The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-09-06
WHY THE CARTWHEEL is GIVING
WAY TO THE PAPER
MONEY!.
Silver In the Treasury Is Getting Low
and Is Required for Subsidiary
Coinage.

is disappearing. 1t is still very COM
mon in the western states, more par
ticularly beyond Indiana, but even in
this western country, paper money is
coming into larger use, and in time
promises to be as plentiful as in the
esat, says a report from Washington
city.
One trouble with paper money in the
west has been that it could not be
kept clean, and in many cities boards
of health have pronounced against II
for sanitary reasons.s This argument,
however, is losing force in the face of
the possibilities of supply now offered
by a larger number Of subtreasuries.
The silver dollar became popular in
the west because of western interest in
silver production. 1t was sanitary, and
the fact that it was bulky did not
seem to make any lasting impression.
Silver Dollar Going.
AS rapidly as the west will permit,
the silver dollars are being sent to the
treasury vaults in this city, and silver
certificates are being issued in their
place. The familiar old "cartwheels"
are disappearing at the rate of sever
al millions a year. This exchange is
being encouraged by the government,
partly for the reason that it costs a
large sum each year to ship silver
back and forth over the country by
express and partly because congress
has for the present permitted the
treasury department to abandon the
coinage of dollars.
During the fiscal year ending June
80, 1904, silver dollars to the value of
first half of the last fiscal year, July
1 to Dec. 81, 1904, only 1910 were
coined, while there is not a single dol
lar bearing TIE date 1905. The silver
bullion in IT,. treasury that is now
q SclAaoiS LII NOAiH@6C puA pOoOo 40 OSiio
used for half dollars, quarters and
dimes, and it is we'll nigh exhausted.
This subsidiary coinage is in such de-
mand that the minis can scarcely sup
ply it in satisfactory amounts. The
treasury was permitted to coin it as
long as bullion was available, without
limit, and the minis were kept busy
month after month, winter and sum-
mer. The quarters and dimes are more
popular than the half dollars, and the
quarters are more popular than the
dimes. The half dollar is in constant
use, of course, but usually a shopper
would rather have two quarters than
one half dollar. The size of the coins
respectively explains their favoritism.
Purchase of Silver Again.
1t is probable that congress next
winter will be asked to provide for
the purchase Of bullion for subsidiary
coin. AS noted above, all the bullion
that can be used for coinage purposes
has now been disposed of, and the de-
mand for the small coins will soon be
so great as to require further pur-
chases of bullion. This can only be
done through act of congress. The
treasury department will probably lay
the subject before the president in a
short time.
One of the big wholesalers in New
York only the other day, in talking
with middle west customer, remarked
that the sales of his house in the west
had for some time been Indicating a
larger use of paper money in that Sec
words, he replied that in former years
his western customers, who are large
~ big department store proprietors
of the Mississippi and Missouri valleys,
bought very few pocketbooks suitable
for carry paper money; coin purses
were greatly in demand, with only an
occasional demand for the regulation
pocketbooks. Now, however, he con-
tinued, the pocketbooks were in de-
mand and the demand for coin purses
was declining.
It is one of the wonders of the gov
'rnrent what becomes of the silver
pieces that are coined year after
year. After allowing for growth in
population and for extension of trade
it is still true that the minis are turn
ing out hundreds of thousands of dol
lars of fractional coin yearly that ap-
parently does not go into trade chan