Iron County register., 1893-06-01
IRONTON. MO. THURSDAY. JUNE /. 1898.

/ place, to ask the gentleman who has
j this in charge whether, If it becomes q
law, it will make any change in the
/ value OF the coin issued pursuant to its
/ provisions from the value of the coin
which now exists?
/ Mr.. Kelly-It does not.
Mr.. POtter-DOes it make any change
in the standard of weight or of fine
ness of the coinP
Mr.. Kelly-It does not.
Mr.. Potter-Does it provide for any
new kind of coin-coin OF any new de-
nomination, other than that which is not
coined?
Mr.. Kelly-It does not.
But Mr.. Kelly was mistaken.
Though he had charge of the bill, he
does not seem to have clearly under
stood its purpose. About that time
Mr.. Hooper, of !. Massachusetts, or
the 9Th of February, 1872, introduced
bill No. 1472 (p. 943 of the Congress
ional Globe, February 9th). On the
18th the bill was reported from the
committee with amendments. Mr..
Neely, a member, claimed that the
committee had not been together and
had not authorized the bill to be re-
ported; but Mr.. Hooper, of Massachu-
sets, was getting in his work. On the
9th of April the bill was called up and
Mr.. Hooper made long explanatory
speech, which, as subsequent events
showed, no one heard or understood.
The probability is that the real ex-
planatory matter was added after the
speech was in the hands of the print
ers. On May 27th, Mr.. Hooper call
ed the bill up and offered a substitute
which he said had been carefully
prepared" and which he had submit
ted to different gentlemen Interested
in the subject" He then moved to
suspend the rules and pass the bill.
At this juncture-
| Mr.. Holman said: 81 suppose it is
intended to have the bill read before il
is put upon it's passagep"
The Speaker-The substitute will be
read.
Mr.. Hooper, of Massachusetts-It is
a long bill and those who are interest
ed in it (D are perfectly familiar with
its provisions.
| Mr.. Kerr, of fIndiana-The rules can
not be suspended so as to dispense with
the reading of the bill.
| The Speaker-They can be.
| Mr.. Kerr want the house to un-
derstand that it is attempted to put
through this bill without being read.
Momentarily. the matter was drop
ped, but after some intervening BUSH
ness, Mr.. Hooper moved that the rules
be suspended and the bill was passed
without a reading. The Hooper SUBJ
stitute was therefore never read in the
house, nor debated in the house.
When the bill went to the senate,
there was some jugglery by which the
sections of the house bill stood, all the
way through, one number higher than
the senate bill. There was not word
said in the senate debate going 70 show
that the silver dollar was to be strick-
en- out OF our coinage. On the contrary,
the advocates of the bill, John Sher-
man and the rest of them. left the inn
preston that there was to be free coin
age of silver on basis satisfactory to
..the officers of the mint. y
: In the first session of the fiftieth con-
gress, Mr.. Beck said: ssWhat / COM
plain of, and what think I have
proved, is that the house never knew
what was in that BILL"
Judge Kelley whose remarks in
favor of the bill are quoted by the
Richmond Times to show that the
house knew its purport, made this ex-
PLANTATION on the floor of the house, and
it is an explanation that will forever
dispose of the claim of the monometal-
lists:
In 1872 when / made the remarks
which were cited by these gentlemen,
and which have been frequently quoted
in both houses, we were not using coin,
and no gentleman in either house ap-
pears to have appreciated the scope
and magnitude of the silver question,
or to have given it special study.
Hence the. blll-and wish gentlemen
to know what that bill was; it was a
bill to reorganize the mints, not to re-
wise the coin money of the country,
but reorganize the mints, and it was
passed without allusion in debate to the
question of the retention or abandon
ment of the standard silver dollar.
The then speaker of the house, now a
distinguished member of the Senate,
and Hon. Mr.. Voorhees,, of Indiana,
who is also a member of that body, |
were then members of this house, and
during the last congress this colloquy
occurred between them. It was, /
think, denied by Mr.. Voorhees, that
members of the house knew that the
bill proposed to demonetize the silver
dollar, and to sustain his view he said
to the ex-speaker: s.Did you know it,
sirp,' mo, said Senator Blaine; s.did
yon2n NO. replied Senator Voor-
hees.
/ was chairman of the committe that
reported the original bill and / aver,
on my honor, that did not know the
fact that it proposed to drop the stand |
ard dollar, and did not learn that It
had done it for eighteen months after
the passage OF the substitute offered by