Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1922-01-13
Position Of Silver Under The
 Putnam Act


 peal or interference with the operatio of the Act would be immoral, measur ed by the standards of ordinary bus mess practice, and that it would b so as a matter of governmental pol icy, it is the purpose of this articl to demonstrate.
 THE PROVISIONS OF THE ACT
 Under the provisions of the Act, tn Secretary of the Treasury was auth l orized to melt not in excess of $50, 000,000 standard silver dollars, and tC sell the bullion SO obtained, at no less than one dollar per fine ounce troy. It was provided that upol every such sale of bullion, the Secre tary of the Treasury should immed lately direct the Director of the Min to purchase in the United States, o, the product of "mines situated in tht United States and reduction works SC located, an amount of silver equal tc three hundred and seventy-one anc twenty-five hundredths grains of pure silver" in respect of every standard silver dollar so melted and sold as bullion, such purchase to be made ir accordance with the regulations of the Mint and at fixed price of one dollar per ounce of fine silver. The net amount of silver so purchased should not exceed the amount requir- ed to coin an aggregate number of standard silver dollars equal to the number so melted into bullion. Provision was made for the retire ment of silver certificates issued against the coinage melted, and in order that a contraction of the cur rency might be avoided, the Federal reserve banks were authorized to is sue Federal reserve bank notes in an aggregate amount not exceeding the amount of standard silver dollars melted up, upon deposit with the treasurer of the United States, as security therefor, United States cer- tificates of indebtedness, or United States one-year gold notes. Provision was likewise made for the retirement of the Federal reserve notes so is sued, as silver dollars were recoined, and for the cancellation of the certifi- cates of indetedness so deposited as security.
 THE STATISTICAL SITUATION
 In order to understand the situation that led to the enactment of this leg islation, it is necessary to refer to the that existed in India and China at the time of the passage of the Act. During the war, those coun- tries, and particularly the former, in creased tremendously the volume of their export business, with the result that large favorable trade balances were created, for the liquidation of which silver was required; first, be- cause of the scarcity of gold and its utilization for the settlement of other exchange where it alone would be ac- and second, by reason of the fact that silver has been and is the metal money demanded in tho Orient.
 In addition to the demand thus the Allies, principally Great Britain, had called into action large bodies of Orientals, some in the capa- city of troops, others as lsborers. sil- yer was the only money which they knew, and large quantities of it had to be provided for the payment of ser vices rendered.
 The effect of these demands is shown by the enormous increase in the shipments of silver from the Unit ed states to Asia, according to the report of the Director of tho Mint, for 1920, p. 152, as follows: