The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-06-21
OUR FIRST DOLLARS.
A Review Of tho History Of tho SILVER
Dollar from 1899 to 1873.

Dollar from 17es to 1878.
| u beats all with what solicitude
b8kkers and Wall street financiers are
calculating the silver question in be-
half of workingmen. Bankers who
enactment since the death of the great
Lincoln, and who have brought the
present misery upon wealth-producers,
are now showing how utterly unjust
our present silver law is, and are de-
termined to extricate laboring men
from the woeful pitfall into which
they have fallen, by digging deeper
and nastier pit beneath. They claim
that our present silver dollar, so soon
as our little gold is run out of the
treasury, will have only the purchas-
the poor fellow who thinks he is re-
ceiving two dollars day is really
only receiving one dollar and twenty
eight cents.
It is a fact that very many bankers
never study finance in connection with
political economy. 1t does not require
phenomenal brain nor profound ed
| ucation to stand behind a counter and
discount notes. That is as far as the
financial education of some bankers
goes. Those of them who have made
by the use of such knowledge. They
have learned to transfer wealth to
their pockets from the producers by
| legal methods, and they have no desire
to kill the goose which is constantly
depositing golden nuggets in their we'll
| feathered nests.
The great people are now studying
finance. knowledge thus gained is
destined to do incalculable injury to
the schemes of those great financiers
unless they can SO mystify the subject
of finance that majority of the people
| will again PROSTATE themselves before
the self-constituted financial guard ians
of the people.
People are being constantly hood
winked by agents of the great money
monopoly. That arch-demon, John
Sherman, had frequently given evil
dence of being wholly soulless in con-
cocting schemes to rob the people.
When he brought forth the so-called
Sherman silver law the people were de-
ceived in him and believed he had at
last a bill in the interest of the people.
His bill more than doubled the amount
OF silver to be coined, and it looked
well on it's face, but SO soon as we could
fully realize the spirit of the bill we
saw that it was framed with the full
intent to debase silver and create
premium on gold. 1t gave to Wall
street agents secretaries of the treas
ury) a legal right to stop coinage
entirely, and that is what they did
Our minis are virtually idle, while
the people are suffering loss of
property and courage for want of
money. Limiting silver coinage had
the effect the schemers knew it would
of reducing the price of bullion. I'm
limited coinage would restore the orig
inal price of silver, which was higher
than the price of gold, till Wall street
got hold of the machine.
1t may be interesting here to briefly
review the position silver has occupied
since the adoption of our national con-
stitution. An act establishing mint
became a law, April 10, 1892. It pro-
vided for the coinage of eagles, halves
and quarters of gold; dollars, halves,
quarters, dimes and half dimes of sill
yer; cents and half cents of copper.
The eagle contained 24715 grains of
pure gold, which is equal to 24a grains
of pure gold to the dollar The dollar
contained SIN grains of pure silver
and AK grains of alloy, making the
dollar of our dads weigh 416 grains of
the then standard silver. Fractional
parts of the dollar contained their full
proportion of silver. There was at that
time no short weight in our fractional
silver. The coinage at that time was
at the rate Of fifteen of silver to one of
gold.
The reason for adopting 371A grains
of silver for the dollar was because pre-
vious to our own coinage the Spanish
milled dollar was the standard currency
of this country. Alexander Hamilton
was secretary Of the treasury. He had
those Spanish dollars assayed and they
were found to contain just that amount
of silver; hence that amount was adopt
ed for our own dollar. The act above
mentioned provided for the free and
unlimited coinage of both gold and sill
yer.
In 1903 France established by law the
ratio of silver to gold at 1511 to 1.
Other European nations did or had
done the same. The United States at
that time had not attained that SUI
premacy among nations that would en-
able her to maintain her standard
against the world. Our adopting a
lower ratio than Europe for silver,
placed gold at premium, and it soon
disappeared across the Atlantic. The
secretary of the treasury reported in
1886 that there was not more than
81, COX, 900 of gold in this country, and
of that amount only trife was in &C
tual circulation.
BY the act of June 80, 1884, the gold
eagle was made to contain only 232
grains of gold or 1872 grains to the
dollar. This regulation fixed the ratio
of silver to gold at about 16 to /, and
placed premium on silver. That
ratio still exists, and silver would still
command a premium but for the legis-
lation of 1873 and the subsequent
botch-work of hireling congressman.
By the act of January 10, 1887, the
amount of ALLOW used in our dollars was