Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-03-14

done it so much harm as the Senate r
from Ohio. Referring to the efforts
of the national banks to prevent the
coinage of silver, he spoke of these
banks as failure, as no longer Of
any account, and going down every
day.
ATKINsoN's REPORT.
AS to Edward Atkinson's report on
the silver question he spoke of him as
a doubtless able and respectable man,
but doctrinaire.
Hoar reminded Beck that the pres
ent administration had sent Atkinson
to Europe.
Mr.. Beck said: ri know it and
that is what l complain of. Oh, bless
you there are gold men in the Dem
ocratic party as well as in the Repub-
lican party"
In conclusion he said he would call
up his bill for action at an early day
when he would see whether the Sem
ate agreed with him in thinking his
bill step in the right direction.
SHERMAN REPLIES.
Sherman said that he would reply
briefly to one or two matters of q per-
sonal character which the Senator felt
justified in Juggling into the contro
versy. 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 de-
monetization was put through in a
secret way? Not at all; but by gush-
ing speeches made on the stump OF
in the Senate and grossly misapplying
statements. He (Sherman) was now
able from the original Senate records
to show that the bill in question had
been openly discussed, fully consider
ed and submitted to public opinion in
every form inside of Congress and
outside. 1t was not bill of his de-
vising. He had never seen it until it
was sent to him as chairman OF the
Finance Committee by the Secretary
Of the Treasury. 1t did not become
law for three years afterwards and in
the mean time it had been printed 13
times and had been debated over and
ONcl again. 4Hc llOuSc ndu lublSttu
on reducing the weight of the silver
dollar to 3S4 grains, or just the exact
equivalent of two and a half dollars,
thus making the silver dollar practi-
cally minor or subsidiary coin.
From that time april 1S7O) till the
passage of the law of February 1878,
that provision had stood in law, and
had been printed over and over again
in both Houses, and yet members OF
Congress had been quoted as saying
that they did not know what was in
the bill. 1t was in Difference to
THE WISHES OF THE PACIFIC COAST
That. the Senate had substituted fol-
the silver coin proposed by the
House, the trade dollar of 420 grains
troy weight, and yet men here said
that he pleaded the baby act in the
matter. He knew what was in the
bill, he knew that the origina,
proposition of the House was to con
vert the silver dollar into a mino
coin, and he did not believe in that
He believed it better to have a coir
according to the desires Of the Cali
fornia people, that would become thu
coin OF commerce. But there was one
thing he did not see. He did not SEE
into the future. He did not see tha
the silver dollar, which was then at 8
premium of per cent. over the gold
dollar, would within fifteen years be
worth only 70 cents. If anybody had
told him so, he would have thought
him crazy; so that all that there was
about it was that Congress had not
foreseen the change in the value of the
silver dollar. When ony one, in the
light OF these facts, said that any
thing was sought to be done by indi-
rection and secrecy, he did an injus.
tice to himself and to the records. As
to the payment of the interest of the
United States bonds in coin, which
Beck had found so much fault with,
he thanked God that that had been
legislated for; if it had not been, what,
he asked, would have become of the
National credit without the strong
anchor OF coin interest. Bonds would
have disappeared like Confederate
bonds into thin air,
"UNHoNoRED AND UNsUNG."
He did not want to precipitate this
silver question. He did not care to
discuss it. His views on the subject
were known and wherever he could
see his way clear with the general
consent of the people, ,and with the con-
sent Of Colorado, Nevada and Califor-
MAJ to take any step to deal with the
silver question he was perfectly will
ing to do it. He thought that 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 it's market value and not
at any artificial value. After all, what
had his silver friends made by fore
ed attempt to get silver into eircula-
ton. Silver had gone down steadily,
and he would like to see it advance in
value. Congress and the nation were
powerful in many things, but they
were not powerful enough to create
values, these had to be fixed by value.
making mercantile nations.
The Senate then adjourned.