We have now on hand all the silver dollars necessary to supply the
present needs of the people and to satisfy those who from sentiment wish
to see them in circulation, and if their coinage is suspended they can
be readily obtained by all who desire them. If the need of more is at
any time apparent, their coinage may be renewed.
That disaster has not already overtaken us furnishes no proof that
danger does not wait upon a continuation of the present silver coinage.
We have been saved by the most careful management and unusual
expedients, by a combination of fortunate conditions, and by a confident
expectation that the course of the Government in regard to silver
coinage would be speedily changed by the action of Congress.
Prosperity hesitates upon our threshold because of the dangers and
uncertainties surrounding this question. Capital timidly shrinks
from trade, and investors are unwilling to take the chance of the
questionable shape in which their money will be returned to them, while
enterprise halts at a risk against which care and sagacious management
do not protect.
As a necessary consequence, labor lacks employment and suffering and
distress are visited upon a portion of our fellow-citizens especially
entitled to the careful consideration of those charged with the duties
of legislation. No interest appeals to us so strongly for a safe and
stable currency as the vast army of the unemployed.
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