The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-10-07
GOV. ALTGELD
ON FINANCE
fContjnualJ 6rou p.oool

culation.
Silver In Europe Helped to Fix Prices.
Let us first look at this theory. The |
greatest markets for most American prod
ucts were In Europe. Whatever affected
prices of commodities which were shipped
there In the end affected the prices Of com
modities at home Let us suppose that there
was no silver In circulation In the Unit
ed States; that as MIR. Schurz intimates, Il
was all In circulation In Europe. Then IL
was doing the work Of money In Europe;
it was doing work there which would
otherwise have had 60 he done by gold.
1t practically displaced that much gold
over there and permitted the gold 10 flow
elsewhere. II increased the volume OF
money In the world and In that way af
fected prices for the world, not simply In
any one country, but for the world. I'm
der those conditions, 80 far as prices were
concerned, 10 made little difference wheth-
ar the owners Of silver bullion brought IL
to our minis to DO coined or took Ii to Eu-
ropean minis to be coined. In either case
1t helped to swell the volume Of money In
the world, 1t helped to do the business OF
the world and helped TO fix the standard
of prices Of property. Mr.. Schurs knew
this fact, and / therefore submit that
when he at the outset tried tn treat the
question as local one and TO conceal from
view the fact that II silver was circulating
In Europe It was Just as good as II II were
circulating here, so far as prices were CON
cerned, he was not making fair presenta-
| ton Of the question. do not care TO use
severer language, although 1 am aware
that il man speaking for the silver side
was to pursue such a course he would be
vehemen. ly denounced as pettifogger.
Coinage I'm This Country.
Now let us look at the facts In regard to
| the coinage of silver In this country. 1t Is
| true that jefferson for a time suspended
| the coinage of silver dollars. The reason
| was that half dollars were full legal ten
| der for any amount, just az much as dol
| lars were and inasmuch as the country
| was NJ, and poor, Ii was thought that
| half dollars would he more convenient In
| circulation than dollars, and, inasmuch as
| they could be used in payment of debts the
same Us dollars 1t made no difference, but
4 the coinage was on the same basis as that
| of gold, and any man having silver bullion
| could convert it into money just the same
as though it were gold, and the treasury
| tables given out at Washington show that
| from 1906 down to 1873 there was $l54,-
| 3lS,O7l of silver coined in this country. In
| 1871 there were l,ll1,127 silver dollars
coined-not sui sdiary coins, but dollars
| and in 1872 there were /, 11S,t00 sill
yer dollars coined, being nearly twice the
number ever before coined In one year.
Bear this In mind--the two years before
silver was stricken down there were near
| ly twice as many silver dollars coined as
! in any previous year. Mr.. Schurz knew
these facts, and yet he presents his figures
/ In no 10 mako tho immersion
that no silver had been coined In this
country, and therefore we demonetized
nothing.
His next claim Is that we had more
money per capita in circulation in 1895
than we had prior to the demonetization,
and that, therefore, there was no reduction
In the volume Of money, and that conse-
auently demonstration had nothing to do
with the fall of prices. He says that in
1895 we had total Of S2,217, 00O, 900 In
circulation, making e2996 per capita,
while in 1873 we had only $1so4 per cap
tia in circulation.
| Tables Wrong.
Now, this Is based on the tables given
out by one branch of the treasury depart
ment-that Is, the director of the mint
and sometimes copied in the reports OF
other branches Of the treasury, but they
emanate originally from the Office OF the
director Of the mint, and they are not on
ly wrong, but are we'll known to be wrong.
In his report for the year 1892 the director
| of the mint explains the origin Of these Ia
bles. They ascertained what specie there
was in the country at the time OF resump
ton. and they have added to it year by
year the coinage and what the custom
house records show to have been imported,
and they have deducted only what the rec
ords show to have been used In the arts
and what the records show to have been
exported, and they assume that all the
balance is still in circulation. They make
no allowance for what was carried over
our southern boundary in quarter OF n cen
tury unrecorded, nor for what was carried
over our northern boundary during that
time unrecorded, nor for what was carried
to China during that time unrccorded, mol
for what was lost during that time, mol
for what was used In the arts for quar-
ter of q century without record having
been made Of It, and they make no allow
ance for what was carried to Europe In
the pockets of American citizens travelling
abroad and Of which no record Is made
Yet in one Of his reports the director Of the
mint says that IL was estimated that the
American travellers In Europe during the
year Of the Paris exposition spent 500, 900,
600 or course tho most Of that we may
presume was In the shape Of letters Of
credit, and therefore a record was made o.
it. but no record was made of what they
carried In their pockets. Thus you see thai
!, the tables become utterly worthless. Again
, In regard to paper money, they assume
, that every dollar that was ever issued by
the government and IL not shown by thu
records mt Washington to have been can
celed Is still In circulation, q proposition
too absurd TO be discussed.
Reports Of Banks-
, But the treasury department gives ou
another report that Is accurate, and IL tell
an entirely different story In regard to thu
amount of money we have in our country
This report Is given out by the comptrol
! Ter of the currency, who has supervision o
! the national banks For several years pas
, the COMPTROLLER has been sending reques
to every bank in the United States, nation
al, state and private, to report the amoun
of money they had on hand at the close O
/. business on particular day and to Mat
what Il consisted Of There are In th'
United States q little less than 1000 ma
tional banks and about 5000 state ant
, private banks Substantially all of thes'
banks responded to tho inquiry, and
have here the comptroller's report for TIT
year 1895, and on page 10 he gives sum
mary Of these reports.
Twill give you this In tho language o.
the comptroller: 1.-THE cash held by ma
tional hanks on July II and by Other
banks at about that date amounted e
D e88l, 1 II 800, classified ms follows: Gold
S127, Gal 200; silver, ei5,69i,0 specie
, not classified, tl9, 29s, 383; paper currency
. e342, 7s9, 1870; fractional currency, 81, c23,