The evil anticipations which have accompanied the coinage and use of the silver dollar have not been realized.  As a coin it has not had general use, and the public Treasury has been compelled to store it.  But this is manifestly owing to the fact that its paper representative is more convenient.  The general acceptance and the use of the silver certificate show that silver has not been otherwise discredited.  Some favorable conditions have contributed to maintain this practical equality in their commercial use between the gold and silver dollars; but some of these are trade conditions that statutory enactments do not control and of the continuance of which we can not be certain.

I think it is clear that if we should make the coinage of silver at the present ratio free we must expect that the difference in the bullion values of the gold and silver dollars will be taken account of in commercial transactions; and I fear the same result would follow any considerable increase of the present rate of coinage.  Such a result would be discreditable to our financial management and disastrous to all business interests.  We should not tread the dangerous edge of such a peril.  And, indeed, nothing more harmful could happen to the silver interests.  Any safe legislation upon this subject must secure the equality of the two coins in their commercial uses.

I have always been an advocate of the use of silver in our currency.  We are large producers of that metal, and should not discredit it.  To the plan which will be presented by the Secretary of the Treasury for the issuance of notes or certificates upon the deposit of silver bullion at its market value I have been able to give only a hasty examination, owing to the press of other matters and to the fact that it has been so recently formulated.  The details of such a law require careful consideration, but the general plan suggested by him seems to satisfy the purpose—­to continue the use of silver in connection with our currency and at the same time to obviate the danger of which I have spoken.  At a later day I may communicate further with Congress upon this subject.

The enforcement of the Chinese exclusion act has been found to be very difficult on the northwestern frontier.  Chinamen landing at Victoria find it easy to pass our border, owing to the impossibility with the force at the command of the customs officers of guarding so long an inland line.  The Secretary of the Treasury has authorized the employment of additional officers, who will be assigned to this duty, and every effort will be made to enforce the law.  The Dominion exacts a head tax of $50 for each Chinaman landed, and when these persons, in fraud of our law, cross into our territory and are apprehended our officers do not know what to do with them, as the Dominion authorities will not suffer them to be sent back without a second payment of the tax.  An effort will be made to reach an understanding that will remove this difficulty.