Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-03-14
POLITICAL MATTERS.
Speeches i'm the Senate on
the Silver Question.
COIN CERTIFICATES URGED,
Fairchiid Writes Regarding the
Disposal of the Surplus
Revenue.
Associated Press Dispatches to the HERALD

Associated Press Dispatches to the HERALD.
WASHINGTON, March 13.-In the
Senate to-day Hale called up the
resolution offered by him for the ap-
pointment of a special committee to
examine fully into the present con-
dition OF the civil service in all
branches of the government.
Cockrell offered an amendment to
extend the inquiry to instances of per-
nicious partisan activity Of Republi-
can officials since the executive order
OF President Hayes of June, 1877,
particularly in the Presidential cleo
tions of 1880 and 1884.
Hale said that he could not consent
to the amendment. He was not,
however, opposed to the investigation.
He desired it, but it should 60 on dis
tinctly by itself.
The amendment was defeated by a
strict party vote, yeas "a, nays 29
and the original resolution was
adopted.
THE SILVER QUESTION.
The Senate then proceeded to the
consideration of Beck's bill to provide
for the retirement of United States
legal tender and national. bank notes
of small denomination and the issue
OF coin certificates in lieu of gold cer-
| tifcates.
The bill, Mr.. Beck said. had been
ref rred to the Finance Committee
and had been Qast Tuesday, reported
back by bare majority. He referred
to what he said in his speech on the
pension bill as to Sherman's respon-
sibility for the silver demonstration
measure. In support of his state
ment that that measure had been car
ried through Congress secretly, he
quoted from speech made in the
House by Kelly, Of Philadelphia, the
Chairman who had charge Of the bill +,
to the effect that the bill was passed
without any alIusion in debate to the
question Of abandonment of the
standard silver law, and that he,
Kelly, did not know anything of it
for 19 months : afterwards. He
also quoted from recent speech in the
Senate by Stewart, who was in the Sen
ate in 1878, and who, although his
State was deeply interested in the
question knew nothing Of the bill de-
monetizing silver. He also quoted
from a speech of Senator Allison in
1887, in which he declared that the
bill of 1873 was "doctored," and from
a speech of Senator, Howe's, of Wis.
consin, in 1887, in which he spoke Of
it as an act of guilt, compared with
which the robbery Of 5000, ,000, 900 was
venial; also from speech of Senator
Ingalls, in 1878, in which he spoke Of il
as "the elimination of scheme long
entertained by holders of the public
debt, devised by them for the pur-
pose Of appreciating the value of their
investment, regardless of the ruin
and desolation which it would incur on
the productive classes OF the nation. -
Beck then quoted from aspeech of
Senator Voorhees, in which he spoke
of it as having "crawled into the stat
ute book furtively and noiselessly"
from speech of Senator Coke, in
which he said "that no greater out
rage ever had been perpetrated under
the form of law" and from speeches
of other Senators. He also quoted
from the House proceedings on the oc-
casion of the passage of the bill regu-
lating 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 reported by Hooper as SUBJ
stitute for all former bills on the sub
ject; that it was avowed by Hooper
and that it had nothing to do with the
coinage.
He denounced as untrue the pre-
tense that
SILVER WAS DEMONETIzED
Because it was more valuable than
gold but declared that it was because
capitalists and bond-owners saw that
gold was becoming more and more
valuable every day. He also charged
that "the fraud" was consummated
through revision of the statutes. The
act OF 1873 had not destroyed the legal
tender principal of silver coin then in
existence; but the revised statutes,
(Which proposed not to alter the law
in single syllable) came afterward
and declared that silver coin should
be legal tender for not more than IS /;
was that an accident? 1t was true
that whoever did it committed pal
pable fraud upon the country, for it
required the Revised Statutes to de-
stroy 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 advo-
Gates and supporters in Congress and
elsewhere, had sought, first, to make
money out of the country's distress,
and then at all hazards and by all
means, foul and fair, to make them
selves rich at the expense of the great
masses of the people. The demonetiza-
ton of silver was but one step in that
line, step which was in perfect ac-
cord with all the other steps taken,
and the act in the Revised Statutes
was another step in the same direc-
ton. After that was done, the next
thing determined on was to strike
down greenbacks (in the Resumption
Act), to destroy them altogether and to
leave National banks omnipotent over
the land; and all this time the Sena-
tor from Ohio had been Chairman of
the Senate Committee on Finance.
sHERMAN's WORK ovERHAULED.
After criticising several of Sher-
mans reports and suggestions while
Secretary of the Treasury, Beck said:
"That is one of the reasons why 1
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 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 peo-
pie. The bill he (Beck) had intro
duced proposed to issue coin certifi-