The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-04-17
SILVER IN THE PHILIPPINES.

1 The coinage provisions in the bill | for the government of the Philippines | reported to the Senate have been re- | ceived with much surprise, which is not likely to be diminished as they are subjected to more careful scru- tiny.
 The bill authorizes the Philippine governmen to establish mint at Manila, and extends the coinage laws of the United States to the islands, so far as applicable. Then it authorizes
 the Philippine government to coin a silver dollar which shall contain 416 grains of standard silver, the stand
 ard being such that of, 1,0Oo parts by
 weight, 900 shall be of silver and 100
 of copper alloy. These coins are to
 bear devices and inscriptions which
 shall express the sovereignty of the
 United States and that they are coins
 of the Philippine islands, together
 with the denomination of the coins
 expressed in Enslish, Filipino and
 Chinese characters, and the date of
 coinage The bill further provides
 that any owner of silver bullion may
 deposit the same at the mint in the
 Philippine islands, to be coined as
 hereinbefore provided Silver bullion
 brought to the mint of the Philippines
 for coinage shall be received and
 coined by the proper officers for the
 benefit of the depostors." The silver
 dollar thus provided is made a legal
 tender in the Philippines. It is fur
 ther required that the depostors of sill
 yer bullion to be coined shall pay one
 cent for each piece coined Another
 and highly significant provision gives
 authority for the coinage at San Fran
 cisco at the request of the Philippine
 government of the silver dollars au-
 thorzed by the act but in this case
 it ia required that the silver coined
 shall have been produced in the Unit
 ed States There are provisions also for the issue of silver certificates of
 not less than BIO in denomination: and for subsidiary silver nickel and copper coinage, but these do not call for special consideration.
 The striking feature of this plan is that it provides for an unlimited coin age of silver dollars to the credit of depositors of silver bullion. makes these dollars legal tender. and estab- fishes no relations whatever between these coins and gold. In a word, it is unlimited free coinage of silver. and 1 the silver standard which the Senate 1 committee proposes to set up in the l Philippines This plan has not been adopted without delibera ton. The | original draft of the Senate bill, | which was summarized in these col l umns two weeks ago. contained pro- | visions for a currency system based ! on gold, with a special Philippine [ dollar of silver. to be limited in coin age and maintained at a parity with l gold These provisions were drafted | at the War Department, in accord l ance with the recommendations made | by the Philippine Commission. con- firmed by the report of Charles A. | Conant, the expert whom the War Department sent to the islands to make study of the currency uues- | tion. The Senate committee struck out all the gold standard provisions and framed the bill with the cur above.
 One argument in defence of the sil- yer standard for the Philippines 1 which may be expected is that the natural trade relations of the islands are with the silver using countries, md that it is for the interest of the Fiipinos that the standard with which they are familiar should not le disturbed This argument might nave a certain weight if it were not ounded on a false assumption. As a natter of fact. the natural trade re- ations of the islands are not with ilver- standard, hut with gold stand lrd countries. The latest statistics show that of the imports into the about two and a half l ines as much i'll value comes from ,old- standard as from silver standard while in exports the differ nee is still more marked, for the isl-