Mr. Hay to Mr.
Combs.
Department of State,
Washington, March 24,
1904.
No. 105.]Sir: Referring to instruction No. 104, of the
21st instant, inclosing copies of letters from the Secretary of the
Treasury and Messrs. G. Amsinck & Co. respecting the recent decree
of the President of Guatemala legalizing the payment in silver or bank
notes, etc., of gold debts demanded judicially, I inclose herewith for
your information a copy of a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury
expressing his views of the decree in the light of the statements made
in the letter of Messrs. Amsinck & Co.
The letter of the Secretary of the Treasury is in reply to the
Department’s letter to him inclosing a copy of Messrs. Amsinck &
Co.’s letter and asking whether the statements of that firm tended to
modify the views expressed in his letter of the 12th instant.
If the facts are as stated in Messrs. Amsinck & Co.’s letter, you
will make earnest remonstrance against the application of said decree to
debts due American citizens.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Shaw to Mr.
Hay.
Treasury Department,
Washington, March 22,
1904.
My Dear Mr. Secretary: Referring to your
letter of March 21, inclosing copy of letter from Messrs. G. Amsinck
& Co. relative to the decree of the President of Guatemala
legalizing the payment of gold obligations in silver or bank notes,
I beg to say: This letter presents an entirely different question
than I had supposed was involved. It was perhaps my own fault that I
assumed that the current paper money was at par with silver. The
decree authorizes the payment in bank notes “at the exchange that
gold has in relation to silver.” It follows that if bank notes were
at par with silver there could be no serious objection, but if, as
appears from the letter of Amsinck & Co., the ratio between gold
and silver is about 2½ to 1 and between gold and paper 15 to 1 the
decree virtually makes paper money legal tender at par with silver,
while its market value is much below. I think this Government should
most earnestly protest against such manifest injustice to American
merchants.
Yours, very truly,
