Morris tribune., 1896-08-12

spect to circulation, entirely on a 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
i 1873, OF which so much complaint has been
made, was passed.. there was no silver in
circulation, no silver to demonetize-there
was no silver being coined. In 1879 we re-
| Sumed specie pdyment-for the first time
| since 1S61A-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 it's
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 37S,-
! 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
| sye 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 ut the ratio of 16 to /. 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 acquit
themselves of their obligations to the peo-
l. 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.
70 fohviate this, as last resort they OPP
ponents OF free coinage Joined in enacting
compromise measure known asssthe Sher-
man law. Of July, 1890. By this act the
treasure department was required to fpur- !
chase every month, at the market price,
4,500, 600 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-
quired to coin the silver bullion thus pur-
chased into silver at the rate of 100000
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 monometallismf this law, for the first
time, contained mandate requiring the
parity of the two metals Ito be maintained.
To the unbiased thinker this law seems a
strange anomaly. 1t was in IT'S substance 4
really a Populist subtreasury scheme, for
it required the government every month, |
without any regard to it's currency wants,
to purchase 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 a 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- !
fol hOaoa nJaI
clamorous and urgent for free coinage as I
ever. In the meantime silver imitation went |
on. : f16S, 674 6S2 ounces of silver bullion was |
purchased at a cost Of $155, 931, 002, or an |
average of 9241 per ounce, making the |
bullion value sof the dollar 71.5 cents OF |
this silver bullion about $47,00O.000 have |
been coined and abouts$1 18 ,000,0 eco remain |
in the treasury uncoined but represented |
in our circulation by treasury notes, issued |
under the act. IS ~
During the rebellion weaissued something |
like $45O,OOO,O00 of treasury notes, com /
monty called greenbacks, legal tender. I
but not then redeemable in coin. Shortly |
after the resumption Of specie payment |
the volume of these rotes was reduced to
$346, 100000, at which amount they have
since remained. At the time of. resumption
a fund Of something like $100,000,000 in
gold had been accumulated for redemption
purposes, and 1t has been the aim of the
such fund on hand for the redemption Of
our greenbacks, which are required to be
reissued as soon as redeemed.
This fund is the $100,O00,O 900 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
ment dues, the main prop of our financial
system and is ready and willing to redeem
all ours treasury notes in gold, and our
only immediate weapon for keeping our
silver and paper on parity with gold
Prior to 1893, as / havetalready stated,
this redemption fund was little disturbed,
md remained intact. But during the early
part of that year the great deficiency Of
revenue, and, the great, forced and con-
,inued silver imitation, under the Sherman
aw, led the financial world to doubt the
utility of our government to maintain our
money system on a parity with gold. The
ear of silver recommendation possessed the
business and financial world. and as re-
ult, Though the fundamentally of our
,reenbacks there was an undue and excess
i've withdrawal of gold from the treasury,
md a great deal of this gold, and much
ther money with it. was withdrawn from
circulation and business, and went into {
iding. People held their breath, so to I
peak, to see whether their currency would !
re scaled down to the level of Mexico and
apan. This was the monetary crisis and
famine of 1898. The situation
ecame SO threatening that finally in No 6
ember of that year congress, as a partial |
elief and palliative, passed act re- +
ealing the, compulsory silver purchasing !
lause of the Sherman law and declaring :
favor of blnetallism and the maintenance
parity. This left our existing silver cur |
nncy undisturbed, the silver dollar legal l
ender as much as ever under the Bland /
NV and the government free to coin all y
ne silver bullion on hand into silver dol !
tFs. All the law of 1898 accomplished
as to.*geleve the government from the '
uty of purchasing 100000 ounces of sill Q
er every month. I. a
UncOined Bullion. |:
More than two-thirds of the silver bullion f
urchased under the Sherman law is still b
ncoined in the treasury, but is being "
,ined into silver dollars from time to -
me. Seven million five hundred thousand