The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1893-08-16
THE SHERMAN ACT.
A History ofthe Circumstances Attend
ing Its Passage and Some Account
of Its Provisions and Its
Workings.

peared from circulation and no objection
was made at the time 10 the provision Of
the act stopping its coinage. The silver
mine owners found II In fact more profit
able TO sell their product in the market
| for bullion than TO the Government. The
| worlds average annual production ot
silver from 1865 to 1870 was $50, $50,
600, and of gold tl33. s5O 900. During
| lS1l-lS1b the annual figures were re.
speetively tss, ,626, 900 and . 1 10. $50 900,
while during the period ls76-lss0 they
were 12,b0O,000 and sli9,975, 600
Naturally after the passage of the act of
1873, owing TO the great increase in
silver production and the standstill In
that OF gold silver fell rapidly IN value
and the silver mine owners found that
conditions were reversed and that IL
would be more profitable to sell their
product to the Government for coinage
purposes than as bullion on the omen
market as before, a fact which had large
large influence In securing the passage OF
the act Of 1873. In 1873 the gold value
Of the bullion in a coined sill YER dollar was
tlOOa, in 1878 IL was only sol
The act OF 1873, as has has been men
TONED. contained a provision for the
issuing OF paper certificates of not less
than SlO IN exchange for silver coin de-
posted and redeemable in the same The
act Of August o, 1886 provided for the
issue OF silver certificates of one. two and
hye dollar denominations In lieu OF GER
tihcates of larger denominations. On
April s, 1850. the House rejected BY
vote OF 1913 to l26 bill for the free coin.
age Of silver. In his message to Con-
gress on December x, 1885, Presi.
dent Cleveland said that since Feb.
ruary, 1878 the Government had under
the compulsory provisions of the Bland
law purchased silver bullion and coiued
the the same same at the rate of more than s2,-
, 10000 every month. BY this process
up 20 the date Of the message 2i5, ,7b9,.
48l silver dollars had been coined. The
necessity for such an addition to the sill
yer currency, the President said. as was
compelled by the act, was negatived by
the fact that only about 10000 900 OF
the silver dollars so coined had actually
found their way into circulation, leaving
more than l65.00O,0O of them in the
possession Of the Government, the Gus.
tody of which had entailed a considerable
expense for the construction of
vaults vaults Of deposit Against this
standing silver certificates amounting
TO about t88.00000O. Mr.. Cleveland
predicted very evil effects from the con.
tinuance OF the coinage under the act
and said that gold would eventually be
driven out Of the country or be boarded.
lie therefore recommended the suspen
sion OF the compulsory coinage of silver
dollars.
Owing TO the refunding OF the Govern.
ment's bonds a much lower rates of IN.
terest. the National banks greatly cur.
tailed the circulation Of their notes based
on such bonds. In his message to Con
gress of December -, 1859, President
Harrison said that the total amount of
money of all kinds in circulation on March
], 1878. was tS06, 793, S07, while on
10 4 fha tnta
0ls,000. There was an increase OF
t283, AIN ,55p in gold coin, of $57,554,-
100 in standard silver or Bland dollars,
OF s7p,3ll,249 in gold certificates, of
e276, ,6l9,7lb in silver certificates based
on Bland dollars deposited in the Treas.
notes. making a total Of $7l3,976, 400.
There was during the same period de-
crease of STA, l09,729 in bank cir
culation, and OF s64e,4sl in sub
sidiary silver. The net increase
OF silver when the Bland law was passed
was u 20 4-lO per ounce, making the
bullion value OF the dollar 93 cents.
Since that time the price had fallen as
low as Gig cents, making the bullion
value of the dollar 70.6 cents Within
what advanced. and the value of the dol
lar as bullion at the date of the message
was az cents. The President said that
some favorable conditions had contrib
uted to maintain the practical equality
in their commercial use between
but some OF these were trade con-
ditions that statutory enactments did
not control and of the continuance of
which we could not be certain. If we
should make the coinage Of silver at the
existing rates free we must expect that
difference q ~ he
gold and silver dollars would be taken
account Of in commercial transactions,
and II was to be feared that the same re.
suit would follow any considerable in
crease Of the present rate of coinage per
month. Such result would be discred.
liable to our financial management and
disastrous to all business inter.
ests. Nothing more harmful could
happen TO the silver interests.
Any safe legislation upon the
subject must secure the equality Of the
two coins in their commercial uses. The
President further said that he had al
ways been an advocate of the use Of
silver In our currency; we we're large
producers Of that metal and should not
discredit IL. He then referred to the
plan to be presented by the Secretary OF
the Treasury for the issuance of notes or
certificates upon the deposit of silver
bullion at its market value. saying II had
been formulated so late that he had not
had time TO carefully consider its details.
The bill prepared by Secretary Window
on the above lines was introduced in the
House by Mr.. Conger, of Iowa, on Jan.
uary go, 1890, and referred to the Com.
mittee on Coinage, Weights and
Measures which reported IL back
March 26. On June 2 a substitute,
which had been agreed upon by Repub-
lican caucus, was passed by the House,
the title being, IAN act TO direct the pur-
chase OF silver bullion and the issue OF
silver notes thereon and for other pur-
poses" On June 10 the Senate passed
substitute by way OF amendment provid-
ing among other things for the free
coinage OF silver and the title of the
measure was changed to read, "a bill
TO provide for the free coinage of silver
bullion and other purposes. The House
refused to concur IN the Senate amend
ments and conference committee was
appointed which agreed upon bill
which was passed by both Senate and
House and received the Presidents APP
proval on July Ia, 1890, and which has