The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-03-14
BECK AND SHERMAN.
They Continue Their DemOne-
tizatiOn Talk.
BECK QUOTES THE RECORD
To Show That the Senator from Ohio
Struggled the Bill Through
Sherman's Reply.
SENATE.

WASHINGTON, March lZ.-Hale called
up the resolution offered by him for
the appointment of sp cial committee
to examine fully into the present con-
dition of the civil service in al branches
of government.
Cockrell offered an amendment to ex.
tend the inquiry to instances of PERM
eious partisan activity of Republican
officials since the executive order of
President Hayes of Jule 1877, particul
arly in the presidential elections of 1880
and 1886.
Hale said he could not consent to the
amendment. He was not, however,
opposed to investigation; he desired it,
but it should go on distinctly by itself.
The amendment was defeated by a
strict party vote: yeas 24, nays %, and
and the original resolution was
adopted.
The Senate proceeded to the consid-
GRAFTON of Beck's bill to provide for the
retirement of United States legal tender
and national bank notes of small de-
nominations, and the issue of coin
certificates in lieu OF gold certificates.
The bill, Mr.. Beck said, had been re-
ferred to the finance committee and
been CAST Tuesday, reported back by
bare majority. He referred to what he
said in his speech on the pension bill, as
TO Skerman's responsibility for the sIl-
yer demonetiZsti measure. In sup
port of his statement that that measure
had been carried through Congress
secretly, ne quoted from a speech made
in the House by Kelly, Pennsylvania,
chairman, who had charge of the bill.
to the effect that the bill was passed
without any alIusion in the debate to
the question of the abandonment of the
standard silver dollar Law, ana that he
CKelly) did not know anything of it for
eighteen months afterward. He also
quoted from recent speech in the SEN
ate, by Senator Stewart, who was in the
Senate in 1873, and who, although his
State was deeply interested in the ques-
ton, knew nothing OF the bill demone-
tizing silver. He also Quoted from
speech of Senator Allison, in 1887,
in which he declared that the
bill Of 1878 was "doctored;"
from the speech of Senator Howe,
of Wisconsin, in which he spoke OF it
as an act of guilt compared with which
the ROBBERY of 5000, 600 900 was venial;"
from a speech Of Senator Ingalls,, in
1878, in which he spoke of it as the
elimination Of scheme long enter
tanned by the holders of the public
debt, devised by them for the purpose
of approaching the value of their in
Testment. regardless Of the ruin and
desoIation which it would bring on the
productive classes o. the nation" He
quoted from q speech of Senator Vor-
heeS, in which he spoke of it as having
"craHled into the statute book furtively
and nciselessly;" from a speech OF
Senator Coke, in which he said, mo
greater outrage has ever been perpe-
trated under the form OF law" and
from speeches of other Senators.
He also quoted from the House pro-
ceedings on the occasion of tae
passage of that bill CIRCULATING the
operations OF the mint. What he
complained of, he said, and claimed to
prove. was that the House never knew
what was in the bill; that it was re-
ported by Hooper, as q substitute for
all former bills on the subject; that it
was aYoWad by Hooper that it had
nothing to do with coinage. He de-
nounced as untrue the pretense that
silver was demonetized because i was
more valuable than gold; but declared
that it was because capitalists and
bond owners saw that gold was be-
coming more and more valuable every
day. He also charged that 1.-The
fraud" was consummated through
the revision of the statutes. The act Of
1873 had not destroyed the legal tender
principle of silver coin then in exist
ence; but the Revised Statutes (Which
protested rot to alter the law in a
single syllable) came afterwards and
declared that silver coin should be
legal tender for not more than s..
Was that an accident? 1t was true
that whoever did it committed a palpa-
BILE fraud upon the country, for 1t re-
uuired the Revised Statutes to destroy
the silver coinage of the country. The
truth was that from the beginning OF
the war until now the moneyed men OF
the country and their advocates and
supporters'in Congress and elsewhere
had sought, first, to make money out
of the country's distresses, and then, at
all hazards and by all means, foul and
: fair, lawful and unlawful, to Rmake
themselves rich at the expense
of the great masses of the peo
pie. The characterization OF silver
was but one step in that
line, step which was in perfect accord
with all other steps taken. The act in
the Revised Statutes was another step
in the same direction. After that was
dcne, the next thing determined upon
was to strike down greenb cks Gin the
resumption act), to destroy it altogether
and to leave the national bank omni-
potent over the land. And all this time
the Senator from Ohio had been chair
man of the Senate committee on
finance. After crIticizing several of
Sherman's reports and suggestions,
while Secretary of the Treasury, Beck
10 Of ho VIII
7 said that. while the Senator from
Ohio might be President of the United
States. his conduct in relation to the
act of 1873 and his great financial abili-
ties Exercised as they always had
been in the interest of the money
power will not be record of
which he will be proud when
he comes bsfore the people"
The bill he (Beck) had introduced pro-
posed to issue coin certificates instead
of gold and silver certificates. This was