Huntsville gazette., 1892-03-05
NOT FREE COINAGE.
The Bland Party Favors Seventy-F1ve
Cent Dollar.

The Bland bill which the coinage
committee has voted to report favor
ably to the house is not free coinage
bill in the proper sense of the word
1t does not provide for the coinage of
silver dollars at all, unless bullion
owners prefer those bulky and cum
bersome coins to paper. 1t provides
that any owner Of silver bullion may
take it to the treasury of the United
States and receive in exchange there
for ''coin notes" at the rate of one dol
lar in notes for every three hundred
and seventy-one and one-fourth grains
of pure silver, or every four hundred
and twelve and one-half grains of
ing one-tenth alloy. These ''coin
notes" are to be legal tender the same
as gold or silver coin in payment of all
debts, public and private. The pur-
pose of this note arrangement is to en-
able the treasury to convert the silver
into paper currency as fast as it can be
carried to the mints and sub-treasuries
The process of coming is much too slow
to suit the silver brethren. Besides, if
the people were obliged to use the coin
itself they would quickly demand that
the coinage be stopped
The temper Of Mr.. Bland and his sill
ver-standard associates was shown by
the amendments they voted down.
One of these was in the nature of a
substitute providing for an interna-
tional monetary conference. The de-
feat of this proposition is the response
Of the chipped-dollar men to Mr..
Springer's brilliant scheme for taking
the silver question out of politics until
after the presidential election. Like
wise it is their response to d. B. Hills
no less brilliant proposal to pass bill
reviving the act of 1878. They do not
mean to have the silver question taken
out Of politics. They mean to have it
in politics, and it will be there as the
main issue. The democratic house is
going to pass the Bland bill, and the
democratic national convention can
neither ignore nor repudiate the action
of the democratic house.
Another of the propositions that
were defeated was that the dollar
should contain an ounce of standard
silver, and another like it was that it
should contain five hundred and thirty
three and one-eighth grains of stand
ard silver. The defeat of these PROPOSE
tons means that ths clipped-dollar
men will not listen to the suggestion
that a silver dollar ought to contain
dollars worth of silver They want
dol ar to cheat with-a dollar worth
only seventy-fve cents or less and the
less the better. True, it is impractic-
able to put dollars worth of silver in
the coin, because the value of the metal
is so changeable but that is not the
reason why the Blandites rejected the
suggestion.
Another of the defeated propositions
was that the coinage. or rather the
paperage, should be restricted to the
American product Of silver. The
Blandites insist upon inviting all the
nations of the earth to unload their dis
carded silver on us.
Lastly, they voted down motion to
strike out the provision making tire
proposed notes legal tender in payment
of all debts. They mean to swindle
tracts expressly call for payment il
gold.
The defeat of all these amendments
proves that the Blandites will be satis-
fed with nothing less than bill to
authorize every debtor to cheat his
creditor out of twenty-five cents or
more on the dollar, and the provision
for adopting the Latin union ratio in a
certain contingency is intended to
make the cheat as great as possible.
And this bill will pass the house and
be made a plank in the democratic
platform next June. And most APP
propriate plank it viii be for the dem
ocratic party. 1t will be a fitting ex-
preston of the honesty of that party.
With that in the platform and David b.
Hill on it the party will go to meet Nc
Ginty in Novem bcr.-Chicago Journal