The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-01-10
THE SILVER BILL.
Various Views by Various Senators
on Both Sides.

The purchase oil lZUOO,OOO ounces oi siiNer |
and the issuing of notes therefor, the month
" purchase thereafter of 3,O0O,OOO ounces,
and the issuing of 5000, 100000 in per cent.
bonds, to retire part of the 3 and per cent.
bonds. Mr.. Stewart, of Nevada, offered an
providing for free and unlimited
coinage of silver.
The debate opened with Mr.. Stewart on the
floor, who briefly spoke in favor of the amend
ment. Senator Sherman, Republican, argued
that the amendment would be disastrous to
the country The bill, as reported, was not
what the country needed, but IN Difference to
the views of the silver Senators he had con
scented to it. He believed the passage of the
free coinage amendment would send the
5000, 900, 900 of gold in the country to pre-
MUM and virtually withdraw 1t from circula-
ton. Instead, then, of increasing the volume
of the currency the effect of the bill would be
to contract it. The immediate effect, he said,
upon the standard of value would be that in
stead of & sterling being equal only to Sl.S6,
it would be equal to 5000 of our money. lie
went on to argue that gold was the standard
of value the world over, and if this country
was placed upon silver basis, as the amend
ment would surely do, our 14I0 millions OF
currency would shrink in purchasing power
to about 100 millions We have gold
standard, but two metals: pass the amend.
ment and we will have but one standard and
one metal
Senator Stewart, Republican, replied to
Senator Sherman. He argued that the gold
king had tempered with the standard of silver,
and caused more misery and suffering in the
last seventeen years than all the wars of the
century. He said the people were selling
their farms and sacrificing their property TO
get gold to satisfy the demands of this tyrant
gold king.
Senator Reagan, Democrat, of Texas,
spoke for free coinage. He spoke OF the vast
public debt, of the debts of railroads, of state
and municipal Indebtedness, before silver was
demonetized in 1873. The contraction OF the
volume of currency makes the debts today,
though much reduced, greater when measured
in bushels of wheat, bales of cotton or wages
than they were seventeen years ago.
Senator Teller, Republican, of Colorado,
opened the debate on Tuesday in favor Of free
coinage He said he had no apologies to
make for voting to displace the Force bill to
take up the silver measure. He then pro-
ceeded to criticise Mr.. Sherman's speech,
which he declared consisted Of nothing but
assertion as to what would follow the passage
of the pending bill. The Senator from Ohio
had occupied high financial positions in this
country. In certain sections of the country,
where the almighty dollar was all powerful,
and where the grossest ignorance existed upon
financial questions save upon questions OF
discount and exchange, he was financial
oracle Therefore, the utterances Of the
gentleman fell upon the country with great
weight, not because there was anything IN his
statements or his assertions, but because Of
accidental positions he had heretofore occu-
pied and the reputation he had heretofore
made.
The prophecies of the Senator when the
Bland bill was under consideration had been
untitled; yet the Senator said now, excathe-
dra. that if free silver coinage were adopted
gold would become commodity, and that
| half of the money in the United States would
be wiped out. How did the Senator show
this, save by simple declaration? The Sena-
! tor had declared that the country was on a
gold basis. The Senator had attempted to
put the country on that basis, but had been
unable to do so. The special pleading, the
misrepresentation, the threats of dire calamity
had not been sufficient to brighten the repre-
! sentatives of the people into putting the coun'
| try on gold basis. The Senator had a won
derful faculty of being on all sides of all
financial questions.
| The Senator from Ohio had told the Senate
Yesterday that free coinage could not be
| enacted into law. Had the Senator spoken
!
spoken for another tribunal to which the bill
would have to go? He (Mr. Teller did not
care for whom the Senator had spoken. He
could not speak for him, nor for a majority Of
| Senators on his side of the chamber. If Sen
ators believed that free coinage was essential
to the welfare of the country it was their duty
to vote for it. The other branch of Congress
could pass it or defeat it. The President
could sign it or decline to sign it, as he saw
| fit. 1t was the business of Senators to legis
late according to their Judgment, and that wa.
what he proposed to do.
The bill was a remarkable one, but it con
tanned some provisions which he did not Object
to. The fourth section he regarded as mos
remarkable one 1t was one he was not will
ing to support, and one which he did not be
lieve the people of the United States woulC
approve 1t provided for the issue of $780,
O00, 900 of per cent. bonds to be used for the
redemption outstanding bonds which woulC
not be due till 1907. The premium on thest
bonds had ranged within the last two or three
years between % and 80 per cent, and woulC
be the moment the bill passed % per cent.
so that for the 5000, 100000 of new bond
only $50, 900, 600 of outstanding bonds woul,
be redeemed. Thus the national debt, instead
of being reduced, would be increased. Ant
yet the Senator from Ohio told the Senate
that such provision was in the interest o
the people Of the United States. 1t was, Mr.
Teller asserted, in the interest of two classe
only-the silver spectators of New FORK anC
the bankers of the country. 1t absolutel.
ignored the people of the United States ant
their demands for more money.
Senator Morrill,, Republican, of Vermont
followed. He was one of those, he said, whit
had never believed that a computation in in
hated money would add to riches, or that
cheap standard of money by which to Blu.
would not be a cheap standard by which t
SELL In view of the late financial panic il
New York and of rather popular demand
for some increase of the currency, he haC
been willing to stretch n point in order L
keep step with the Senators from Colorado
and Nevada. But appetite grew by what i
fed upon. Even some Democratic candi
dates for the presidency had pulled down
their vests and were said to admit some
thing of progressive appetite. 1t had no
been enough to assent, without whimper, t.
the purchase of $l2, 100000 worth of foreign
silver supposed to be in the hands of specula
tors, nor to assent to a provision for the issue
of treasury notes to the extent of Sl80,000,
600 10 purchase silver bullion, but it was
proposed, whenever the market price oil
silver bullion should be dollar or over fol
37li grains of pure silver, that the purchase
of silver should cease and that free coinage o
silver should take place. And yet all lhest
propositions, tipped with silver, promised
Mr. Morrill, said, no fnality. but were tC
''stretch out to the crack of doom"
He was, and ever had been, sincerely anC
heartily disposed 10 support any fair anC
reasonable measure tending to advance th,
market yalge of silver, but il appeared to hin
that his silver friends were asking too much
and he had to halt before plunging into {
shoreless and bottomless sea.
Senator Vest, Democrat, of Missouri
argued in favor of the free coinage of silver
aud replied to Mr.. Morrill's speech. The
Senator from Vermont, he said, had spoken
of the Democratic party having ''lucid inter-
walls" and had said, at least by implication,
that every public man who favored free
coinage was afflicted with a short or financial
lunacy. Between the two classes - the
Democrats per SC and the citizens of the
| United States who favored free coinage
Senators If the Senator from Vermont were
correct) were living in very large lunatic
asylum, because the last election had de.
veloped the fact that the entire face of the
country was covered with Democrats and with
/ free cOinape neOnla