The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-12-11

che United States in 1873, the intrinsic
value of the silver dollar was three and
half per cent. greater than that of the
gold dollar; the metal in the silver dol
lar being worth more,' as a comm )dity
In the market, than the metal IN the
gold dollar by that premium Fer
ninety years of our bimetalic policy,
silver had never gone below the par of
gold, and often gone above it, before
1873
1t is an undenied historical fact that
the act of 1873, purporting to be re-
visal of the laws relating to the nation
al mints, but which put stop to the
coinage of the silver dollar and divested
that coin of It's legal tender function,
was furtively passed. Neither the Con-
gress which passed it, nor the Presi-
dent (drant) who signed it, knew of
these important features of the act
The question of demonetizing silver
and closing against it the mints which
had been engaged in its free coinage
since the beginning OF the Federal gov
ernment, had never been presented to
the American people, nor debated, nor
considered by them. The act which
effected this purpose was never author
lied by them; and, having been fur
lively passed in a period in which
specie payments were suspended, not
hundred people in the land knew for
years after silver had been demone
tized, that the fell trick had been prac
ticed
John Bull had formed the acquaint
ance of two incorruptible members of
Congress, one in each house; he never
deals with any but incorruptible men,
When he needs and confers with such
characters they Immediately become
so rich that they scorn the bagatelle of
bribe.
The metals which are called precious
metals derive their preciousness almost
exclusively from their being used as
money; and they are coined into, and
decreed to be, money by the govern
ments in which they circulate. Sub
stances which have real intrinsic value
are disqualified for use as moneyby
that fact; it is only substances that
have little value except as money that
are coined by the public mints, and are
made legal tender by the fat of law.
John Bull, through several of his ablest
authors on public economics, has
thought that those who stickle for in
trinsic value in the paper and metals
of which legal tender money is made,
are dunces-except those who are ras
Gals.
The closing of our mints to silver, and
its deprival by law of the legal tender
function, converted it in this country
into a mere commodity of commerce.
1t Immediately began to sink In value
and ran down in a short time to
point at which the silver in dollar was
worth only eighty cents. By that time
the American people came to knOwl
edge of the trick which had been secret
ly practiced in 1873, and required Con
gress to enact law, in the Bland act,
remonetizing silver dollars; that is to
say, restoring to it the legal tender
function, and requiring the mints to
coin two and a half to four millions of
them per month, from silver purchased
by the government for that purpose.
The mints, however, still remained
closed to the people. NobOdy's 4124
grains of silver could be coined into a
legal tender dollar, but those bought in
open market by the government, from
silver offered there as a commodity.
Our production of silver was at least
$75, 900, 600 a year; our governments
purchases under the Bland act were but
little more than 80, 900, 600; and silver,
under this weak demand of q single
purchaser, went down and fell and
cheapened in the market.
By 1890, so frightful was the decline
in the market price of silver, that even
the incorruptible Sherman, still cher
ishing faint hopes of the presidency,
became frightened at the results of the
demonetizing act Of 1873. He there
fore induced the passage of an act by
Congress authorizing the government
to purchase 4,5OO, 900 ounces of silver
per month at market prices in open
market and to coin the metal into dol
lars and to store it in the treasury,
issuing certificates against it in the
form of treasury notes.
Inpursuance of this Sherman act the
government thus took up just about as