Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-07-20
The cold Conspiracy of ,s7s."
According to some of the sIlve

according TO ONE OF the SILVER
men the discont:nuance of free sill
e coinage by India is ssanothtr
gold consplrsey.' This time Eng
land is the culprit. 1t is as henious
a sscrime" if these Authorities are
trustworthy, as was the conspiracy
by which the STANDARD silver dol.
lar was demonstrated in 1873" In the
United States. Let us examine
these charges about 1873. John Jay
Knox, a Treasury Department Off
cial, prepared in 1870 a bill to make
certain changes in the Treasury SER
vice, which he submitted to George
S. Boutwell,, Secretary OF the Treas
ury, and the latter sent it to the
Senate, with a recommendation that
it be passed. The bill incidentally
mentioned the coins, but the silver
dollar was omitted. In several re-
spects and on several occasions the
bill was changed. AT length, after
being before two congresses, it was
passed and was signed by President
EGrant, becoming a law on February
12, 1878. In the enumeration Of
coins of the United States mention
ed in this act the silver dollar was
left out. The bill, we are now
cold, was carried through by stealth
and the omission OF the silver dol.
lar was the result ola Conspiracy"
These charges can very easily be
disposed of. Knox, in the report
accompanying the bill, called the
especial attention of congress to the
fact that the silver dollar was left
out. The bill was before two con-
crosses. 1t was read in full several
times in both branches, considered
in the proper committees at length,
and was printed thirteen times by
order of Congress. Before both
houses it was exhaustlvely debated,
and in the press throughout the
country 1t was thoroughly and ex-
tenslvely discussed. Every member
OF congress who felt an interest in
the dolngs of his branch knew of
this omission. Ever, reader of the
papers who felt any nee in
financial legislation also knew Of it.
The fact was frequently aud directly
referred to in congress and in the
papers. The bill was before the
country nearly three years, and its
essential provisions must necessarily
have been well known and were
well known.
Why was the silver dollar drop
ped from the list of coins by the law
of 1873? Because the coin had long
since disappeared from circulation
at that time. 1t was worth a prem
ium of about &c in gold then, and
the amount of silver in it, therefore
was more valuable as bullion than 1t
would be as coin. In the entire
elghty-one years from the opening
CT the mint to 1873 the coinage of
silver dollars. though entirely free,
amounted to only S. 900, 600 in
round figures. Not one person out
Of ten in the United States had seen
a silver dollar.-The law of that
year SIMPLY gave recognition to a
fact that had been patent for many
years. IL had long been an obsolete
coin, and congress, in dropping it.
merely took this condition Of things
into account. Ihe greater part of
the free silver men who were in
congress at the time voted for the
act. Nobody discovered that there
was any conspirac, in the matter
until, long after the passage Of the
law, silver dropped to u lower value
than gold at the old ratio.-Globe
Democrat.