Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1896-11-19
ITEMS OF INTEREST.
Facts Which the People Have a Right
to Know.
From the Topeka Advocate.)

gold. There is no law authorizing 1t,
and there is no such practice.
Interest advanced on government
bonds between 1880 and 1882 amounted
to upward of $66,OOO,OOO.
The value of an ounce Of standard
gold (916 2-3 fine) was fixed at f3 It's Sd
by the British Parliament in 1874.
There are no gold dollars coined
now. Their coinage was discontinued
by the law approved September rs,
1890.
1t has cost the country about $685.
900, 900 In interest bearing bonds in less
than three years to maintain the gold
standard.
The free and unlimited coinage Of
silver and gold at the ratio Of 16 to l
would soon restore the commercial
ratio. There was but a triaing varia-
ton when both metals were coined on
equal terms.
Had prices continued as they were
in 1892, the present tariff law would
afford ample revenue for all govern
ment purposes.
The amount of money in circulation
is now constantly diminishing, though
we have sold about $26O,OOO,OOO in
bonds to procure gold coin.
With high level Of prices, business
Is brisk, work plenty, wages fair and
times good. Free coinage Of silver and
gold will turn the tide that way.
When a pensioner is told that silver
would affect the value of his pension
let him answer that no American silver
dollar was ever discounted in the United
States.
Free silver coinage would not in
crease the volume Of money in the
country any faster than it has been d.
minished since 1893 by the repeal OF
the Sherman law.
Silver dollars are legal tender for any
amount except where otherwise ex-
pressly stipulated in the contract" II
a debt is made payable in gold, silver
dollars will not pay 1t.
If free coinage of silver will be such
aharvest for the mine owner, how does
1t happen that nobody has ever COM
planned Of the effect Of free coinage Of
gold on the gold mine owner?
Seigniorage was once a charge foI
minting or coming money. The word
is now used to denote the difference
between the market value and the coin
value of bullion that is purchased for
coinage.
This country was on a bimetalliC
basis from 1892 to 1873. The silver
dollar was the unit Of value. BY the
act of February u, 1873, the unit was
changed from the silver dollar to the
gold dollar.
Amount of coined silver dollars in
the treasury July 1. 1886, was $378, 614,-
DAB. On these there had been issued
S34O, 942, 5O4 of silver certificates. OF
subsidiary silver there was at the same
time SIS, 6S7,424.
The product of gold and silver, the
output of American mines, during the
year 1895 is reported by the director Of
the mint to have been: Gold, $46,61O,-
900; silver, commercial value, $S6, 445,-
900, coinage value, $72,O51,OOO.
There has been four bond sales by
the present administration. Two in
1894, $50,OOO,0OO each at 5 per cent,
running ten years; two In 1895, one for
about S62 1000, 900 and one for 100000
900, both at per cent, running thirty
years.
The reason that the silver coinage of
the United States was not larger dur
history is that we had large circula-
lion Of foreign coins, most Of which
we're legal tender in payment of debts
antil 1857.
Our refunding bonds, authorized in
1870, were sold at 991s cents on the
dollar, and afterward they were re-
deemed before maturity at a premium
many of them as high as Is per cent.
The total premium paid on bonds from
1880 to 1892 was a little over $6O,OOO,-
BOO.
Kansas republicans in 1878, at their
state convention at Topeka, and at
each Of the three congressional district
conventions at Garnett, Manhattan and
Wichita, declared in favor Of substitute
ing greenbacks for national bank notes
as the permanent currency" of the
Can anybody assign reason why
we should double the weight Of a dol
lar that will not apply equally well to
a bushel of wheat? II we ought not to
increase the weight Of wheat in
bushel. why should we add to the
weight Of silver in a dollar? The law
long ago determined the weight of
both.
The word coin" was not used on
any of our national obligations until
after the great war had ended. Some
Of the laws passed during the war re-
uuired that the interest on bonds and
notes should be paid in coin; but the
note or bond-does not
have the word coin" printed on Its
face.
The mint purchases all its 1-cent and
scent coins by the pound from manu-
lecturers. The 1-cent pieces now cost
about 20 cents a round, and there are
l6O Of them in a pound. The scent
pieces cost about So cents a pound, and
here are S8 Of them in a pound. The