The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-02-16
SOUND MoNEY'S PERIL.
Some Evils Of the Bland Silver Bill
Pointed Out.
REPORT OF THE MINORITY OF THE
COINAGE COMMITTEE.

A Measure Which VIII Result In a De-
based Currency - Injustice to Hard
Working Americans Whose Savings
Would Suffer 1t Means Partial Re-
pudiation by the Government - The
Minority Recommend an International
Conference.
WASHINGTON, February 15.-Mr.' Will
liams of Massachusetts,, from the COM
mittee on coinage, weights and measures
has submitted the report of the minority
on the silver bill. 1t is signed by Messrs.
Tracey, Taylor, Williams, Stone and
johnson. The report says:
The bill reported by the majority Of
the committee begins with a provision
that the unit of value in the United
States shall be two units, one the stand
ard silver dollar worth 10 cents, and the
other the gold dollar worth 100 cents.
The bill further provides that standard
gold and silver coin shall be received in
the United States in payment of all debts.
The first eight lines of the bill develop
it's true purpose. They provide two diff
ferent dollars, and a compulsion upon
the citizen to receive either in payment
of debts due him. 1t does not require
any knowledge of monetary or financial
laws to demonstrate that the compulsion
of the legal tender power must force up
on the creditor a
Cheaper and Debased Dollar.
Few debtors will pay 100 cents to dis
charge their obligations when 70 cents
will suffice in law.
Section of the bill provides for the re-
tirement of gold and silver certificates
and the substitution therefor of a So
called coin note, which presumably
means note payable in gold or silver
coin, at the option of the government.
This bill, therefore, converts all existing
government paper into paper which may
be paid in silver, and leaves no paper
which must be paid in gold. 1t is evi-
IDENTITY intended to clear away all obstruc
tions in the form of pledges to pay gold,
and, without a distinct declaration of re-
pudiation, to provide an easy track on
which we may descend to the silver mon
ometallic standard. .-
The bill reported by the majority of
the committee is not alone for the free
coinage of the two metals bnt provides
that the government itself shall receive
all bullion offered, and shall issue its
notes for such bullion not at the market
rate therefor, but at the coinage value
fixed in the bill. This provision is
doubtless inserted in recognition of the
fact that silver coin is not only debased
iu value in the market, but is
Condemned as Money
by our own people, who refuse to use
more than small fraction of our total
coinage. Because it is not acceptable
money, this bill compels the government
to buy silver as bullion, and pay for it
nearly 50 per cent more than it's present
market value with a coin note which will
be redeemable in gold so long as we
maintain both metals in circulation at
the fixed ratio.
There can be no doubt of the purpose
of a majority of the committee to force a
deprecated dollar upon the country. A
motion to make the silver ''unit'' named
in the bill correspond substantially with
the gold s'unit'' in market value was re-
jected by the majority.
The peril is not great of an avowed de-
probation by our government of the
value of its own promises; we shall never
openly repudiate our debts or corrupt
the medium of payment; the danger lies
in legislation such as this bill proposes
which shall make the government unable
to maintain its promises and tokens on
the basis upon which they have been ac-
cepted.
The second section of the bill reported
by the majority of the committee is a
confession that the purpose of the bill is
to place the United States upon silver
monometalic standard. To those who
are willing to accept silver standard in
this country which must involve degree
of Reputation of existing obligations,
there can be no answer made except that
it is
Dishonest and Fraudulent;
and from such moral standard there is
no appeal save to the moral sense of the
people.
Men speak lightly and thoughtlessly of
the ''creditor class" For every credi-
tor there must be debtor and for every
debtor creditor. If the industrial
classes of this country are not bankrupt,
DuC on Gne contrary have dcCuIuuldGeu
something from their work, it is safe to
say that their accumulations have in
large part been so invested that they
stand as creditors within the meaning of
those who assail the creditor class. In
savings banks alone, in which the depos-
it's are usually in small accounts, sixteen
hundred millions are said to be deposit
ed-more money than there is in active
circulation in this country. Every work
ingman who is depositor is creditor
of the bank. The volume of deposits in
national banks and other banking insti-
tutions is likewise enormous, and
Every Depositor is Creditor
of the bank. and the bank belongs to the
debtor class.
Of the deposits in savings banks in
this country thousand millions of dol
lars are said to be invested in mortgages.
The mortgage creditors of the country
are, therefore, to this extent the small
depositors in savings banks who have