Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1894-10-05

present ed his argument. The fact is tina.
Seyd, Wolowsk and Cernuschi were the
three great champions of silver in Europe.
They fought for it as knights of old fought
for their lady loves. And it is the basest
ingratitude for the friends of silver in this
country to
Blacken the Fair Name
OF the greatest champion of the cause.
hold in my hand a letter from the son of
Ernest Seyd showing that his father had
not been in this country since 1855 A
garbled statement has been going the
rounds pretending to be an extract from
the Congressional Record. It has misled
many honest people. When was here tive
years ago took it for granted that it was
correct extract from The Record. 1t is
as follows:
Ernest Seyd of London, a distinguished
writer and bulionist, is now here, and has
given great attention to the subject OF
minis and coinage, and after examining
the first draft of the bill made various sen.
sible suggestions, which the committee
accepted and embodied in the bill.'
These words were attributed to Mr..
Hooper, who was at that time chairman
OF the committee of coinage, weights and
measures, and are alleged 10 appear in the
Congressional Globe of April 9, 1872.
Even if that extract had been quoted
literally from The Record it would have
been an evidence of innocence, and not ct
guilt. The very fact that Mr.. Hooper told
of the presence of Mr.. Seyd and the con-
situations of the committee with him,
would have been evidence that there was
nothing about such companionship and
consultation to be afraid or ashamed of.
Conspirators do not advertise the presence
and actions of their companions in crime
Last winter took occasit n to examine
the Congressional Globe of A )ril 9, 1872,
and give you now the sentence as it &C.
tually stands in that record. 1t is as fol-
lows:
Mr.. Ernest Seyd of London, a distin-
guished writer who has given great atten-
tion to the subject of minis and coinage,
after examining the first draft of the bill
furnished many valuable suggestions.
which nave been incorporated in the bill. {"
Looking at the alleged extract given be-
fore we notice that the words, "is now
here' have been interpolated. They are
not in the Record, and the interpolation is
done so clumsily as to betray the fact that
the one who did it was as ignorant as
was INSCRIPTIONS.
The story of bribery by Ernest Seyd
started in Denver, Colo. 1t was man,
featured out OF whole CLOTH Senator
Teller, one of the ablest advocates in this:
country of the free coinage OF silver, lives
in Denver, and repudiates ~ sto:y.
almost feel like apollo: n 5t' yon 20.
spending so much time OF. = lis m.>>r:;ble
fabrication. But so nla44y goo>. y,,p.e
hoy ho1; +
by 1T, that l determined to state The fac5s
in the case: That Ernest Seyd has nov
been in this country since 1856; that his
only connection with the bill was to write
letter to Mr.. Hooper, just as scores of
other experts did, and that so far as his
influence went it was against the omission
of the silver dollar And now having done
justice to the memory of an honest man, l
dismiss the story with the full conviction
that those who have heard this simple
statement will never again allow the story
to go unrebuked and unrefuted.
Before leaving the act of 1878 may say
that it did not take away the full legal
tender quality of the silver dollar. 1t
simply omitted all mention of that coin.
The coins whose legal tender was limited
to SIS were specified. All silver dollars then
in existence (of which there were probably
not l, 200 all told) retained their full legal
tender power. 1t was in the revision of
the statutes in 1874 that "all silver coins
of the United States" were placed in the
category of those having limited legal
tender
Act of 1873 Not Unfriendly to Silver.
It will be remembered that in 1873 we
had neither gold nor silver in circulation.
Indeed, practically Che only objection
made to the consideration of the bill at
that time was on this very ground, that
inasmuch as neither metal was in
circulation it seemed unnecessary to
take the trouble to codify all our
mintage laws. But there was much
confusion in these laws, and the mint Off
| GERS were anxious to have them codified
and simplified. There was one technical
change, too. Though we w1re using
neither gold nor silver in our circulation,
large quantities of both were being coined
at the minis. This coinage was simply
for the purpose of securing the govern
ment stamp which certified to the fineness
of the metal, and thereby facilitated sales
The act of 1873 made change in the
mintage charge, or seigniorage. Until
1853 the expense of changing bullion into
coin was borne by the government; but
the act of 1858 inserted charge of one
half of per cent on all but subsidiary sill
yer coins. The act of 1873 reduced this
charge from one-half to one-fifth of 1 per
cent. This is one evidence of good will
toward the producers of both gold and
silver
But still greater evidence of it is found
in provision for the coinage of the trade
dollar" AS said before we were using
neither gold nor silver at that time in our
currency. We were building up at that
time large trade with China The Chi
nese use silver as their standard money.
The Mexican dollar was their favorite, be-
cause it was of uniform fineness and was
thus reliable, and had, moreover, the at
tractive quality of being the largest of the
silver dollars. Our silver producers felt
that if they could be furnished with nee
essary facilities, they could find in the Chi
nese trade a valuable market for their sill
yer, which even in 1873 was beginning to
feel the effect of greatly increased produc-
ton. The Mexican dollar contained AT
15-17 grains Of standard silver slightly over
$40 fine, or 377 IA grains of pure silver;
l hoo Of F., III