is some cause for
coupratulation in the fact that the