The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1895-06-13

TIE one sslecteu 10 IeFIt~eut ihe uuit
would thereafter be Interchangeable 10
value. That is. the metal in it could
never be worth less than dollar, for it
would be the unit of value itself. The
demand for silver 10 the arts or for
nancy by other nations might make the
quantity of silver in a silver dollar sell
for more than a dollar, but it could nev-
er be worth less than a dollar. Less
than itself.
"Iu considering which Of these two
metals they would thus favor by making
it the unit, they were led to adopt silver
because it was the most reliable. 1t
was the most favored as money by the
people. 1t was scattered among all the
people. Men having = design to injure
business by making money scarce, could
not SO easily get hold of all the silver
and hide it away, as they could gold.
This was the principal reason that led
them to the conclusion to select silver,
the more stable of the two metals npou
which to FIX the unit. IL was so much
handled by the people and preferred by
them, that il was called the peoples
monsy,
"Gold was considered the money Of
the rich. 1t was owned principally by
that class of people, and the poor people
seldom handled it, and the very poor
people seldom ever saw any Of il"
THE FIRST INTERRUPTION.
Here youpg Mcdill, of the Chicago
Tribune, held up his hand, which indi-
Gated that he had something to say or
wished to ask question. Corn paused
and asked him what he wanted
He arose in bis seat and said that his
father claimed that we had been on II
gold basis ever since 1887, that piror
to 1873 the.e never had been but eight
million dollars of silver coined Here
young Wilsoa, of the Farm, Field and
Fireside, said he wanted to ask. who
owns the Chicago Tribune2
Corn tapped the little bell on the
table t. restore order, and ruled the last
question out, a. there was already one
before the house by Mr.. Medill,
"Prisr to 1873" said Coin, "there
were one hundred and FIVE millions Of
silver coined by the United States aud
eight million of this was 10 silver dollars.
When your father said that 'ouly eight
million dollars in silver had been coined,
be meant to say that only eight million
silver dollars had been coined He
| also neglected to say-that is-he for.
got 10 state, that ninety. seven millions
had been coined into dimes, quarters
aud halves.
"About one hundred millions of for
eign silver had found its way into this
country prior to 1860 1, was princi,
pally Spanish, Mexican and Canadian
coin. 1t had all been made legal tender
in the United States by act OF Congress.
We needed more silver than We had,
and Congress passed laws making oil
foreign silver coins legal teuder in this
country. will read you one of these
law.-they are scattered all through the
statutes prior to 1873" Here Coin
picked up copy of the laws of the
United States relating to loans and the
currency, coinage aud banking, publish.
ed at Washington. He said: "a copy
could be obtained by any one on writing
to the Treasury Department"
lie then read lrou page 2iG, as fol-
lows:
| And be il further enacted That from and
AFTER the passage of this act, the following
foreign silver coins shall pass current as
money within the United States, aud be re-
ceivsble by tale, for the payment of all
debts aud demands, at the rates following
that is to say; the Spanish pillar dollars,
aud the dollars Of Mexico, Peru, aud Bolivia,
ETC."
"On account of the scarcity of silver
both Jefferson and Jackson recommends
ed that dimes, quarters aud halves
would serve the people better than dol
lars, until more silver bullion could be
obtained. This was the reason why only
about eight million of the one hundred
and five million of silver were coined
into dollars.
"During this struggle TO get mere
silver" continued CON-, Francs made
bid tor it by establishing 7atio Of
l5l to |, and US our ratio was l6 to
this made silver iu France worth 81 .03
when exchanged for gold, and as gold
would answer the same purpose as silver
fer money, it was found that our silver
was leaving US, So Congress in 1858
had our fractional silver coins made OF
light weight to prevent their being ex'
ported.
$50 that we had prior to 1873 one
hundred and five milliOus of SILVER COIN
ed BY US, aud about one hundred mil,
hon of foreign silver coin, OF about two
hundred aud five million dollars 10 sill,
yer in the United States, and were doing
all we could to get more aud 10 hold on
to what We had. Thus silver and gold
were the measure OF values. Ii should
be remembered that no silver or gold
was in circulation between 1860 and
1873. Two hundred aud FIVE millions
were in circulation before 1861"
Then looking at young Medill, CoIS
asked him If he had answered his aues>
tiOn. The young journalist turLed red
ir the face and hung his bead, while
young Wilson rnu,tercd something about
! Epglishmea owning the Tribune.
(Coatinued)