The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1884-12-16

to be grave. The volume of greenback currency
is fixed absolutely by law, while the volume of bank
notes tended to diminish from the cancellation of
the government bonds uron which they rest. Their
contraction has not been seriously felt because their
place has been supplied by silver. Mr.. Hill ex-
pressed the hope that the country would conclude
to let the silver law alone long it worked we'll
Mr.. Sherman said he was one Of those who be-
lieved b metalisn to be the natural logic of things
IL was impossible to make gold and silver of the
same market value, because for two thousand years
their TestiVe value had been changing. The exper-
1ment had been fairly tried by the United States
and had failed The silver dollar coinage law had
been in operation since 1873, and the total num-
her OF those dollars coined was 1877 1000; OF
that numb only Al 900 OO0 were now in circula-
ton, and the balance remained in the United States
treasury. That showed that the law OF Congress
had not been able to restore silver to it's relation
with gold. When that law took effect the silver in
the silver dollar was worth 81 cents in gold, but
now it was worth only between 85 and SO cents,
Silver had gone down steadily since tho passage of
the act referred to- and the government of the
United States bought silver bullion from the Sena-
tor from Colorado (Mr. HID at its market value.
IL was treated as a merchantable COM
modify; but the people had right to take
II from the government or lot as
they pleased and they pleased not to take it be-
cause il was not worth $50 grains and was only
worth Az. Suppose such an alarm were sounded
as shou lead to the export of our gold and disar-
range all our standards of values? What would
happen? Did not the Senators know that it would
create the most fearful contraction Of the currency
ever witnessed in this country? LaboriDg meo
when supposing themse TO be earning dollar
would be earning only 80 cents and wages would
nOb auFdnc6 TO make up Tor the OenC16ncV. MT.
sherman hoped to God that such a contingency
would not arise and he believed void not. AS to
tne remedy his idea was to first stop the coinage Of
the silver dellar and wait for new ratio of new
value to be established by the nations Of the world
between gold and silver
Mr.. Beck said that the silver coinage question
had never been fairly treated by any adnlinistra-
tion or By any officer OF it and the reason for the
great depression of silver the hostility Of
government. No man had evineed more of that
hostility than the Senator from Ohio (dr. Sher-
mani as Secretary of the Treasury.
Mr.. Sherman remarked that he had never said a
WORD against silver certificates nor sgail st the
silver dollar except that they should be made good
Mr.. Beck replied that he would tomorrow read
some extracts which would refresh Mr.. SheImans
recollectons The matter tLen dropped.
. The chair then appointed a committee to attend at
the executive mansion tomorrow to take part in the
ceremony of opening the New Orleans Exposition.
The Oregon Central land forfeiture bill was made
special order for next Thursday.
Adjourned
The Speaker laid before the House a communica
ton from the Secretary of the Treasury estimating
the cost Of collecting at each port of entry
in the United States for the fiscal year ending
June 30, 1886. Referred.
communication from the Postmaster General
asking for an appropriation of S1O0 900 for postal
car service, and $4,000 for the pay of postal
clerks was also referred.
Under the call of States the following measures
were introduced and referred:
BY Mr.. Holman of Indiana, resolution amend
ing the rules of the House to provide that all
speeches printed under leave to print shall be snb
Ject to the rules governing debates.
BY Mr.. Cox of New York, preamble and resolu-
tion recitiDg that it has been reported that F. s.
Strang, late cadet at the Naval Academy at Annap-
olir has died in consequence of crueltes practiced
en- him by the senior cadets and req uesting the
Secretary Of the Navy to communicate to the
House any information he may have obtained in re-
laton to the cause of the death of said cadet
Under the rules of the House the Speaker pro-
ceeded to call the committees for motions to sus-
pend rules.
Mr.. Atkins of Ohio, from the committee on bank
ing and currency, moved to suspend the rules and
adopt resolution setting aside Thursday, JAN I6,
for the consideration of the Mcpherson and Ding.
ley bills
The motion was agreed to--yess 174, nays 81,
The Speaker appointed a committee composed Of
the territorial delegates and one representative
from each State to attend at the executive mansion
{. witness opening Iof the New Oreaps Exposition
Ihe New e. gland members Messrs. Seymour of
Connecticut, Dingley of Maine, Lyman OF Massa-
chusetts Ray of New Hampshire, Chace of Rhode
island and Poland of Vermont
Mr.. Aiken, of South Carolina from the commit
tee on Agriculture, moved to suspend the rules aud
pass the bill TO establish de, artment Of agricul.
ture Agreed to, 166 to 50.
Adjourned.