St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-07-21
CONGRESS WILL ACT.
SHERMAN LAW TO BE REPEALED IN
ONE M03TH
AFTER THE EXTRA SESSION

Begins Its Work-So Says Ex-
Senator Henderson-Purpos
of the Letter to Secretary Car
lisie-Warning Against Com
promise.
New YORK, July 20.-The Times
prints the following: Ex-senator John
b. Henderson, of Missouri, has sailed
for Europe, where he will meet his fam
lily and enjoy with them a short vaca-
ton. A good many things have hap
pened in the silver agitation since ex-
Senator Henderson wrote his now ia
nous letter to Secretary Carlisle at the
beginning of the present month. He
was quite willing before sailing to talk
about them:
II look" he said, 'for the uncondi-
tlonal repeal of the purchasing clause.
OF the Sherman silver law within a
month after the assembling of the extra
session of congress. The silver men
perceive the revolution in the public
mind upon this subject, and however
eager or ardent they may be in behalf
of silver, it is my judgment that in the
hOpC vi udhluS
Some Sort OF Compromise
that will leave them no worse off than
now, they will consent to the repeal of
this clause of the present law.
My purpose in writing the letter to
Secretary Carlisle was to issue warn
ing against any compromise upon this
question. 1t strikes me that the appeal
To the country issued by the silver con-
frjf
the Intelligence of the country. Colo
RADIO is little young as state to talk
about the good old times which were en-
Joyed before the characterization of sill
yer in 1878. That state is known as the
Centennial state. having been admitted
TO the Union at time when CONGRESS
had passed a law for the resumption Of
specie payments. AS a state, there
fore. Colorado cannot remember any
thing antecedent to the period when
specie payments had been decided upon.
The good times that Colorado remem-
berS all occurred after the adoption of
law 10 pay debts with the best money
that the world knew. When Colo
RADIO convention speaks of ancient
times it cannot do SO as representing a
state which did not exist until after
these times had passed.
''Et rs Utter Nonsense
for Colorado or any other state to at
tribute good times in this country to
silver, because the government of the
United States never coined silver in
any large amount until 1873. From
1892, when the original coinage act was
passed, until 1873 the coinage of silver
in dollars amounted to only SS,000,GO0
From 1892 to 1858, when the Hunter
coinage law was passed relating to the
coinage OF subsidiary silver coin, there
had been coined in subsidiary silver
only S73,000,000. 1t was perfectly well
known that more than one-halt The sill
yer coined up to that time was used by
SiiverSmIths, and had gone out OF
the country. Silver then sold at
a premium, being worth at one time
lO3 against par for gold. 1t was much
cheaper for silverSmiths to buy coin
and melt it than it was TO buy bullion,
and the purpose OF the Hunter coinage
act in 1858 was to lessen the value of
silver in subsidiary coin in order that
small change might be kept in the coun-
try. 1t was SiXty-twO years in which
not more than 100000 in silver was
coined. The government coined about
$500, 900 in gold. Gold was much more
among the people than silver. | cannot
noW-remember having seen a silver dol
lar for twenty years previous to the
passage of the Bland act of 1873. AS l
have said, all the silver that the silver
smiths could utilize had been taken out
of the country. This argument cuts
both ways when | say that the country
did not enjoy large prosperity until
After the Decentralization
of silver in 1878. Every one knows that
gold went 10 a premium of $50 in war
times. and that between the war and
1878, when silver was demOnetiZed, the
margin between gold and silver steadily
narrowed. For several years before the
war, beginning, indeed, with the panic
of 1857, times were very hard. The
trouble then, however, was not that the
country did business upon the gold
standard, but that confidence had been
abused with the deprecated currency of
cross-road banks. 1t makes no differ
ence what the form of depreciation, the
same evils will come about. Ii gov
eminent maintains two currencies, the
deprecated currency will stick and the
good will leave. A deprecated cur
rency was the cause of the panic of 1857,
and other panics may be traced to the
disposition of the government or of the
people to tritie with the laws of trade,
that are stern, and that insist upon
no rmal enfOr cement"