St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-14


he said that that gentleman had not
even pretended to notice the fact that a
great parliamentary commission under
Lord Iddlesleigh had investigated the
subject. and had reported to the queen
that the business depression everywhere
prevailing had grown out OF the great
conspiracy of 1878 against silver be-
tween England, Germany and the
United States, and that the restoration
of silver to its legal tender quality was
all that was wanted. He read letter
to himself from Edwards PierrepOnt,
calling his attention to the efforts of the
national banks, in their convention in
Pittsburg last November, to suspend in
definitely the coinage of silver; and
stating that such indefinite suspension
was just
| WHAT THE ENGLISH WANTED.
Coming back to the report of Edward
Atkinson, he spoke of him as doubtless
an able and respectable man, but doc
trinaire; as not the sort Of man whom
he Beck) would send anywhere to take
care of silver, any more than he would
send out wolf to take care of the lambs
in the blue grass region of Kentucky.
Mr.. Hoar reminded Mr.. Beck that the
present administration had sent MIR. At
kinson to Europe.
Mr.. Beck-l knew it, and that is what
complain of. Oh, bless you, there are
gold men in the Democratic party as
well as in the Republican party. We
are not divided exactly on that line.
And there are some men on the other
side of the chamber who stand by in
sustaining silver. In conclusion he said
that he would call 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 di-
rection. He was not sure that silver
should not be coined up to the maxim OF
the limit instead of the minimum.
Mr.. Sherman said that as matter
of course he would not undertake
to reply to the argument of the
senator from Kentucky on the sill
yer question, but he would reply
briefly to one OF two matters OF per-
sonal character which the senator from
Kentucky felt justified in Juggling into
the controversy. That senator had never
found him (Sherman) lodging a respOn-
sibility or evading an issue. The sena-
tors answer to-day to what he (Sher-
NAM 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 demonetization law was
put through in a secret way? Not at all;
but by quoting speeches made on the
stump or in the senate and grossly mis-
applying them. He (ShermaW was
able, from the original senate record, to
show that the bill in question had been
openly discussed, fully considered, sub
mitted to public opinion in every form,
inside of congress and outside. 1t was
not bill of his devising. He had never
seen it until it was sent to him as chair
man of the financial committee by the
come law for three years afterwards,
and in the meantime it had been
PRINTED THIRTEEN TIMES
and had been debated over and over
again. Copies of the bill had been sent
around inviting criticism; and one of
its provisions was that the silver coin
should consist of dollar (of 3S4
gfains) a half dollar, quarter
dollar, and a dime, and that such
silver coin should be a legal tender
in any one payment for all ums not eX
tceeding IS. That was the identical
form in which that section appeared in
1.-THE last bill, as it came from the house
!. to the senate. That particular section
appeared throughout the whole history
1of the bill from the beginning to the
ing the weight of the silver dollar to
3s4 grains as, Just the exact equivalent
of two half dollars-thus making the
silver dollar practically minor or sub
sidiary coin. So that, in the original
bill, the old silver dollar had been drop
ped, and in Its place minor or SubSi-
diary coin substituted. From that time
{April, 1900 till the passage of the law
of February, 1878, that provision had
stood in the law, had been printed over
and over again in both houses. And
vet members of congress had been
quoted as saying that they did not know
what was in the bill. If not, whose
fault was it? 1t was Indifference to the
wishes of the Pacific coast that the SEN
ate had substituted for the subsidiary
silver coin proposed by. the house, the
trade dollar of 420 grains, Troy. And
Vet. men. said he. pleaded the baby act
in the matter. He knew what was in
the bill. He knew that the original
proposition of the house was to convert
the silver dollar into minor coin, and
he did not believe in that. He believed
it better to have coin according to the
decree of the California people, that
would become coin of commerce. But
there was one thing which he did not
see. He did not see into the future. He
did not foresee that the silver dollar
which was then at premium of 3 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 fOrseen the
change in the value of the silver dollar.
When any one, in the light of those
20 hot n
be done by indirection and secrecy, he
did injustice to himself and the records.
AS to the payment of the interest of
United States bonds in coin (Which Mr..
Beck had found so much fault with, he
thanked God that that had been legis-
lated for. If it had not been, what, he
asked, would havd become of that ma
tional credit? Without that strong an
chor of coin interest the U. S. bonds
would have disappeared like the Con-
federate bonds, into thin air, ''unhOn-
ored and unsung." AS to the senator's
talk about resumption. who did not feel,
/ he asked, that that great work of cOur-
age mot only of congress but of the de-
partments and of the people, was one of
the proudeSt triumphs of the nation.
opposed to silver. He wished he could
add 80 per cent to the value of all the
silver in the world and in the mines.
But silver dollars would have to be
maintained at the gold standard, either
by receiving them and boarding them
or by increasing their weight. If the
silver dollars now in the treasury were
forced into circulation their credit would
break down. But he did not want to
precipitate this silver question. He did
not care to discuss it. His views on the
subject were known. Whenever he
could see his way clear with the gen.
eral consent of the people, with the con-
sent of Colorado, Idaho and California;
to take any step to deal with the silver
question, he was perfectly willing to do
1T. He thought that the time might
come when all the silver product of the
country might be represented by coin
G 4 hor 10,