The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-05-16
TELLER OPPOSED.
He sEsAss = strpng- Argum ent IA Eainst the
Silver Bill.

WASHINGTON, May 15.-In the senate
among the bills reported from committees
and placed on the calendar were the senate
bill to provide for the adjudication of
claims arising from Indian depredations,
and the house bill granting pension to
Mrs. Della Parnell.
of the silver bill. Teller continued his ar
gument in criticism of it. There were two
features" of the bill which should be
amended, he said. If the bill was to per-
form the two things which it's friends pro-
posed to accomplish that was to raise the
price of silver and to give the country a
circulation-it was absolutely essential, in
the first place, that the treasury notes pro-
vided for in the bill should have the highest
possible money function, He did not deny
that the passage of the bill would put the
price. of silver up. Its very
introduction had done that, be-
cause it was apparent to people
abroad that if the United States govern
ment consumed the entire silver product
of the county, third of the worlds pro-
duct, there would be demand for silver
that could not be nnet. It might put the
price up to par. He did not know exactly
what par would be-. He supposed $1.29 per
ounce would be called par in the United
ktates. It would be less in Great Britain
one-eighth of l per cent above par pur-
chase by the government would cease and
great interests arrayed against silver would
obtain their end. The energies of these
people were beyond calculations; their
ayarice was only equaled by their energy.
par when they wanted to and
If they could thereby destroy
silver as money metal and then when the
United States government would not buy
silver under the pending bill, they would
come back and say: We told you silver
not suitable money metal and that you
have to 90 to the only suitable money,
gold.
Everybody had to admit that the pro-
posed bill, whether it were a scheme of the
secretary of the treasury to pile up bullion
in the treasury department and pay it out
on demand of the note holders. or an
amendment reported by the finance COM
mittee, was a temporary affair. Not one
member of the finance committee would
claim it was permanent thing. They said
it was temporary. They were waiting to see
what the current of events was going to be,
and they said to the friends Of silver coin
not, it is true. full restoration
of silver to its money function
but it is halfway house at which you can
stop for awhile, and when you have gath
cred strength go on" Tho bill afforded no
relief whatever except in making special
market for silver in excess of the present
government demand of two millions
month. If it was proposed to restore silver
it would have to be given its full money
function. There were at least nine men in
the world calling for silver as against one
man calling for gold.
believe if every senator will do his duty
We will have free coinage act, an act
which will relieve suffering industry, in
crease opportunities and bring prosperity
not to the farmer alone but to every class
of men.
Coke next addressed the senate in favor
of the free and unlimited coinage of silver.
He declared that persistent defiance of pop
ular will by the executive department of
the government for the past seventeen
years was one of the most remarkable facts
in the history of free representative
government He could not support
the bill as reported from the
finance committee. 1t Disseminated
against silver in leaving to the secretary of
the treasury the right to determine how
much silver purchased should be coined into
money, and as the secretary held there was
already too much silver coined. it was sure
that with that discretion in the secretary
not another dollar would be coined. That
provision of the bill was neither more nor
less than n provision to convert the treasury
of tine United States into a warehouse for
silver to be held as commodity on which
the government should advance money.
The effect Of the bill would be to repeal the