The Indiana State sentinel., 1886-01-13

sensible man to be deceived by it.
The press is filed with articles day by day
which seek to make people believe that all
other Nations have ceased to coin silver, and
that we alone are stubbornly persisting in
forcing it upon this country after il hss been
abandoned everywhere else.
1 propose to disprove these allegations by
officially stated facts. The Director of the
Mint in his last report shows (pages 131. 1922
OF gold was sos, ,292, ,569; of silver S115, H.
S7S; and that 500. 459, 240 of gold was coined,
while the coinage of silver last year amount
ed TO $50 039, ,443, of which the United States
coined $23, ,99l 756 of gold, and $25, ,534, 500 of
silver. Other Nations, therefore, coined, in
1854, SCI, ,5O4 ,577 of silver, showing that we
are lar from being alone in the coinage of
that metal. England coined s32Oi, 82l of
silver last year. and S. 201, ,517 the year be-
fore. to add to her stock which has been ac-
cumulating for generations; while she has
coined silver for India in the last three years
to the value of $6S. .234, 900.
The workers for wages in England to-day
get their pay in silver coin, and the question
is never mooted by them as to the compara-
tive bullion value of the silver and gold coin
of that country. Even Germany, notwith
standing she pretended to have demonetized
silver twelve years ago, coined in 1882 &c.
407 ISL of to add to her vast stock on hand;
her laborers are paid in it now. No CON-
about silver coin, except by the holders of
our bonds, who seek to increase largely the
purchasing power of gold, or, which is the
same thing, reduce the value of all our prop
ertv from % to 80 per cent. below its present
value when tested by the single standard OF
gold, which they claim shall be paid by us to
them and to them alone. They do not seek
to establish the single gold standard, they
say; they are bi-metallists. They agree that
silver is legal tender for all debts and obi
cations of the Government. except those held
by them. 1t is good enough to pay the
laborer, the soldier, the sailor, in snort, all
who work for the United States, but
they insist that 1t is dishonest in us to pay
it to them, although their bonds and obi
cations show on their face that it is legal
tender In payment of them all SO long as it
is coined of the standard value fixed by law,
July IA, 1870, as it is now and always has
been.
Our dollar is more valuable than that
coined by most of the other leading nations,
France included, theirs bearing the relation
of 151 TO with our gold, while ours is 16
to /. | need not repeat in detail what the
official reports show in regard TO the gold,
silver and paper currency of the several
countries. 1t is sufficient to prove by them
that while the difference in the market value
of gold and silver'in London operates to de-
grade their silver coin more than it does
ours, France and other countries maintain
their silver and paper in all transactions,
public and private, at par with gold under
far greater difficulties than We have to con-
tend with. no matter from what standpoint
the comparison is made.
The Comptroller of the Currency in his
last report, page 26 says:
From information communicated the State De-
partment by the Minister of the United States to-
France, it appears that notes of the Bank OF
France are legal-tender, and are redeemable at
sight either in gold or silver fve-franc coins at
the option of the bank silver coins of smaller de-
nominations being legal-tender only to the ex-
On October /. 1885, as shown by the returns of
the Bank of France, the notes in circulation
at that time cash amounting 265 S5S francs,
OF which ,l62 9S7, ,434 francs was gold and llO2-
64s,4l9 francs silver.
1t will be observed that the Bank of
France alone holds more silver coin than the
total silver coinage of the United Stotes. Up
to July L, 1885, we had only coined 203. Co.,
600 silver dollars. The silver coin in the
Bank of France, at five francs to the dollar,
amounts to $500, ,529, SS4, or over S17, 800 900
more than our total coinage. How many
millions more are in the hands of her people
| am not advised-mOre, perhaps, than are
held by the Bank of France, yet they are
all a full legal-tender and all as good as gold.
France is little more than two.thirds as
large as the State of Texas; her internal
trade and commerce is mere bagatelle COM
pared with that of this almost boundless
continent; her population is not two-thirds
as large as ours, and far less enterprlsing; her
foreign commerce is much smaller than ours;
gold can be transported from the Bank OF
France in Paris to the Bank OF England in
London in a few hours; they are not so far
apart as New York and Washington. Why
is il not done? Why is she not brought to
the so-called degraded silver standard? Five
more years of coinage of silver at the present
1-.,, h..-- a;t
volume or proportion to gold. Simply be-
cause her officials and her public creditors
sustain her silver and do not repudiate it nor
seek TO degrade il. as ours have done for
wears past and still continue to do in viola
tion of the plainest provisions of law.
As l have stated in the preamble to my
resolution. our customs dues are made pay
able in coin, and Section 3,694, Revised
Statutes, provides that
The coin paid for duties on imported goods
shall be set apart as a special fund.- and shall be
applied as follows: First; to the payment in coin
United States: second, to the purchase or pay
ment of ] per cent. OF the entire debt OF the
Inited states 70 oe mace witnih eacn fScai year
third. the residue to be paid INTO the
Treasury.
No Secretary of the Treasury can mistake
his duty under that law; no public creditor
can complain when the interest on his bond
special fund, first from the payment of the
interest due him. Yet millions, hundreds
of millions have been paid for duties on i'm
ported goods since 1873 in silver coin and
silver certificates, which is only conyer len.
form of handling silver, as the coin hey
represent is ours when the certificates are
paid to us; yet not one dollar, so far as am
advised. has ever been paid in silver as inter
est on the public debt or in the purchase of
a single bond for the sinking fund, though
it has been recognized as a coin which
constituted the special fund created by
law by its acceptance in payment of duties
on imported goods The public creditors
have unjustly demanded gold for the inter-
est on their bonds without any semblance of
right. and every Secretary of the Treasury
has disregarded the law and acceded to their
demands. Our officials have thus aided ana
abetted the organization of the most power
full body of capitalists in the United states
against silver coinage; men who control the
currency of the country and hold the obliga-
tions OF all its business concerns; men who
can initiate or contract the circulating me-
dunn upon which all our commercial trans
actions depend; men that hold SI31, 142, $50
of bonds Of the United States maturing in
1907, on which they now demand premium
of "a per cent, and seek by striking down
silver still further to increase their premi'
ums.