The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1896-08-20

specie payments in 1851, we Wcre IN re-
spect to circulation, entirely on gold
basis-silver no more entered into our cir
culating medium than during the suspen-
sion of specie payment during the war.
The "crimes' of 1884 and 1887 had, in
fact, demonetized silver. When the act of
1873, of which so much complaint has been
made, was passed, there was no silver in
circulation, no silver to ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
was no silver being coined. In 1879 we re-
sumed specie payment-fOr the first time
since 1S61-but nearly one year before that
time, in February, 1873, under the so-called
Bland act, silver was remOnetized and made
a full legal tender for all purposes, except
where parties otherwise agreed. and it has
so remained ever since. By this act the
government was directed to purchase at its
market value silver bullion for not less
than two million, nor more than four million
dollars each month, and to coin the same
into legal tender dollars as fast as pur-
chased. From the silver purchased under
this law, there has been coined in all 3IS,-
166, 1913 silver dollars, and the holders of
the same, or of any of our silver dollars,
may deposit the same in the treasury and
receive therefor silver certificates, which
circulate as money. In spite of this extern
sive purchase of silver by the government
silver continued to depreciate In value, and
the silver mining states, in consequence.
became very urgent and systematic advo-
Gates of the free and unlimited coinage of
silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. Their per-
sistency was rewarded by being reinforced
by the people of the South and Southwest
ern states, who, through free coinage,
thought they saw an easy road to acqult
themselves Of their obligations to the peo-
pie of the North and of Europe. These two
forces, with scattered help from various
quarters, became so strong that they came
near passing a free coinage bill in 1880.
TO obviate this, as last resort, they op-
ponents of free coinage Joined i'll enacting
compromise measure known rs the Sner-
man law of July, 1890. BY this act the
treasure department was required to pur-
chase every month, at the market price,
45OO,UOO ounces Of silver bullion, and to
issue in payment therefor treasury notes
of the United States payable in coin. which
notes were made legal tender for all pur-
poses, except where otherwise stipulated
The treasury department was further re-
Guired to coin the silver bullion thus pur-
| chased into silver at the rate of 2,oO.VoO
| ounces each month up till the first day OF
| July, 1891. and thereafter only so much as
| was required to redeem these treasury
notes. The purchasing clause of the Bland
law was also repealed.
Parity of the Two Metals.
As if congress had an apprehension Of
silver monometallism this law, for the first
time, contained a mandate requiring the
! parity of the two metals to be maintained.
| To the unbiased thinker this law seems
strange anomaly. 1t was in its substance
really a Popuist subtreasury scheme for
| it required the government every month,
| without any regard to its currency wants.
| to purchase a large, fixed quantity Of silver,
| to coin some of it, to store and warehouse
| the most of it, and to issue notes or GER
| tificates for the whole of it. For very
| short time it buoyed up the price of silver
bullion, but soon the bullion began to fall
again. and fell faster than ever. The own
| ers of silver bullion and silver mines be-
came disappointed and soon became as
| clamOrOus and urgent for free coinage as
| ever In the meantime silver imitation went
| on. 16S, $50 ounces of silver bullion was
| purchased at a cost of $155, 931 ,OO2, or an
| average of 9241 per ounce. making the
| bullion value of the dollar us cents. OF
J this silver bullion about S47,OOO.OO0 have
| been coined, and about S11S.OOO,OOO remain
| in the treasury uncoined, but represented
| in our circulation by treasury notes. issued
| under the act
| During the rebellion we issued something
like $3.50, 100000 Of treasury notes. COM
monty called greenbacks, legal tender.
| but not then redeemable in coin. Shortly
| after the resumption of specie payment
| the volume of these notes was reduced to
| S346, 100000. at wnich amount they have
| since remained. At the time of resumption
| a fund of something like S1OOOOO.OOO in
| gold had been accumulated for redemption
| purposes, and it has been the aim Of the
| treasury department ever since to keep
| such fund on hand for the redemption OF
| our greenbacks, which are required to be
! reiSSued soon as redeemed.
| This fund is the S1OO,OOO.O0O gold re-
| demption fund. of which you have heard
so much of late. and is, aside from conf
dence in the government and the fact that
| it accepts silver in payment OF all govern
| mcnt dues. the main prop of our financial
| system and is ready and willing to redeem
all our treasury notes in gold. and our
| only immediate weapon for keeping our
! silver and paper on parity with gold.
Prior to 1893, as l have already stated,
| this redo mption fund was little disturbed,
| and remained intact. But during the early
part Of that year the great deficiency of
| revenue, and the great, forced and con-
| tinued silver imitation. under the Sherman
| law, led the financial world to doubt the
ability of our government to maintain our
money system on a parity with gold. The
| fear of silver mOnOmctalism possessed the
business and financial world. and as re-
suit. through the instrumentality of our
| greenbacks, there was an undue and excess
sive withdrawal of gold from the treasury.
and a great deal of this gold. and much
| other money with it. was withdrawn from
circulation and business. and went into
| hiding. People held their breath, so to
speak. to see whether their currency would
be scaled down to the level of Mexico and
Japan. This was the monetary crisis and
currency famine Of 1898 The situation
became so threatening that finally in No
vember of that year congress. as partial
| relief and palliative, passed an act re-
pealing the compulsory silver purchasing
clause Of the Sherman law and declaring
| in favor Of D,:netallism and the maintenance
| of parity. This left our existing silver cur
rency undisturbed. the silver dollar legal
| tender as much as ever under the Bland
law and the government free to coin all
| the silver bullion on hand into silver dol
| lars. All the law of 1893 accomplished
was to relieve the government from the
duty of purchasing 100000 ounces Of sill
| yer every month
UncOined Bullion.
| More than two-thirds of the silver bullion