The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-02-21

There has been more or less dlS-
~cussion as to Gov. Hills attitude on tho
silver question. The only a.thenti-
Gated public utterance on the subject
credited to him was contained i'll a
speech delivered at the dedication OF
the Thomas Jefferson club in Brooklyn.
Sept. y, 1890. We quote that part of
his speech entire, as a matter OF public
interest:
The new monetary legislation of con
gress, as exemplifisd in the recent silver
act, redoubles the latest. repeats the earliest.
and perpetuates tine worst of those errors
which for nearly thirty years have made
unsouEd finance a daily national instruc-
ton and honeycoinbed the constitution
with republican law. Instead of executing
the granted power to coin the peoples gold
and silver into money. instead of eHecting
Its circulation by gold and silver certih-
Gates strictly representative of coin. dollar
for dollar. this republican congress has
now managed. without the excuse of war or
the pretence of necessity, to add another
new-fangled legal tender to that promis-
sorry debt currency which the United States
supreme court. before it WAS packed to re-
verse its own decision. rightly adjudged
illegal. After twelve years failure by com
pulsory treasury silver purchases to pro-
mote free bimetailic coinage at home or
abroad, the republican party is trying to
deceive the people by the claim of having
settled what it calls the silver question"
The assumption il as unwarranted ss it is
deceiying. The recent legislation of con-
gress is merely a temporary expedient. 1t
will give permanent satisfaction nowhere.
1t puts a heavier strain upon our resources
than free birnetallic coinage without for
eieu cooperation would do. and obstructs
our progress toward that end which We all
desire to reach-tiie free coinage of silver
under a prope international ratio.
In order to give internationally to our
ratio, sixteen. it would be necessary to OBJ
tain beforehand the concordant votes of all
the states of the European continent and
the Simultaneous recoinage of the gold
francs. the gold marks, the gold ~fiorins. the
gold roubles. while the single vote of con-
gress in favor of the general European
ratio. fifteen and one-half, and the recoin-
age of a single piece-namely. our silver
dollar-shou!d be sufficient for realizing
everywhere All identical bimetallic ratio.
Congress persists III making sixteen gold
dollars weigh the same as one silver dollar,
while fifteen and one-haif is the monetary
ratio between gold and all the enormous
stocks of silver coins existing in France, in
Holland, IN Spain. in Austria, in Germany
and in Russia.
Congress thus, with laundering incom-
p~etence. actually repares either a future
conflict Of mint ratios. such as twice al
ready swept the United States clean of its
monetary metals. first of gold and then of
silver, or else it casts away to foreign lands
that large profit incident to the recoinage,
which, either here Or in Europe, must pre-
cede, to make possible free bimetallic coin
age at one ratio on both sides of the At
lantic.
In one act a republican ngres has thus
usurped a more than doubtful power, which,
if lawful. it has worse Than unwiseIy used:
has repulsed a popular demand for restora-
ton of our monetary unit. which, till 1873,
was biuetallic, with free coinage alike to
silver and to gold. and has interposed new
hindrance to a single and fixed weight ratio
of parity for the gold and silver of the
worlds which is a rational 30
luton of the silver question. if m
remains international and universal.