Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-02-11
BLAND IN THE LEAD.
The Missourian Again the Free
Silver Champion.
HIS BILL ADOPTED IN COMMITTEE

And Reported to the House-The Salient
Features Thereof and What Its Author
Says of Them - Prediction That it
Cannot Pass-Crisp and Reed Have n
Little Verbal Set-to-BIaine Saws the
Report fhat He Is to Resign Is IAN In
fernal Ife''-Official GIcanings.
WASHINGTON, Feb 1.-THE house COM
mittee Oh coinage, weight and measures,
yesterday disposed of the silver question
SO far as the committee is concerned by
voting to report favorably the bill intro
duced by Bland, for the free coinage of
gold and silver and for the issue of coin
notes. The vote on the bill was to s. As
soon as the. committee was called to order
the consideration of the Bland bill, as
previously ordered, was begun The bill
was read section by section and discussed
scf.atim. There were numerous efforts to
amend the bill, but all were defeated ex-
cept one of no importance rs to the issue
involved in the bill A substitute was
also defeated which provided for an inter
national conference.
The Vote in Committee.
After an the proposed amendments and
substitutes had been disposed of Bartine
moved that the bill be reported favorabIy
to the house. Taylor moved to amend the
motion so as to provide for an unfavora-
bic report, Taylor's motion was defeated
by a vote of S to 5 and Bartine's motion
acceded to by the same vote. Those voting
for the Favorable report were: Bland, Xii
gore, Pierce of Tennessee, McKeeghan of
Nebraska, Williams of Illinois, Robertson
Of LOuisian, Fps of Virginia, and Bartine
of Nevada, Those against favorable re.
port We're: Tracy of New York, Taylor Of
Illinois, johnson of North Dakota. Will
Jams, of Massachusetts, and Stone OF Penn
sylvania,
The Points in the Measure.
The bill.converts all silver money, Ger
tiiicates and notes issued on bullion, and
| all gold certificates, into coin notes re
| deemabIe in coin" thus converting our
paper into b-metal paper instead OF keep
| ing up the distinction between gold and
silver in our paper issues. The unit of
value is made the silver dollar as now
coined, consisting of 4l2I2 grains standard
| silver, or the gold dollar of p $40 grains
| standard gold; but so soon as France shall
open her mints to free coinage of silver at
her present ratio, the silver dollar of the
| United States shall consist of 400 grains
of standard silver, and the 4l2i2 grain dol
lars then in the treasury or coming in
shall, as fast as they come in, be recoined
into 400 grain dollars.
| The Free Coinage Feature.
| Any one having possession of gold or
silver bullion of the value of 500 can take
it to the mint and have it coined free of
charge, or deposit it and receive therefor
coin notes equal in amount to the "coin'
value of the bullion. All the money-coin
and paper-is made legal tender for all
debts, public and private. This makes the
notes or silver dollars legal tenders in pay
ment of United States bonds. The notes
authorized by the law of 1890 are to be re,
tired as fast as they come in, and the new
"coin" notes are to be issued to the same
amount as those retired. The amount OF
"coin" notes outstanding is to be at nc
time greater than the coin" value of the
| bullion in the treasury.