Evening star., 1934-07-08
Silver.Plated Gold Standard
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Continued From First Page.)
would not take them. So the Govern
ment stored them in the vaults and
issued in their stead a receipt called
a silver certificate Under the two
acts of 1878 and 1890 nearly 600, ,000,-
900 of these token dollars were coined
A few are in circulation, some have
been lost, but most of them lie buried
in the vaults.
Dollars Worth 50 Cents.
Against these dollars there are in
circulation an equal number of silver
certificates, each one calling itself q
dollar. For many years the value OF
the dollar behind each of the GER
tificates has been less than so cents
Consequently every certificate is q
direct Government liability. Every
certificate issued is an initiation issue
with the Government promising to
pay one dollar when it has a reserve
of less than half a dollar back Of it.
This is the key to the silver prob
lem. Every measure forcing the Gov
ernment to buy silver bullion must
provide for burying the useless and
unacceptable token dollars in the
vaults and the issuing of paper GER
tiflcates. These latter are fiat money
swelling the imitation of our cur
rency, endangering the solvency of
the Treasury and weakening the gold
standard. The silver in a dollar has
been worth, in the last three years,
from 18 cents to 35 cents.
When the famous Thomas initiation
act was passed in May. 1893, there
was slipped into 1t at the last mo-
ment a clause authorizing the Gov
ernment to accept war debt pay
ments in silver bullion, at values not
higher than so cents an ounce, to
an amount not greater than $780,
600 900. An ounce of silver at that
time was worth about 80 cents. The
purpose Of this odd provision was to
take surplus silver of the market,
thus raising the price Of the metal.
The silver so bought would go into
the sink hole of the Treasury and
certificates would flow out to initiate
the currency. Under this agreement
few nations made small payments
on their war debts.
In July, 1888, bewildered and dis
organized World Economic Conference
was persuaded by Senator Pittman,
who as a Senator from Nevada (popu-
lation 91,058) was representing the
economic interests of this country,
to enter into an agreement that had
no significance for any of the ma
tions participating except this coun-
try. AS part of this agreement Mex
leo, Canada, Peru, Australia and the
United States undertook to take of
the world market a total of 35,000,-
900 ounces of silver annually for four
years. The shares of the different
countries were not designated.
On December 81, 1888, President
Roosevelt ordered the mints to buy
all silver mined in this country. The
price was to be 641a cents an ounce
30 cents an ounce higher than the
market price anywhere in the world.
The price of about "A cents in Amer
lea was in itself an abnormal value.
The manipulation of the gold dollar
in foreign exchange markets had re-
suited in a rise of the price from
less than 80 cents to A In other
words, the purpose of the World Eco
nomic Conference agreement was to
give an international flavor to a
scheme to have this country take the
entire output of silver from American
mines at a price nearly so per cent
above the proper price. The silver
was, as always, to go into the vaults,
while certificates flowed out to swell
Government obligations.
Miners Had Theirs.
1t was all but incredible that in the
year 1888 the Government of great
Nation would thus surrender to a
ravenouS political pack. Informed ex'
perts were cynical or mortified, ac-
cording to their temperaments. But
none believed that beyond this i'll
favored thing there could be more.
The silver miners had their pound
of flesh. Through governmental ac-
ton the price of American silver had
been forced from about Is cents to
64h cents. But in the closing days
of this extraordinary Congress they
completed their campaign. Ever since
the first day Of the session there had
been turmoil and trouble over silver.
Week after week absurd and fan
tastic bills had been introduced Bills
in no way connected with silver had
appeared, with Joker" clauses neatly
inserted.
The Treasury was undoubtedly
against further gifts. It went so far
as to make a ridiculous gesture in
sending Prof. Rogers to China te
find out what everybody in Wall
Street and Washington knew. The
matter did not await his report. The
Treasury was driven to the expedient
of publishing the names of silver
SPECTATORS, with curious results. The
news dispatches tell the final story
The President was evidently opposed
to further subsidies. The silver bloc
accompanied him on the train tc
the funeral of the late Secretary
Woodin. And for five weeks after
that there was a strange maneuVer-
ing, resulting in the passage in the
last hours of Congress of new silver
measure that defles explanation OF
analysis. One of the few humorous
aspects of a saddening spectacle was
the acrid dispute among Senators
Wheeler, Thomas, Borah and Pitt
man-the four chiefly responsible fol
the bill-as to what 1t meant and
what it would do.
The law declares that it is the
policy Of this country to make silver
one-quarter of the metallic reserves
behind our paper money. It directs