Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1893-09-08
BY NJ. H. JEWELL.
THE DAILY TRIBUNE,

DAILY one year. postage paid. ~ w
WEEKLY TRIBUNE.
Eight pages. containing a summary of the news of
the week, both foreign andlooal published every
year g; six months. 81; three months. IS oents.
CONGRESSMAN JOHNSON TO ATrOR-
NEY GENERAL sTANDIsH.
Attorney General Standish follows up
his recent "free silver" articles, pub.
lished by some state papers in supple.
ment form, with another, directed par
ticularly to the editor of the Grand
Forks Herald. The burden Of the gen
erals song in this last effort is like thai
in the recent communication to the
Steele Ozone-the ''great conspiracy
against silver" What Nj. Standish de-
sires to impress upon his readers is the
per6dy and dishonesty of John Sher.
a He reiterates the charges that
the bill of 1873 was "railroadeG" through
congress, and that 10 one knew or
dreamed Of the fact that the clause pro-
viding for the coinage of silver had been
omitted. The attorney general reiter.
ates the charges freely made at the re.
cent silver convention in Chicago against
Ernest Seyd, the English: economist,
and the Conspiracy entered into with
Senator Sherman and Congressman
Hooper. In concluding his open letter
to the Herald Mr.. Standish says: II
would not be NOR surprised to see you
landing Benedict Arnold for conspiring
with the British to deliver our country
to them than to see you now defending
John Sherman"
Congressman johnson has been read
ing the articles written by the attorney
general and in reply to the one recently
addressed to the editor of the Steele
Ozone, he writes to Editor Wood as fol.
lows:
I see by the papers that the attorney
general thinks you are either ignorant
or corrupt, because you don't know a
lot of things that are not SO about silver,
a. he does.
Life is too short for either you or me
to give up me little span Of it in run
ming down and correcting all the errone-
GUS statements thrown off right and left
recklessly by such irrepressibles. They
can tell a hundred things drawn from a
fervid imagination, while we drag out
one fact from history, or copy q section
from a law book.
In a manifesto on silver dated ga ttor.
ney Generals Office, Bismarck, july 26.
1885," which was published in the Argus
with favorable editorial comment, and
afterwards sent out as a supplement in
many OF the state papers, Mr.. Standish
starts out by laying down premises abso.
lutely false in law and in fact, and on
that foundation erects q superstructure
that is we'll calculated to deceive the
very elect. It seemed for awhile to
stagger Waldo NJ. Potter, who formally
bade the republican party goodbye in
our darkest hour last winter.
His premises are that "there was never
such q thing in this country as the coin.
age of silver free of charge for bullion
owners, and no such thing has ever been
proposed, therefore the term free silver
coinage is a misleading term and we
should substitute for it the words un.
limited coinage without purchase for
one.tenth toll as pay for the work and
government stamp, to remove the mis-
apprehension" and that IF we repeal
the Sherman bill and substitute MI.
BANDS unlimited coinage act in it's
place and issue a coin certificate to the
man who brings 412h grains Of pure
silver to the mint, and all the silver
money IN the world should be melted
down into bullion and brought to our
minis Tor free coinage, there would be
none OF it pure silver, and under q bill
properly drawn none OF it would be adj
missible, and the holders Of it would
have to take it away and first extract the
III per cent. of alloy in it.; and when they
have brought it back again, after being
separated and purified, 10 per cent. more
would be taken out of it by govern.
ment as it's toll for mintage."
There is not 9 word of truth in the
foregoing, either as a statement of what
the law was, what the practice of the
mint was, or what the Bland bill con-
tains.
We had free coinage of silver in this
country from 1892 to 1879. From 1892
to 1853 there was absolutely no charge
whatever except the actual cost paid
for alloy, to the man who would deposit
standard silver (nine-tenths fne) at the
mint and wait for the coins to be manu-.
featured. If pure silver was deposited
for coinage it was the law and the prac-
tice to charge actual cost of alloy only.
In CASE a man wanted to trade on the
spot his bullion for coins there was q
charge of one half of one per cent, and
the Law in good old fashioned style was
careful to explain the reason why such
charge was allowed. Something seldom
done nowadays and generally consid-
cred superfuous in writing laws.
From 1853 to 1873 there wa q charge
of one-half one per cent. for coming
either gold or silver, aud exactly the
same charge wal made for stamping on
gold or silver bars their weight and fine.
ness. Since 1875 there has been nc
charge whatever for coming standard
gold, and only the actual cost of alloy il
charged if pure gold is deposited. That
is what is meant by free coinage.
I was talking with the acting director
of the mint the other day about this
matter and asked him if he knew of any
construction of the law or any practic.