Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-03-08
A VICTORY FOR SILVER.

a VICTORY FOR SILVER.
Coinage isili in the House Of Represent
atives-A Glance Backward Over the
-Four Weeks Struggle. of the Missouri
Congressman for the Life of His Blu
and the Methods Resorted to by the OPP
position to Drive H m From His Posi-
tion.
WASHINGTON, March 2.-The struggle
in the house which closed yesterday in
a victory for silver, has been a most
| eventful one.
The quorum which appeared Wednes-
day was the same nowhere, nowhere
quantity as for the past two or three
weeks. On several occasions the vote
almost reached the quorum point; was
SO large in fact that it evidently fright
| ened the opponents of the bill. Then
| the high-water mark would at once
be lowered. Wednesday afternoon the
tide went up again and a quorum vote
was announced with cheers and great
| satisfaction on all sides, satisfac-
ton even on the part of the enemies of
the bill, in that the deadlock was
broken. But again wrangling ensued,
peace fed and the quorum went with
it. So. when the house met yesterday
| morning, no one knew what the situa-
ton was.
The first roll call which made an end
of the matter barely reached the neces-
| sary limit, the speaker having to vote
! to make the quorum.
THE RESORT TO FILIBUsTERING.
The art of filibustering, which has
developed SO rapidly and to such per-
forcefully and aptly applied than in
passed was brought into the
house four weeks ago, the day
after the passage of the Wilson bill.
No one expected such a struggle.
Everyone knew that the eastern and
| anti-silver democrats were opposed to
! it, but the objection was deemed of
| minor Importance and not worthy of
| active and vigorous treatment. In
| fact, the friends of the bill say that if
Representative Burrows, of Michigan,
had not gone over to Gen. Tracey, of
New York, and urged him to begin
quorum breaking, and promised him
the support of the republican side of
the house. the fight would never have
been made.
But Mr.. Burrows did. and Mr.. Tracey
co-operated. Immediately all sorts of
arguments were raised against the
passage Of the bill. and even against
the coinage of the seigniorage as pro-
vided for in its first section. These
stories grew and grew, beginning with
the eastern objection to what was
termed silver imitation of the cur
rency." going along the line of vari-
Gus whispers of Carlisle opposition.
and finally ending in fiat announce
ments from those who pretended to
know, that the president would never
allow the bill to become a law.
PROVISIONS OF THE BILL.
The bill itself provides. first. that
the more than $4,000, 600 worth of
bullion counted as seigniorage from
the purchases under the Sherman law,
be at once coined into silver dollars.
and that Sherman notes Ge at once is
sued upon the seigniorage in anticipa
ton of its actual coinage. This had
long been promised by the anti-silver
forces in the government. 1t is generally
admitted that the seigniorage is there.
The first opposition to the bill on the
ground that the seigniorage was n
fictitious and uncertain quantity was
soon dispeled. 1t could be easily shown
by figures from the treasury depart
ment that there was enough of the
| bullion on hand to be coined into more
than $40, 600, 900 of the amount of the
Sherman notes outstanding, issued in
| the purchase of the bullion.
This first opposition silenced, the
next onslaught was at a second section
of the new bill. Over this all of the
subsequent lang-drawn-out struggle
took place. The second section pro-
| vided originally that after the 5O.0OO,
| 900 seigniorage is coined the secretary
of the treasury shall Immediately be-
gin to coin. as fast as possible. the re-
| mainder of the bullion in the treasury.
II further provides that whenever the
| Sherman notes issued in the purchase
| of the bullion get into the treasury
| they shall be Cancelled and not be sent
out again.
This cancellation is to go on in
amounts equal to the coinage. To
make it palmer, in other words, as the
Sherman notes come into the treasury
they shall be Cancelled in mounts suf-
| ficient to tally with the amount of bull
| lion coined into standard dollars. The
| only currency thereafter to be issued
| upon the coined bullion is to be silver
certificates of deposit.
AROUSED THE ANTI-sILvER MEN.
| 1t will be seen that this section was
| really sufficient to stir up opposition.
and, if passed, it will be no little vic.
tory for silver The opposition to it
| was stated in many ways. First, it
| was said that the withdrawal from cir
| culation of the bimetallic Sherman
| notes, that is, notes redeemable either
| in gold or silver, and the substitution
for them of monometallic silver GER
tificates would greatly depreciate the
| currency.
| 1t was stated as another bond-issue
bugabo that as soon as this second
section becomes a law people with
| Sherman notes would become alarmed,
| and fearing that they would be paid in
silver. would at once make rush upon
| the gold reserve, demanding the re-
| demption of their Sherman notes in
| gold, and thus necessitate another i'm
| mediate bond issue.
THREE EXCITING WEEKS.
This last argument was urged with
| sufficient strength to bring about an
amendment of the original bill by its
friends Through the last three weeks
there has been little discussion. These