The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-01-07
OPPOSED TO SILVER
Senator Morrill, Speaks Against
Free Coinage.
TELLER MAKES A REPLY TO HIM
He Says the Law of July, go Was Bi
Metallist characterization Concerning
Its Operation Unfulfilled.

reIerTeu One was from the chamber OF
commerce of Seattle, Washn, praying
Congress, by more liberal appropriations,
to enable the war and navy departments to
place the country in a thorough condition
of defence so as to be prepared to maintain
It's national dignity and protect it's humb-
lest citizen in any part of the world.
The Vice-President laid before the Sen
ate
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
transmitting the agreement made by the
commissioners with the Indians of the Col
vile reservation, Washington.
| Among the bills introduced and referred
was one granting pensions to soldiers of
the Seminole and other Indian wars.
| Morgan offered a resolution directing the
committee on foreign relations to inquire
into the progress made on the work of the
Nicaragua canal. The resolution was laid
on the table, Morgan stating that he would
call 1t up tomorrow.
The Senate bill introduced by Stewart to
provide for the
FREE COINAGE OF GOLD AND SILVER
bullion was taken up and Morrill, proceeded
TO address the Senate, Morrill, criticized
the speech heretofore made by Stewart on
the same subject and spoke in opposition to
| the. bill for the free and Unlimited coinage
OF silver He was now and ever in favor
OF maintaining both gold and silver in cir
culauon, and silver to the ex-
tremest boundary that it could
maintain on parity with gold.
He had notVoted for the silver act of 1890
for the reason that silver bullion was
neither to be paid for nor paid out in &C
cordance with the safer proposal of Secre-
tary Window, and that the silver to be
purchased was fixed, as it appeared to him,
al too magnificent an amount, and also
that the full price was to be paid for a
commodity which the government could
neither sell nor part from to any consider
able extent without a financial revolution
and serious loss.
Morrill, went on to say the national bank
notes were rapidly being made to
STEP DOWN AND OUT,
| United States notes or green backs, were
! likely to be the next sacrifice demanded in
order to give the whole field to silver paper
NC eXpedlents have been untried and no
| cost withheld to push or carry silver dol
lars into circulation, but il was demon
strated no more than about 5000, 900 over
four hundred million coined could he
The weight was objected to as too heavy
and the value too light In the treasury
day there is over
TWELVE THOUSAND TONS OF SILVER
and more coming in monthly: when and
where was this silver deluge to enda In
| ten years more, under existing statutes
the government might have locked up in
Its suoterranean vaults silver to the aggre-
gate amount of perhaps more than s., O6O.-
i 100000, for all of which its obligations
payable in coin would be outstanding, and
SHOULD THIS INUNDATIoN BE FURTHER Ae
! GRAvATED
| by free coinage. No silver certificates or
treasury notes issued for silver bullion had
beeen presented for payment in silver but
| they were paid IN gold when so demanded.
| How long they could be thus kept on a
| parity with gold was already matter of
! public and profound concern and largely
| dependent upon the honest and proper in
depreciation of the law and the coinage and
skill of the secretary of the treasury
| Whenever the gold of the treasury shonid
vanish these certificates and notes could
! then be paid only in silver dollars and
| those as money were known to be not
worth their face value. As security for
the silver certificates or treasury notes.
which were to circulate at par with gold
they were VIGOROUSLY inadequate as 4l2T
grains OF silver, nine tenths fine. womb
fetch no more than "a cents. 1t would be
hardly less safe and certainly equally hon
est to base such certificates and notes and
circulate them as good money
UPON IRON OR COPPER
or upon wheat or tobacco purchased and
accumulated in like manner at 331% per cent
above the market value, as to base such of
I a n n LOT ion 4l,N-
| silver dollars.
Under free coinage whatever ADVANTAGE
from the unlimited free coinage of silver
might accrue TO the corporate owners of
silver mines when gold advanced to q
premium would be brief and not perma-
nent, as then no secretary of the treasury
would be willing to sell United States
ponds IN order to obtain gold to keep any
paper currency paid out for silver ON q
parity with gold. These corporations.
therefore, at no remote period would have
THEIR OWN DRUG RETURN
to plague the inventors and find the sill
yer certificates or treasury notes received
for silver bullion, when Unsupported nv
gold, OF no greater value than that of the
silver contained in the free coined silver
dollar.
The experiment which was now being
made to have the government purchase on
compulslon fixed monthly amount of sill
yer had, he feared, complicated and more
or less
RETARDED ANY INTERNATIONAL COMPACT
relative to silver, and perhaps contributed
to the degradation of its value by largely
restricting the demand to one countrv
alone, and by the practical exclusion of
any popular demand from any other The
menace of unlimited coinage. with the
swelling accumulations of coined and nm
coined silver IN the treasury, which might
IN some financial contingency be thrust
upon any or all other markets, not only
tended to perpetuate its present uncer
tainty of value, but might further tend to
sink 1t to a lower depth. Certainly unlim-
TIED coinage would indefinitely postpone all
nope OF an international compact The de-
probation of silver had been accelerated
not only by its greatly increased album
dance, but also by its diminished use as
money by the leading commercial nations.
The silver miners had
NO PROMISE OF INCREASE OF WAGES
in case of the free coinage of silver and
silver as standard money must for ali the
world stand or fall upon its Intrinsic mer.
its and not upon the merits of the MACE
whence it came
The silver propagandists declared they
only sought to have silver placed on an
equality with gold, knowing as they did
That their inequality had been DISPLAYED
from age to age. In conclusion Morrill,
SAID: II attempted to demonstrate the de-
probation of silver was both so great and
universal that unlimited coinage could mt
be maintained on the present standard
with gold, but would suddenly wreck the
country by silver revolution. that nm.
limited coinage would interdict all in ter
national silver compacts; that there was
no scarclsy OF money in circulation:
that the silver standard would