Omaha daily bee., 1888-03-14
SHERMAN'S SILVER RECORD.
Beck Makes 1t the Object of a
Caustic Attack.
THE DEMONSTRATION MEASURE
The Kentucky Senator Charges That
It Was Struggled Through Con-
gress Without Proper Consid-
eration-Sherman's Reply.
Senate.


granting an increase of pension to Mrs. Gen.
| eral Ward Burnett
| MIR. Hale called UP the resolution offered
by him December 10, for the appointment of
a special committee to examine into the pres
ent condition of the civil service in all
branches Of the government Mr.. Cockrell
offered an amendm. Mt to extend the inquiry
to instances of the pernicious, partisan ac-
tivity of republican officials since the execu-
tive order of President Hayes of June 1877,
particularly in the presidential elections Of
1850 and 1854 After some debate the amend
ment was defeated and the original resolu-
tion was adopted.
The senate then proceeded to the consider
alton Of Beck,s bill to provide for the retire
ment of United States legal tender and
national bank notes of small denominations
and the issue of coin certificates in lieu of
gold certificates, and Mr.. Beck addressed the
senate in advocacy of it, He referred to
what he had said in his speech on the pension
bill as to Mr. Shermans responsibility
for the silver demonstration measure.
In support of his statement that that measure
had been carried through congress secretly,
he quoted from speech made in the house by
Mr.. Kelly of Pennsylvania, the chairman who
had had charge of the bill, to the effect that
the bill was passed without any allusion in
the debate to the question of the abandon
that he (ielly) did not know anything of it
for eighteen months afterwards. He also
quoted from speeches in the senate by various
senators at different times declaiming against
the bill. If there was any faith to be put IN
human testimony neither the senate congress
nor the people knew that silver coin was
being struck down when the act of 1873 was
passed. He denounced as untrue the pre-
tense that silver was demonetized because it
was more valuable than gold, but declared
1t was because capitalists and bond owners
saw that gold was becoming more and more
valuable every day
From the beginning Of the war until now.
the moneyed men Of the country aud their ad-
yocates and supporters in congress and else
where had sought, first, to make money out
of the country's Distress and then, at all haz-
ards and by all means foul and fair, unlaw-
fully to make themselves rich at the
expense of the great masses Of the people.
The demonetization of silver was but
one step in that line. The act in the re-
vised statutes was another step in the same
direction. After that the next thing was to
strike down the greenback-ln resumption act
to destroy it altogether, and TO leave the
national banks omnipotent over the land.
And all this time the senator from Ohio had
been chairman of the senate committee on
finance.
After criticsing several of Mr.. Sherman's
reports and suggestions while secretary of
the treasury, Mr.. Beck said: "That is one
of the reasons yhy.I said that while the sena-
tor from Ohio might be president of the
United States, his conduct IN relation to the
act of 1873, and his great financial abilities
exercised as they always have been in the
interest of the money power-will not be
record of which he will be proud. when he
comes before the people," The bill which he
(Beck) had introduced proposed to issue coin
certificates instead of gold and silver certi-
ficates. The was the first great step for the
country to take.
Referring to the efforts of the national
ban KS to prevent the coinage of silver he
spoke of these banks as a failure,
as no longer of any account, as going
Atkinson's report on the silver question he
spoke of him as doubtless an able and re-
spectacle man. but doctrinare..
Mr.. Hoar reminded Mr. Beck that the
present administration had sent Atkinson to
| Europe.
Mr.. Beck-I know, and that is what COM
| plain of. Oh, bless you, there are good men
| In the democratic partyas well as in the re-
publican party"
| In conclusion he said he would cali up his
| bill for action at an early day when he would
see whether the senate agreed with him in
| thinking his bill step in the right direction.
| Mr. Sherman said he would reply briefly to
| one or two matters of a personal character
| which the senator felt justified in Juggling
| into the controversy. The senator's answer
| to-day to what he (Sherman) had said when
| he last spoke on the subject was lame and
| impotent to the last degree. How had he
answered it! BY going to the record and
| seeing whether the decentralization laws were
put through in a secret way! Not at all, but
by quoting speeches made on the stump
| or in the senate, and grossly misapplying
them. He (Sherman) was now able from the
| original senate records, to show that the bill
| in question had been openly discussed,
fully considered and submitted to public
| opinion in every form, inside of congress and
| outside. 1t was not bill of his devisng. He
| had never seen it until it had been sent to
| him as chairman OF the finance committee by
| the secretary of the treasury. Itdid not be-
| come a law for three years afterwards, and
| in the meantime it had been printed three
| times and been debated over and over again.
The house had insisted on reducing the
| weight of the silver dollar TO 3S4 grains, or
Just the exact equivalent of two half dollars,
l thus making the silver dollar practically a
| minor or subsidiary coin. So that in the
| original bill the old silver dollar had been
| dropped and in its place minor or subsidi-
| airy coin is substituted. From that time
| april, lS10) till the passage of the law of
February 1878, that provision had stood in the
| law, and been printed over and over again in
| both houses. And yet members of congress
| had been quoted as saying they did not know
! what was in the bill 1t was in Difference to
| the wishes of the Pacific coast that the SEN
| ate had substituted for the subsidiary coin
| proposed by the house, the trade dollar. He
| knew the original proposition of the house
| was to convert the silver dollar into minor
coin, and he did not believe in that.
But there was one thing he did not see. He
did not see into the future. He did nor toresee
| that the silver dollar, which was then at a
| premium of per cent over the gold dollar
would, within fifteen years, be worth only 20
| cents. If anybody had told him so he would
| have thought him crazy. SO. that all there
| was about it was that congress had not fore
| seen the change in the value of the silver
| dollar. As to the payment Of interest on
| United States bonds in coin, which
/ Mr.. Beck found so much fault with, he
| thanked God that that had been legislated
| for. If it had not been what would have be-
| come of the national crediti Without that
strong anchor Of coin interest United States
| bonds would have disappeared like confeder-
| ate bonds-inio thin air, "unknown and un-
| sung" As TO the senator's talk about re.
sumption, who did not feel, he asked, that
| that great work OF courage-not only of con-
| gress, but Of the departments and of the peo.
ple-was one of the proudest triumphs Of the
nation. He thought the time might come
when all the silver product of the country
| might be represented by coin certificates;
| but then it would have to be bought at its
! market value. Congress and the nation were
| powerful in many things, but they were not
powerful enough 10 create values. Ad-
| iourned.
House.
WA5HlNGTog. March l3.-Among the bills
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