UNITED STATES, FINANCES OF THE. 



783 



the treasury, Secretary McCulloch, said in his 

 annual report : 



I have been forced to the conclusion that, unless 

 both the coinage of silver dollars and the issue of sil- 

 ver certificates are suspended, there is danger that sil- 

 ver, and not gold, may become our metallic standard. 

 This danger may not be imminent, but it is of so serious 

 a character that there ought not to be delay in provid- 

 ing against it. Not only would the national credit be 

 seriously impaired if the Government should be under 

 the necessity of using silver dollars or certificates in 

 payment of gold obligations, but business of all kinds 

 would be greatly disturbed; not only so, but gold would 

 at once cease to be a circulating medium, and severe 

 contraction would be the result. 



The President in his annual message said : 



I concur with the Secretary of the Treasury in rec- 

 ommending the immediate suspension of the coinage 

 of silver dollars and of the issuance of silver certifi- 

 cates. This is a matter to which, in former communi- 

 cations, I have more than once invoked the attention 

 of the national legislature. It appears that annually 

 for the past six years there have been coined, in com- 

 pliance with the requirements of the act of Feb. 28, 

 1878, more than twenty-seven million silver dollars. 

 The number now outstanding is reported by the Sec- 

 retary to be nearly one hundred and eighty-five mill- 

 ion, whereof but little more than forty million, or less 

 than 22 per cent., are in actual circulation. 



Feb. 11, 1885, a letter signed by ninety-eight 

 Democratic members of the House of Repre- 

 sentatives was addressed to President-elect 

 Cleveland, expressing the fear that " the banks, 

 the bondholders, and those having fixed in- 

 comes " were making a united effort to commit 

 him and his Administration against the con- 

 tinued coinage of the silver dollar, and the 

 hope that he would not do anything that would 

 place his Administration in opposition to " the 

 policy of the coinage of both gold and silver." 

 Mr. Cleveland replied, February 24, that a finan- 

 cial crisis under the operation of the act of 

 Congress of Feb. 28, 1878, was close at hand ; 

 that the vaults of the treasury were heaped 

 full of silver coins worth less than 85 per cent, 

 of the gold dollar prescribed by law as the unit 

 of value, and that the sum of gold in the treas- 

 ury available for the payment of the gold obli- 

 gations of the United States and for the re- 

 demption of the United States notes, if not 

 already encroached upon, was perilously near 

 such encroachment. 



To this letter no direct reply was made, but 

 a statement was published setting forth at 

 length the views of the opponents of the sus- 

 pension of the silver coinage. They said that, 

 while it is true that silver bullion is worth 

 less than 85 per cent, of the gold dollar, 

 "silver coins which are admitted to use the 

 same as gold are equal in value to gold coin " ; 

 that, if the Secretary of the Treasury should 

 pay out more silver and less gold, the charac- 

 ter of the reserve would change, the matter 

 being entirely under his control ; that no obli- 

 gations exist, or ever did exist, which under 

 our Constitution are specifically payable in 

 gold ; that the proposition that the continued 

 coinage of silver at the rate of $28,000,000 a 

 year will drive gold out of circulation in the 



near future or force it to a premium, is not 

 sustained by facts or sound reasoning; that 

 under "Gresham's law "the gold can be ex- 

 pelled only by forcing into circulation, in ad- 

 dition to the $750,000,000 of other currency 

 than gold in use, either silver or paper equal 

 to the entire volume of gold now in circulation ; 

 and that an " unprecedented contraction in the 

 actual volume of our currency," a full of prices, 

 and a scaling down of the purchasing power of 

 the dollar, can not occur at the same time. 



The House Committee on Appropriations, by 

 a vote of eight to seven, inserted in the sundry 

 civil appropriation bill a paragraph, authoriz- 

 ing the Secretary of the Treasury, in his dis- 

 cretion, to suspend, in whole or in part, the 

 purchase of silver bullion and the coinage of 

 silver dollars during the fiscal year beginning 

 July 1, 1885. Feb. 26, 1885, the chairman of 

 the committee submitted a resolution to sus- 

 pend the rules, so as to discharge the Commit- 

 tee of the Whole from the further considera- 

 tion of the bill, and to consider the same for 

 four hours, that time to be occupied in debate 

 on the clauses relating to the suspension of 

 silver coinage and the World's Industrial and 

 Cotton Exposition, and the bill to be subject 

 to amendments only to strike out or amend 

 those clauses, after which the previous question 

 should be considered as ordered. The resolu- 

 tion was defeated by 118 yeas to 152 nays. 

 This vote was accepted as expressing the views 

 of the House on the suspension of the coinage 

 of the silver dollar, and the bill was according- 

 ly submitted without the silver clause. No 

 direct reference was made to the silver ques- 

 tion in the President's inaugural address. 



Imports and Exports. The following table 

 shows by articles the value of the merchandise 

 imported into the United States during the 

 fiscal year 1884, in the order of their magni- 

 tude: 



ARTICLES. Value*, 1884. 



Sugar and molasses $1 03.884,274 



Wool, and manufactures of 63,542,292 



49,949.128 

 49,686,705 

 41,464,599 

 88,464,965 

 88,463.398 

 80,454,476 

 22,350,906 



14,676,066 

 14,064.141 



Silk, and manufactures of. 



Coffee 



Iron and steel, and manufactures of 



Chemicals, drugs, etc 



Flax, hemp, jute, and manufactures of 



Cotton, and manufactures of 



Hides and skins, other than fur-skins 



Fruits, including nuts 



Wood, and manufactures of 



India-rubber and gutta-percha, and manufact 



T r sof :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 



Leather of all kinds, and manufactures of. 

 Precious stones, not set, including diamonds 

 Tobacco, and manufactures of 

 Animals, living 



Furs, and manufactures of fur 



Fancy articles 



Glass and glassware 7,552.498 



Breadstuffs 7,801,676 



Articles the produce or manufacture of the 



United States, returned 



Wines 



Paper-stock, crude 



Fish 



Tin, bars, blocks, or pigs 



Earthen, stone, and china ware 



Seeds 



Metals and metal compositions 



Bpoks, maps, engravings, etc 



Spices, ground and unground o, wa,uo? 



11,812,064 

 9,245,078 

 9.23H.522 

 8,312.496 



8,178.124 

 8,082,427 



6.133,960 

 5,660.833 

 5.638,647 



6.578.885 



4,336.618 



