People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1895 — SILVER BOYCOTTED. [ARTICLE]

SILVER BOYCOTTED.

BANKERS SEEK TO DESTROY MONEY OF CONSTITUTiON. Clearing Bonce Report shows that not a SUver Dollar is used by the Banks In Settling Balances —Thus they Hope to Cast Discredit upon. Silver. Silver Knight: The amount of lying which both parties do to deceive the people on the silver question ought to make the devil proud of his pupils. Both parties in their platforms continually declare they are in favor of the use of both gold and silver as money, and every cuckoo and subsidized politician has this lying declaration on his lips. Notwithstanding the law makes no discrimination between gold and silver coin and every obligation of the government is payable in silver, no administration can be found which does not falsely assert that the obligations of the government are payable In gold alone. This is not all or the worst of it. Every administration since the crime of 1873 has made it a business to boycott silver and drive it out of use in violation of law, in violation of the pledges of both parties, in violation of the constant assertion of the presidents of both parties, and in violation of every principle of honor, decency and truth. This lying system permeates every department of the government at Washington, and is done in pursuance of the orders and mandates of the English gold trust. The following from the New York World i 3 one of the methods used by the enemies of the people to destroy the money of the constitution: Banks Boycott Silver —Clearing House Report Shows that not a White Dollar Passed in Balances —Reviving Trade Makes a Change—Over Half a Million in Small Certificates TakeD from the Sub-Treasury for Local Use.' At the annual meeting of the Clearing House association yesterday, Manager Sherer reported on the year’s credit trading of the sixty-six banks in the association and of the eighty edditional banks and trusts companies which clear through members. The report rolls millions upon millions. Here are some of the figures: Aggregate exchanges..? 28,264,379,126 Aggregate balances... 1,896,574.349 Total transactions.... 30,160,953,475 Average exchanges daily $ 92,670,095 Average balances* daily 6,218„276 Total daily average...? 98,888,372 Largest exchanges on any day (July 2).... 194,637,038 Largest balance on any day (Jan. 29).... 16,027,133 Largest transaction on any day (July 2)..... 207,117,447 Exchanges ?1,073,513,117,948 Smallest tranactions on any day (April 13) 53,008,183 Total transactions since organization of clearing-house (42 years): Exchanges ?1,073,513,117,948 Balance 49,463,653,582 Total ?1,122,976,771,531 The balances of January 29 were the largest on record. The sub-treasury in this city, which makes its settlement through the clear-ing-house, has been debited during the year with ?242,982,953, and credited with ?95,159,905, an excess of debit balances of ?147,823,048. The banks paid their balances one to another in various kinds of money, thus: U. S. gold coin ?50,000 U. S. bearer gold certificates 5,000 U. S. order gold certificates 25,000 Clearing House gold certificates 1,335,000 U. S. Treasury notes 15,436,000 U. S. legal tender certificates ’ 1,009,405,000 U. S. legal tender and change 879,318,349 Total ?1,896,574,349 It will be seen that the greenback or legal tender note, either in the form of certificates of deposit issued by the local sub-treasurer or in actual notes, does almost the entire balancing. Silver does not pay a dollar between banks in this city, and for nearly twenty years not a single silver dollar nor a certificate calling for the white metal has passed as final redemption money from bank to bank. This practical boycott is the unwritten law of the banks. In 1878 the clear- j ing house put in its by-laws a positive prohibition of the proffer of a silver dollar in settlement of a debt by one bank to another. The silver men in congress promptly passed a law forbidding national banks to remain members of clearing houses having such a rule. The rule was at once expunged from the by-laws, but it remained in practice and is lived up to today. The United States sub-treasury, ! which last year paid ?147,823,047 in cash to Manager Sherer, did not offer a single silver dollar. It might legally have done so and at times it would have been very convenient to do so. Once the sub-treasury had a payment to make and had ?30,000,000 in free silver, and very few treasury notes or greenbacks. It could have turned over silver certificates, which are printed up to ?1,000, but rather than do so it made some quick shifts to get greenbacks. No sub-treasury has Jret been bold enough to try the experiment of using legal silver in payment of legal debts. In New York it would have brought an Immediate extra session of the clearing house, and not unlikely have resulted in a boycott of the United States treasury so far as facilities for clearances were concerned.

To the customers of the banks the silver certificates are freely offered. In fact, the majority of counter payments are in these or bank notes. Each bank works off this sort of money as quickly as possible, but the ever-redeemable, never-redeemed greenback is jealously retained as a tried gold-drawing piece of paper. Gold, of course, is held back, and Manager Sherer now has in the vault some ?32,000,000 in fine newly-minted gold which has been deposited there by banks which are short of vault room. The Clearing House association elected these officers: President, William A. Nash, President Corn Exchange Bank; Secretary, William H. Porter, VicePresident Chase National Bank; Clearing House committee, Edward H. Perkins, Jr., President Importers and Traders’ National Bank; George G. Williams. President Chemical National Bank; Henry W. Cannon, President Chase National Bank; James T. Woodward, President Hanover National Bank, and A. B. Hepburn, President Third National Bank. At the Sub-Treasury yesterday New York banks took ?610,000 in small silver certificates in exchange for larger legal tenders. Transfers of ?770,000 to other cities were called for. Of this amount ?50,000 was paid for in gold, and ?676,000 went to New Orleans. The Canadian banks are just now issuing many small bank notes and come to the Sub-Treasury here as a convenient place to replenish their required reserve of gold. One bank yesterday took ?100,000.