The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-06-18
THE BILL PASSED.
Action Of the Senate on the
Silver Measure.
Amendments Adopted That Practically
Provide for Free Coinage.
The White Metal Was Defended by VOL
colt Of COlOradO-The Day Devoted
to DGba.e-Tho Vote
Special Dispatches to THE MORNING CALL

WASHINGTON, June 17.-In the Senate
this morning the House Silver Bill was
taken up and Wolcott addressed the Senate.
He said that the Senators who lived in the
silver-producing States were accused of
holding sordid and unworthy and uDpatri-
otic opinions, and when it was said those
who were demanding that silver be restored
to its old place with its sister metal wele
spectators ard adventurers. and were in
different to the true welfare of the country.
lie would have TO be pardoned for feeling
that he had right TO claim the attention
of the Senate long enough to protest
against such intimidations and against
such methods of conducting debate. If
it were true as 1t was not - that
the people of the silver producing
States were governed in the matter
by a.desire to protect the industry on which
their prosperity depended large warrant
was given to them for such cousre by some
of the Eastern States. The country, partc-
ularly the Northern States, seemed to have
fallen on days when politics were rated at
their commercial value alone, and when
political fealty was made to depend upon
whether the prosperity of the locality where
the voter resided was to be the better fos-
tered by competition with other countries,
or by large and prohibitory duties which
practically excluded foreign c0mpeti-
ton. The prosperity of the people
of the mountain States of the West
had ever to rest chiefly on the prod
ucts of their mines. Yet while
they were less benefited than any
other region Of the country by high pro-
tectiye tariff. they were asked every session
to stand by the duties which the East
formulated, and when they asked that silver
should also be protected they were told they
were sordId and unpatriotic and that their
ideas were those of dissatisfied and vision
airy people. WolcOtt went on to criticize
the unfriendly attitude of the admnistra-
tion toward the silver question, and said
that when Harrison WAS nominated his
record was searched in vain for any note
worthy actions, saying that the Republican
leaders of the West made great efforts
among the miners and farmers, ana Sc
cured the great success of the ticket; that
the President had not exactly materialized
on the silver question, and that the awaken
ing had been rather rude He vent
ured the opinion that if the Presi-
dents opinion on that question had been
announced before the last election, not a
single State West of the Missouri River
would have given Republican majority,
not because majority of the people of
those States were not true and staunch and
earnest Republicans, but because they
would have wished to rebuke overwhelm-
ingly that person selected as their standard
bearer who was unmindful of the interests
of the country and who was disregardful
of the wishes of the great majority OF
the members of the party. An open foe
was to be preferred to a secret enemy. The
recommendation of the Secretary of the
Treasury struck vicious blow at the in
terests OF silver. The act OF rs was in
finitely preferable to the bin recommended
by the Secretary. The whole purpose of
the House bill seemed to be to degrade and
debase silver, to make 1t commodity, to
reduce it to one of the baser metals. and to
prevent its again taking its place as
standard of value. In conclusion W0lcott
said the Silver Bill was of far greater i'm
portance than an election bill, an anti
gerrymandering or tariff bill. The eonclu-
sion of Wolcott's maiden speech in the
Senate was attended with great applause
and compliments from Senators.
The Senate voted on the amendment re-
ported by the Finance Committee striking
out of the House Silver Bill the provision
that Treasury notes issued for silver shall
be legal teuder in payment of all debts,
public and private" The am udment was
rejected-ayes IA, noes 90, and the provision
remains in the bill.
The second amendment striking out the
bullion redemption clause was agreed to
ayes 81, noes Z, so that the clause was cut
out of the bill.
The third amendment reported by the
Finance Committee, striking out the sixth
section for the free coinage of silver when
the market price is 81 for 371.25 grains pure
silver was rejected-ayes 16, noes $50
the provision remains in the bill.
The amendment fixing the Limitation OF
the act to ten years was reJected-ayes 4,
noes Ga.
On motion of Plumb the following was
substituted for the first section of the House
bill (ayes 43, noes 24) That from and after
the date OF the passage of this act the unit
os value in the United States shall be the
dollar, and the same may be coined Of 412.50
grains standard silver, or 25.08 grains stand
ard gold, ana SAID COINS shall be legal tender
for all debts, public or private; that there
after any owner of silver or gold bullion
may deposit the same at any Mint of the
United States to be formed into standard
dollars or bars for his benefit and without
charge: but it shall be lawful to refuse any
deposit of less value than 500, or any
bullion so base as to be unsuitable for the
operations of the Mint.
Mitchell addressed the Senate on the gen.
eral merits of the bill, and in the course
of his remarks declared that any admins
tration which would set itself up against
the free and unlimited coinage of the silver
dollar would be, as it deserved to be, hurled
from power.
Plumb moved to add a new section to 1t to
come in as Section /, as follows: " That
the provisions of Section 8 of the act to
authorize the coinage OF standard silver
dollar, and to restrict its legal-tender
character. which became law February
2S, 1878, is hereby made applicable to the
coinage in this act provided for" This
was agreed to without division.
Reagan offered the following amendment
as substitute for sections 8, and s.:
Section 3. That the certificates provided
for IN this act shall be of denominations
not less than one nor more than one hun
dred dollars. and such certificates shall be
redeemable in coin of standard value. A
sufficient sum to carry out the provisions of
this act is hereby appropriated out of any
money in the Treasury not otherwise ap-
propriated. The provision in Section of
the act of February 28, 1878, which requires
the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase
at market price not less than two nor more
than four million dollars worth OF silver
bullion per month is hereby repealed
Edmunds here arose and said: "Without
interfering with the symposium we are
bill as it now stands and to every one of its
amendments, in general and particular, and
therefore that l am not to be called upon
hereafter to account for having allowed the
amendment to pass without calling for yeas
and nays. l am willing to deliver over to
the Democratic party the management of
the finances of this country for the time
being. only state this in order that may
not trouble the Senate with demanding the
yeas and nays and various ornamentations
that are being given to this hoodlum which
is set up. lLaughter] Plumb retorted
sharply, asking what Edmunds is going to
do with the Republican platform, and inti-
mated that Edmunds does not represent
the Republican party. Edmunds replied
that he stands by the Republican party
platform, but that Democrats and their
followers have abandoned that platform
and transformed it into one which no
Democrat convention ever dared propose,
because they knew that the people of the
limited States would swiftly find tbav ad