Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-06-01
Roe! B Bsxasg7
ABSOLUTELY PURE
pemonet,zea by the Democrats.


with Mr.. Hunter, of Virginia, at the head
of the treasury, by the coming of half dol
lars and quarter dollars containing per
cent less silver than the dollar of the
daddies' Why did they do that, Be
cause by the discovery of gold in Cali
fornia silver rose in value, just as by the
subsequent discovery Of silver in Col
orado and Montana gold has risen and sill
yer has fallen" Sherman further traced
the decline in silver to the suspension of
the Latin union, supplementing the great
discoveries of silver in the western states
and improved methods of mining and
treating the ores
The Result of Free Coinage.
Teller asked Sherman il he was in favor
of the BlandAllison bill.
Sherman-There is no Bland-Allison
bill. They took all the Bland" out of it
when they adopted the Allison amend
ment. daughter in the galleries. The
senator from Colorado cannot compel me
ID give bad name to a good measure.
Continuing Sherman referred to the i'm
mense fall in value of iron, copper and
| other metals and said silver had simply
| followed the same laws OF trade The free
coinage of silver could res ult in only one
of two things. 1t would either bring the
gold, at the ratio of sixteen to one, or it
would demonetize gold.
Promises to Convince Teller
Was there any senator who believed that
the value of the vast boards of silver in
| all the nations of the world could be
| changed by our action.
Teller remarked that the vast boards of
| silver in all the other nations of the earth
were now doing duty as money at a ratio
higher than that stated by the senator.
Sherman replied that the Europeans
would dump their silver into this market
and of that he would convince Teller be-
fore he was through How could we
maintain silver at the ratio Of sixteen to
one except by buying all the products not
only of mines of the United States but of
sll the mines in the worldS
The So-CaIIed Sherman Law.
We could go on buying and issuing our
notes till our debt was largar than it was
at the close of the war, but the collapse
| would come at last.
| In reply to question by Nc Pherson of
| New Jersey as to the effect of the silver
bullion purchasing law of 1890, which Nc
I, Pherson called the sherman act" Sher-
man said With impressive emphasis:
There are possibilities in the future in
! regard to that law, miscalled the 'Sher.
man law. which make me as anxious for
| Its repeal as | was reluctant to pass it, In
| the absence of any provision for the sale
| of the silver if the price of silver should
! continue to decline / should be DESTROYS,
as far as | could, to arrest the further pl r
| chase of bullion, With n circulation of
1927 ,OOO, 900, SO, 200, COO pledged and only
81, 100000 surplus, to talk of II aintaii :
the two metals on parity is the widest
/ scheme of imagination.
A Task for the Almighty.
I'VE cannot maintain the parity between
silver and gold Better build upon air o.
the phantoms which float above us. Fl
nance is a hard physical fact. Create
q, doubt or maintain n suspicion and yoJ
may bring disaster This very effort t
bring about free coinage of silver is, il
my opinion, doing more 4 disturb th'
finances of the country ID.n anything
else. The task of maintaining The two
metals on a parity is heIculean. 1t i
more than that. II is task that only TIT
Almighty could undertake 1t is lecaus,
feel this in every fibre of my system; il i
because l know so far as a man car
, know what is in the future; that it is ut
, terly impossible to maintain our c.rcula
tion upon such basis, that speak earn
estly on this subject. How can we do it
, What Shall We Do About 1t?
"Shall we sell bonds? Bonds for gold!
The very effort would probably impair
our credit and degrade US from our higl
! position among the nations of the world
> Shall we sell our silver? We have ovei
800, OOO,O 900 and only Sc, 900 600 or 81, 900, 90
q in circulation. The balance is stored
away in vaults and cellars as security TO
the various forms of paper circula zion
Dare we sell that silver? / wanted to pro
vide in the law of 1890 for power to Sc il
but the parties would not agree. Now t.
q attempt to sell that silver on fal I'M
. market would only be adding misery t
= ruin"
Interrupted with Questions.
At this point Teller and Morgan began
to interrupt with questions. Morrill, OBJ
D jected, declaring the habit a pestiferou
J in the senate He suggested that as Shel
man had already spoken twoand-a-hal
l. hours the senate ad journ, and it wa
II agreed to.
Nothing But Talk in Congress.
WASHINGTON, June 1.-Sherman's grea
b speech on silver in the senate yesterda
It was delivered in a most effective manne
/, and was listened to by an attentive senat
$ and by well-filled galleries. Many of til
!, Democratic senators gathered round tn
speaker. Morgan, Pugh, Teller and othe
!. silver advocates, as well as Mcpherson {
: New Jersey, rained constant successio
of questions upon the speaker, who sal
70 that the only result would be that
yy would occupy two days with the speec
instead of one. He had not conclude
| yyh hn 1nurnnd