St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-01-07

recting the committee on foreign rela-
tions to inquire into the progress that
has been made in the work of the mari
time canal of Nicaragua, and report
what the interests of the United States
may require in the matter of inter-
oceanic communication. The resolution
was l2id en- The tsslk,le, NJ Morgan stating
that he would call il uD tomorrow
The senate bill introduced by Mr..
Stewart to provide for the free coinage
of geld and silver bullion was taken up
and Mr.. Morrill, proceeded to address
the senate. He said he was now and
ever had been in favor of maintaining
both gold and silver in circulation, and
silver to the EXTREMIST boundary that
could maintain it on parity with gold.
II would be real JOY for him to have
silver greatly increase in actual value.
Mr.. Morrill, had not voted for the sill
yer act OF 1899 for the reason that full
price would be paid for "a commodity
which the government could neither sell
nor part from, to any considerable eX-
tent, without financial revolution and
serious loss. No eXpedientS had been
untried and no cost withheld to push or
carry silver dollars into circulation; but
1t had demonstrated that no more than
about sec, 100000 of over $500, 900
coined could be coaXed or kicked out
side the treasury. The weight was Oh
lected TO as too heavy and the value 100
light.
No silver certificates. or treasury notes
issued for silver bullion, had been pre-
scented for payment in silver, but they
were paid in gold when so demanded.
Standard silver dollars as money were
known To he not worth their face value.
AS security for silver certificates OR
treasury notes. which were to circulate
at par with gold, they were VIGOROUSLY
inadequate, as 4l215 grains Of silver,
nine-tenths fine, would fetch no more
than II cents. 1t would be hardly less
safe and certainly equally honest, to
base such certificates and notes and cir
culate them as good money upon iron or
copper. or upon wheat or tobacco, pur-
chased and accumulated in like manner
at IS l-3 per cent above the market
value, as to base such circulation upon
the S0-called standard silver dollars
under free coinage.
We have paid off more than three
fourthS of our great war debt in gold,
when our resources were far less than
now, and | am unwilling to forfeit our
we'll earned reputation and lose public
confidence and the ancestral prestige of
our history by paying the sorry remnant
Of this debt i'll legal tender of much
less value.
Mr. Teller took the floor, and, after
quoting sentence from tho presidents
message 10 the effect that the bill had
been expected to bring the price of sill
yer up to Si.23 per ounce, he challenged
the executive for proof of that statement
and asserted that only one senator
(alluding to Mr.. Jones, of Nevada had
intimated that the act of 1890 would
bring silver up to par. On the other
hand more than twenty senators had
asserted that it would rot bring silver
to par. lie had declared when that bill
was under discussion that it was not
acceptable to the silver people. 1t
would not do to say that that legislat ion
had been put on the statute book by sill
yer people.
that policy was persisted in, it would
have to be laid at the door of the men
who had for fifteen years steadily re-
sisted the general public demand for
the use of silver OH equal terms with gold.
But there was another proposition
that the United States should accumu-
late all the gold OF the world, and then
the money centers of Europe would say
that, the United States having got all
the gold, they would join the United
States in the work of using silver
money.
The United States was debtor ma
ton. owing to Europe more than two
thousand million dollars; more than
five thousand millions the senator from
Nevada (Mr. SteWarD said; more than
two thousand millions, certainly, to be
conservative. How was the United
States TO get Europe to unload her COZ
ferS and TO send her gold here? He
wished some friend of the new method
would tell the senate how to get the
gold from Europe.
lie entered a protest against the dec
laration Of the executive and of the
senator from Vermont that the silver
men were responsible for the legisa-
ton of 1850. He himself had voted for
it with extreme reluctance, bat did so
because he believed that it would bring
hope and courage to the people of the
United States. A certain public man,
who had not yet taken his seat in the
senate {meaning Mr.. Hill. of New
York;, had announced that the act of
July, 1899, had to be repealed; but he
(Mr. Teller asserted that it would not
be repealed. There was no conSdera-
bic number of public men in the coun-
try who would dare to repeal it. 1t
might he repealed IL the same amOu mt
of money was given to the people; and
that could only be done by free coinage
or by an unlimited issue of money at
the option of the government. The
laCter would never take place; and so
the act of July, 1890. would not be re-
pealed. 1t was on the statute book to
stay, fraught with all the dangers that
attended il.
At the concluoion of Senator Teller's
speech Mr.. Dolph sent to the clerks
desk and had read an extract from
speech Of MIR. Stewart to the effect that
the purchase by the government of
4.50O,000 ounces Of silver per month
would use all the silver produced in the
United States, and would put up the
price of silver to par. Mr.. Stewart adj
mitted that his prophecy had failed, but
pleaded that the conditions had
changed, and that it had been proven
conclusively that nothing would do but
free coinage. No action was taken on
the bill, and after a short executive
session the senate, out of respect to the
memory of the late Representative
Gamble. of South Dakota, ado urned
until tomorrow.