Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-03-15
That silver question.

Senate, and is opening up most in
teresting, as well as an earnest de-
bate. The demonetization of silver,
or rather the manner in which it was
brought about, is curious bit of his
tory which has not been conned by
the general reader. Mr.. Sherman, in
his speech before the Senate day be-
fore yesterday, gave an outline OF it
which was far from the real reading.
In 1873 Congress had agreed to a
mere abstract proposal that, for the
sake of public convenience, the vari-
GUS Mint laws should be codified.
The silver dollar had up to that time
been always and everywhere legal
tender, and was expressed as such in
all the old Mint statutes. Very Curl
ously, the new code omitted all men
ton of the silver dollar as one of the
coins which the Secretary OF the
Treasury might allow to be
coined. The new codifcation, with
the old laws thus mutilated,
was carelessly passed through
Congress and it was not until Presi.
dent Grant had affixed the Executive
signature to it that the people of the
Nation were fully aware that the time
honored silver dollar had been legis-
lated out of existence. Senator Beck,
who is now fathering the present sill
yer bill in the Senate, holds that such
legislation was fraudulently conceived,
and has repeatedly declared that Presi-
dent Grant detected the fraud when too
late, and admitted that he had been
tricked into giving his signature. 1t
is very curious fact-and signif-
cant one to those who believe that the
demonetizatio of silver was made
in the interest Of the bondholder and
the money-lender-that the same
kind of needless, not to say fraudu-
lent legislation characterized the pro-
ceedings of the English Parliament
in 1916. On the silver question at that
time England was almostexactly in the
same position as was the United
States in 1873. As in England then
and in the United States later-with
specie payments suspended in both
countries-the outlawry of silver by
legislation failed to alarm the people,
because no present or visible changes
were evolved. In both cases the
Legislation was prospective only; it
merely said: when the time does
come that we shall resume specie
payments, then we will employ gold,
and gold alone, as legal tender
money" But it followed, with the
resumption of specie payments on
gold basis in England, that two-thilds
of the cultivators of the soil were, in
the course of few years, and in
time of unruffled peace, rendered in
solvent. This unlocked for resultant
was directly attributable to one
of two causes; either that all
the productions Of industry had sud-
denly increased, or that reduction
in the amount of the money generally
in circulation had taken place. The
existence of the first cause given was
generally doubted, and England suf-
fered on until the great gold discover
les brought her relief. But the new
gold given to England by these dis
coveries has been absorbed, or has
disappeared from her currency, and
that nation is again exemplifying by
suffering the old fact that prices are
regulated by the volume Of money.
The opponents of the demonetization
Of silver say that the same result is
taking place in the United States.
Mr.. Sherman admits that in 1873 he
did not see into the future-nor did
Lord Liverpool in 1916 when he
fathered the silver demonetization
bill in the British Parliament-that
he did not see that the silver dollar,
that was at premium of 8 per cent.
over the gold dollar, would in fifteen
years, be worth only 70 cents. eff any
body had told him so he would hay 9
thought them crazy" II is evider t
that the blunder, or the wrong done
in 1873, by Senator Sherman and his
colleagues, has increased the burdens
of the people just in the proportion
that silver has shrunk in value. 1t
has added 80 per cent. to the burden
Of every debt contracted prior to 1873,
or more rightly stated, it has reduced
the capacity Of the people to pay by
80 per cent. Again, men and nations
have to pay their debts from the
profits of their labor, and when 80
per cent. of the receipts is taken away
there are no profits. But
Mr.. Beck charges that sill
yer was demonetized- because
capitalists and bond-owners saw that
gold was becoming more and more
valuable every day. The truth was
that from the beginning of the war
until now the moneyed men of the
country, aided by Congress, had
sought to make money out of the
country's distress, and then, by means
foul or fair, atthe expense Of the great
masses of the people. To this end