The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-07-24
''CRINE.''
me Stenographic Report of What
Mr.. Harvey Said With
Reference
10 the Crime of "1S73," Which,
Was Omitted by the Asso-
ciated Press.


as decentralization of silver was called
IN Coins Financial School" 1t would
seem that neither press associations are
giving anything more than a SYNOPSIS of
TINS report to the country. Hereafter, the
Penny Press will not only give the
synopsis as it appears from day to day,
put will give the full stenographic re-
port inclusive. For the synopsis see else
where.
THE CRIME OF 1873.
To understand how silver could be
demonetized in this republic the reader
should understand that we then had pa
per money, and no silver or gold was in
circulation, except in California. The
same situation existed in England, fol-
lowing the French wars in 1916, when
silver was dropped from the minis there
THE conspiracy to demonetize silver
was regarded by those engaged in it's as
business transaction, just as those who
visit Washington and other capitals to
accomplish by legislation a sugar trust
or trust on school books, or anything
else
The conspiracy originated in London
european financiers had discovered that
the decentralization of silver by England
had no effect on the commercial parity
or the two metals at the ratio fixed by
France. 1t was therefore current that in
order to break the commercial parity and
substantially deprecate silver all of the
great governments would have to be in>
cluded in the needed legislation. The
subject was discussed among these finan-
cters informally in London and Paris
and very few were included among those
who understood it's ultimate effect A
good deal of diplomacy, concealment and
misrepresentation were practiced in Sc
curing the cooperation of politicians in
Germany, France and the United States
The subject was discussed without dis
closing the ultimate aim Of those who
directed the conference.
Following his trip to London and Paris
Mr.. Sherman introduced a bill in 1868
. that was on its face intended to establish
the gold standard. Senator Morgan of
New York, jumped on it in the finance
committee with all tours. And Sherman
saw that Morgan understood genuine BIZ
metalhsm and this bill died that day and
was never heard of again. Senator Nor,
the very next session another bill made
Its appearance. Those who took an
open and avowed interest in the new
measure were Mr.. Linderman, director of
the mint; Mr.. Knox. the comptroller of
the treasury, who at the end of his term
of office became president of a national
bank in New York; John Sherman in the
senate and Representatives Hooper, of
Massachusetts, and Stoughton, of Mich
igan, in the house.
THE bill this time went to a commit
tee in which the second attempt to leave
out the silver dollar was again discovered.
and 1T was inserted at the ratio of 151. to
l, which was the French ratio. This pro-
vided for dollar of 3S4 grains. This was
the equivalent Of the French 5-franc
piece.
ITO knock this dollar out surreptitious>
ly at the last moment then became the
plan of the conspiratOrs. The only ques-
ton they would have to fight would be
the change of the unit of value from sill
yer to gold, and on this they could de-
pend by representing that gold was vir-
tually then the standard by common
consent Of nations; that it had been ren>
dered so by the large production of gold,
and by other specific arguments support
ed by special influences. Thus it became
BILL innocent on it's face as to demone-
tizing silver. Decentralization consists
principally in closing the minis to a spec
demand for it and leaving it only
commercial value"
Mr.. Horr-"You will excuse me, Mr.
Harvey, but previous to commencing my
discussion of the law of 1873 1 call your
attention to a passage on page in your
book, because you have already an
nounced here today that you propose to
convince me that what this book says
is absolutely true and that I am wrong
about it. You say prior to 1873 there was
sos, o00, 900 of silver coined by the United
States and SIS, 900, 900 of this was in silver
dollars. Now, 1 understand you have
since corrected that amount. I make
no point upon that fact that you were in
error as to the amount; such errors occur
with everyone but l am told that in your
last book-indeed. I have it-you correct
that statement. But this is what I want
to call your attention to: About $10O, 900 900
Of foreign silver found its way into this
country prior to 1850. 1t was principally
Spanish, Mexican and Canadian COIN 1t
had all been legal tender in the United
States by the act Of congress.
Nov, l have the coinage laws Of the
United States, every one that has ever
been passed since 1892, and 1 state, Mr.
Harvey that in no law within the lids
of that book are all the foreign silver
coins made a legal tender I defy YOU to
show a single law that states anything
of the kind. And the very law which YOU
if you had finished the quotation and had
read the whole of the alw it would have
shown you that your first statement
was not true. (Applause.) You left off
the very part which restricted the legal
tender quality of foreign coins.
ut makes all foreign coins named in
that act legal tender. If they come up to
a certain standard-that is, If they have
so much fine gold and so much fine sill
yer in them, and if they are worth so
much, then. and not otherwise.
when you state that the government
passed a law requiring or making silver
coins legal tender and also in the same
act they make gold coins a legal tender.
why did you quote the silver part and
leave the gold out unless you wanted to
impress your readers with the fact that
silver was considered the most import.
ant. which wasn't true?"
Mr.. Harvey-"And when a man is dis
cussing silver and the manner in which it
was treated by our forefathers and com
pairing it with the way in which it is
treated by you people now it wasn't nee
essary> to refer to how they treated gold
or copper" Uong and continued ap-
plause)
Mr.. Horr-"UnleSs your treatment is
such that you are misleading your read
ers as to the manner of legislation upon
that subject"
Mr. Harvey-"So are you misleading
yourself"
Mr.. Horr-"No, I am not What made
you stop with your 'etc?''
Mr.. Harvey-"Because had quoted all
of the statute necessary to show that
they had made foreign silver legal ten
DER
Mr.. Horr-"No, you hadn't; you had
quoted all that was necessary to show
that they had made legal tender of GER
tain coins if there had been nothing at
tached to it,
to it,
Mr.. Harvey-"You refer to the amounts