St. Paul daily globe., 1892-03-21

nNuldH IdECI BeDefdlly, Tue lehueIS Vi lu6
Republican party in New York have never
| dared in national convention to cast the vote
| of that state for him"
| r. E. Wilson, in Belford's Monthly
| for December, 1891, under the title OF
''Shall We Have Honest Dollars" thus
| also refers to this great national crime:
| This financial condition was forced upon
| the world by the United States The aetIon
| Of the United States was dictated by small
| Clique of gold gamblers and the plan was
| Perfected and carried 10 successful end by
| John Sherman. In 1871 resumption seemed
| nearer than 1t did in 1875, and the gold gam
| bleIs and the money gamblers began to look
| at the future. What could they do when we
| should no longer have two legal tender cur
Iencies, paper and metal, of different values?
| The brilliant president of a great 1orelgn
| bank, which through him made more money
! in the gold room than Jay Gould, outlined
| one day 10 few Of the leaders the most dar-
| ing financial scheme that ever entered the
| mind of man; which space forblds giving
here in detail 4 sherman was con-
| suited Tho audacity at first daZed him.
| Then lie entered into it with his whole mind:
| The first step was 10 do something that had
never lcfolc Teen done III me whole.
| history of the world by any
government. and never WI e done
| again This was TO demouetize and throw
urcn the bar-silycr market all our full legal
| tender silver coins; tc strike The legal tender
! silver dollar tthen weIth for export three
! cents more than gold dollar from our list
| of coins and to accumulate stock OF bar
silver The second was to delay resumption
until the price of bar silver had dePreclated
| ct least twenty per cent. Secretly, Without
| three other members of congress knowing it,
| Senator Sherman bad the silver dollar STUCK
| from our list OF coins by the act OF Feo Is,
| iS73 which was passed through each house
| without reading upon the assurance that II
| "mercly codlfied without changing the mint
| laws" This was the first (and only act ever
| passed by any government demonesizing us
| own legal tender. coinage"
rhe foregoing will be enough to sus-
| tam what l said in characterlzlng the
| decentralization of silver as one of ''the
basest of conspiracies." And yet those
of us who insist that this reasonable
work shall be undone are denomInated
by many twho have not taken the
trouble to investigate) as free coinage
cranks."
why Silver Was Demonetized.
This question is often asked, and it
can only be answered in one way. Those
who hesitate to express themselves III
such clear, ringing Anglo-SaXon as Sen
ator Voorhees, or Mr.. Wilson will sim
ply say that no explanation has ever
been furnished: as did Banker st. John
in the address already mentioned when
he said that for that overthrow OF our
former system ''no satisfactory eXpiana
ton had ever yet appeared" My ex-
PLANTATION is in brief that this was done
to enable the gold gamblers OF
Wall street to filch additional mill
ions from the people. The primary OBJ
ject was to put silver where 1T would be
no better than paper-credIt money
and by thus reducing the legal tender
coin to gold alone, put that at hleSi
premium. In addition it was to make
l. .lirno tlu ff.
| them as the result of the consp .racy,
and enable the bondholders TO insist
| upon gold coin alone in payment ot
either Interest or principal on their
| bonds.
| The coinage law existing prior to 1878
| provided Ito keep it in the country that
| the Subsidiary or fractional silver coin
| should have but 3S4 instead OF 4l2M
| grains to the dollar, but these COINS
| were legal tender for S. only. The
| standard dollar having been omitted
| from that law, it ceased to 6e a legal
| tender coin; and the way was thus
made clear for the bondholder to claim
| gold in paymepto of all debts which
were payable i'll coin-and these
sharks" claimed that all government
debts were payable III coin. III was only
| the Union soldiers and the common
| paper money or debased silver coin.
The ssTrade Doiiar."
There was another mammoth scheme
| included in that act OF 1873 demonetlZ-
ing the silver dollar. This was so to
fix matters that it would be next to i'm
possible to return to the honest silver
dollar. While that act thus surreptl-
tIously struck down and eliminated
from our currency the standard silver
dollar. it authorized the future coinage
of trade dollar for export" contain
ing 40 grains Of silver eight more
grains than the dollar discontinued
by that act contained. This trade dol
lar" although so designed, was never in
tended "for export" The excuse, it
will be remembered, was that it was
needed on the Paclhc coast TO enable
our people there to continue their trade
and commerce with China, Japan. etc.
fhiS was mere pretense and sham,
but it fooled congress. Our standard
dollar, with only 4I2R grains i'll II, was
being, up to that date, continually eX-
ported at premium OF three cents over
our gold dollar, and the trade dollar
of 420 grains was wholly unnecessary.
Its coinage was secured as the first step
towards the decentralization Of silver
About this time Germany was conSld-
ering the question of demonetiZing sill
YER, and it is charged that upon Bis
marck being secretly assured that this
country proposed to destroy silver eX-
changes, enacted the present single
gold standard of that country. Other
smaller mints became alarmed ana fol-
lowed. and as might be expected, the
price Of silver bullion deprived OF its
character as a standard money metaD
began to depreclate. The large number
Of 35, ,959, 800 s'trade dollars" were coined
in four years. The enormous num-
Der Of these "trade dollars" so coined
will be apparent when | state that only
S.02l, 1888 standard dollars had been
coined for the people from the founda-
ton of the government 10 1878, under
ssfree coinage" law inviting all the sill
yer in the country to be brought to the
mint But none OF these trade dol
lars" were coined until after the price
of bar silver had been so reduced 10y
thus suspending the demand for silver
that. although containing 420 grains,
they could be coined at Il profit. The
purchase of silver bullion by the gov
ernnient at price much less than Sl.29
per ounce was, they tthe gold gamblers)
thoughi. death blow to free coinage
of silver" and that WAS the way they
ku ~.
Subsequent Legislation.
The contraction of the currency and
! the consequent scarcity of money at
the time produced the well-remembered
panic of 1898; and it was not long be-
| fore the West (the section where the
gold gamblers are scarce began to
| clamor tor more money and return to
1.-The honest silver dollar of our dad
dies" and the repeal of that act of 1878.
In response to this general and pressing
| deuIand Mr.. Bland in the Forty-tifth
congress, on Nov. 5. 1877, moved to sus-
pend the rules and pass bill providing
| as follows:
THAT there shall be coined at the several
| mints of the United States silver dollars of
the weight of 4i2I2 grains troy of standard
| silver as provided i'll the act of Jan. IS, 1887,
| on which shall be the device and superscrip-
| tious provided By said act; which act, to-
! gether with all silver dollars heretofore
| coined by the United States of like weight
and ffneness shall be legal tender at their
! nominal value for all debts and dues public