Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1895-08-15


A Cannon Falls correspondent, DR..
A. T. Conley, writes:
"Will you give in as concise and plain
language as possible the reasons for the
bill Of 1873 which dcmonetized silver?
often hear it said that there was no
demand for such an act by the people, or
the business world, and that President
Grant said years after that he did not
know he had signed bill demonetizing
silver. Are these facts p
The coinage act Of 1873 was simply q
codification Of the laws relating to the
coinage, assaying and the details Of the
mint. There had been no revision of
these laws siuce 1887, and the work Of
preparing new coinage act covering
these details was undertaken bv John
Jay Knox, controller of the currency, in
conjunction with Mr.. Lindeman, director
of the mint. Among other things it pre-
scribed the denominations, the weight
and the fineness of the various gold and
silver coins. The silver dollar was
dropped from the list OF coins provided
for the simple reason that at that time
silver dollars had not been in use as
money in the United States for twenty
five years at least, and very few Of them
had been in circulation for over thirty
five years. In fact, up to the year 1873
there had only been coined for purposes
of circulation 81 ,439, 457 silver dollars,
and these were coined before 1906. So
that for 81 years not silver dollar
had been coined at our minis for circula-
ton in the United States. 1t was coin
which had not been in use and had been
unknown to the commerce Of the country
for at least a quarter Of century, and
had been very rarely seen or used since
1884. The reason why it had not been
coined or used in the United States for
so many years was that it was dearer
than gold, and that the owners OF silver
bullion could make more money by SELL
ing it to the silversmiths than by having
1t converted into coin.
Our correspondent will, therefore, per-
ceive that the coinage act OF 1873 was not
introduced for the special purpose OF de-
monetizing silver. The silver dollar was
dropped from the coinage as a natural in.
cident Of a revision Of our coinage laws,
because at that time it was wholly oh.
solete and useless coin. The bill was be-
fore congress for three years, and was
very fully discussed at one time and
another in both houses by those who
took an interest in the subject OF coinage.
But as matte, Of fact, very few persons
In congress, or out Of it, did lake any
interest in it. The writer Of this was in
Washington at the time when this bill
was before congress. He was an init
mate friend Of John Jay Knox, the
author Of the bill, and he we'll remem-
bers his frequent complaints Of the diff
Guilty OF getting the committees Of eithe I
house to take any interest in the measure
It was because 80 little interest was taken
in it that it was before congress three
years before it became law.
For the same reason that congress took
no interest in it tho public at large did
not. Il was stated over and over again
on the foors Of congress that the bill
dropped the silver dollar from the list oil
coins. But nobody made any objection
to it. Nobody in congress or in the
country ever thought OF Directing to the
omission from our coins Of coin which
few people who had not passed middle
life had ever seen, which nobody wanted
or had any use for. There was neither
demand for it nor protest again it iion
the business world, because nobody cared
anything at all aboutit. It isqutc likely
that President Grant might have said
years after that he did not know that
he had signed bill demonetizing silver.
For that was feature Of the bill which,
had no interest for anybody at that time
and Gen. Grant was not likely to have paid
any attention to 0 matter which nobody
else except coinage experts and II few
members Of the congressional committees
on coinage and like matters cared any.
thing about.-st, paAl Pi9ncer-Press.