, 1877-12-23
WHY SILVER WAS DEMONETIZED.

Part Of the question whether silver should
be monetized is the history of how it came
to be demonetized. Part of that history was
the fact that the coinage of the silver dollar,
which had been the unit of money value III
this country from 1892, had been prohibited,
and the dollar denonetized, for more than
two years before. the country generally heard
Of the proceeding. The informa:ion-the
knowledge that such m important step had
been taken-wns confined to the few officials
who had taken part in the proceeding Tho
decentralization of silver was the result of
twoIegislctive acts, one IN February, 1873,
and the other in 1874. The President who
signed the law did not know what had
been done, and eight{months afterwards
wrote an elaborate prediction of the good
results of silver coinage, which coinage had
already been repealed! The characterization
Of silver was great wrong upon the country,
and. being accomp1ishe secretly, was u fraud
which Of necessity must have been planned
and carried through with precautions against
discovery. The act was not made public gen.
orally until the close Of 1876, when, silver
covered that the law no longer permitted it.
This scandalous history of demonet1zation
furnished of itself strong reason why the
law Of silver legal-tender should be restored.
So strong has been this appeal that the or
gans Of the gold-brokers, and especially the
Nation, have been denying the history Of the
secret abolition Of the silver-dollar coinage,
IL.
coin as legnl-tender. One week We were told
that the bill hnd been debated in Congress
three successive years and once the Nation
stated that Mr.. HOOPER had made speech
on the bill covering eleven pages of the
Congressional Globe! Having for nearly q
yenr denied the secresy Of the demonetizn-
ton job, the Nation now confesses it, saying
that it was not necessary to let the public
know anything about it at the. time it took
place. Speaking of the argument based on
thu. .secresy Of the act Of 1873. it says:
Its absurdity becomes more apparent If nc apply
1t to Congressional legislation in general To how
much OF it does anybody par attention except the
lawyers and editors! When it is in the least
degree concerned with scientific matters, who Of
any calling pays attention to it except specia]istst
clalists. or which possesses no popular interest
therefore fraudulent passed with evil design?
Have silver men no sense Of humor?
It further refers to the fact that silver WAS
then at premiunin gold, and nobody would
have objected to its demonstration if they
had known of it. 1t quotes DR.. LnpEauAS
to show that, in consequence of gold being
so much cheaper in 1873 than silver, the
latter was not in use rs coin, being worth
more as bullion and, commenting On this.
the Nation says:
This then gives one, ind the princ,pal. reason
why but lirfe attention was pa;d to Tho mr. ~
18th. TWAS not talked OF outs{de ericntifc c,r
ces OF Inc circle OF those specially interested in
coinage. 1or tile simple reason that 1t nnadc m
enahee IN anything that people used or were
dependent on. It recognized existing facts; it
ehooaled usage in law; but that wa. all.
Ihe only deduction that can be- drawn
from tho fact that silver was worth ina n
gold when 1t was demonetized is TINT il waa
no violation Of national faith or honor tn d.
monetlze that coin which was the mora va1-
uable, and adopt the cheaper metal re-
there be any force in this argument, then tha
Government might now demonetize gold
and restore silver, on the prete1t Of abolish
ing the dearer and adopting the cheaper
metal The confession, however, is made
that the law '1ves not talked of outside |
scientific circles, or those specially inter
ested in coinage" Tint is exactly what has
been stated. The Comptroller of the Cur
rency and the Director of the Mint inveieled
the then Secretary of the Treasury with the
idea that he might become eminent if he
could abolish silver and have an exclusive
gold coinage. So the thing was worked up
By them They were experts, and the whole
country was subjected to tho great loss
and ln]my-a loss almost incalculable-in
order that these scientific gentlemen might
Try m experiment! Unless the silver dollar
be remonetized the cost of that experiment
10 the American people may not fall short of
thousand millions Of dollars, besides post
ponlng specie payments indefinitely, and
sooJectng the Government to disastrous
financial failure.
silver was demonetized in ENGLAND in
1916; but tbs act was not passed in the dark.