, 1890-07-17

posed OF tho republican party, which by
gag rule had voted down AMI suhed
FREQ coinage. II free coinage came at
all, II would come from that party
which had stood iirm to the flag uf Tree
coinage, and which bad not surrendered
Its principles ut the beck OF wall
street. lie denied that the bill was tho
result of n FREQ and fair conference.
II was tho result of secret meetings of
the republican conierrecs. lie, as con
feree, had known nothing of the measure
until it had been framed and the report
was ready to be signed. The democratic
members had been ignoredi in the prcpar'
ing OF the bill. The bill was one which
practically defnonetizcd silver II was
sugar-coated quinine pill. ON the iirst
reading II seemed that the secretary was
to purchase 4,5OO,OcO ounces every
month, but when u man reeled the pill
around In his mouth he began TO taste
tho bitterness OF ''or so much thereof
as may be offered" There could DO
traced In this measure a steaithy italian
hand. The bill surrendered every prin.
ciple of bimetsllism, IL surrendered
free coinage. IL made combination
with the bullion speculators OF wall
street. In the interests of Wall street
Ii departed from the legal r,tio, and
changed that ratio from 10 TO TO %
to 1. 10 change the ratio was TO pile up
so much capital in tho treasury
AZ the expense OF the people, and In
the interests of Wall street and the
bullion owners, and he denounced 1t as
a fraud and a cheat on the people, who
were demanding ratio of 10 10 1. The
bill made silver simply a commodity
to be measured by gold, upon which
money should be issued upon Its gold
value. IL was true that the measure
might make n small increase In the cir
culation, but 1t would make II by con-
cession to tho gold standard and a de.
sertion of silver. 1t was q declaration
that congress would not make any iur-
thcr fight for bl-metallism. IL was
neither u silver bill nor greenback bill,
but simply u political device devised to
tide over un emergency. lie de-
nounced IL &c a fraud, and would de.
nounco any measure as a fraud that
did not provide for free coin
age. When the bill that had his
name was passed, he (Bland) had fallen
into q trap. Every silver representative
then lelt perfectly confident that the
next president would sign a free coinage
bill. He would refer to tho history OF
those members now willing 10 accept
this report as leading to free coinage.
Now was the time to make this light. IL
tho conference report was rejected an
other conference would be held and the
Objectionable features OF the report
stricken out.
MIR. Morrow, OF California, expressed
his approval OF the conference report,
and proceeded to argue that the de-
preston in the price of silver In recent
years had resulted from artificial manip-
ulation.
In the course OF the debate MIR. Town.
send, of Colorado, said that he and
some other republicans had voted for
free coinage, and II the gentle men on
the other side had stood solid, the free
coinage bill would have passed the
house. Then they had recognized that
the only way to got silver legislation ut
this session was to go back TO the re-
publican party, where they had always
belonged, and get II from that party.
The conference report was finally
agreed to 10y a strict party vote-ayes
l22, noes.
Filty pairs were announced.
The following members were absent
and not paired.
Blanchard, j. II. Brown Clnd.), Clark
(Ala) Covert, Dickerson, Fowler. Lac,
Mansur, Mccarthy, Phelan, Rowland,
s,ahlnecker, Spinoln, Taylor tTenn.l,
Vaux and wilkinson.
The bill now goes TO the president for
his signature.
The house then adjousned.