The advocate., 1895-07-24


duCed in weight in 1884 to conform to the
new ratio rather than the silver dollar
was that gold being undervalued by the
ratio of Is to 1, gold coins constituted no
material part Of our circulation
"Just as stated last night exactly
The bulk Of the circulation in 1884 consist
ed Of silver coins, and 1t was, easier prac-
tically to change the gold dollar than the
silver dollar. Does not Mr.. Turck per-
ceiVe that this claim that the silver dol
lar was the unit of value is inconsistent
with the bimetallic system? The bimetGl-
lie system presumes a unit Of account, a
unit of name or number to be represented
in coinage by given quantity of silver. If
either is the sole measure the system is not
bimetallic.' QIorr then quoted Knox,
deputy comptroller of the currency, In the
mint report for 1868-84, to the same effect,
and said this was written before this
discussion on the subject Of demonetiziDg
silver at ALL written by an expert upon
this very subject, and again in the same
report he states The present laws cOnse-
Quently authorize both a gold dollar unit
and a silver dollar unit, different from
each other in intrinsic value. That was
the reason he proposed the law Of 1873"
Harvey said: Yesterday Mr.. Horr ad-
mitted that the silver dollar was the unit
of value, and the record of yesterday
shows that Now in view Of his attempt
to try to twist something back into the dis
cussion by which we are to believe him as
saying one thing yesterday and something
else today, I leave him to such fate as
the readers Of this debate think Is proper"
Harvey said Horr was trying to discuss
bimetallism before its time in the debate.
That subject was in the second chapter
Of the book, and would be discussed at
the proper time. He said he wanted to
take up the subject Of demonetization, as
that was the agreed subject for the day.
Horr denied his, but Harvey went on to
discuss the act of 1873.
He said: "To understand how silver
could be demonetized in this republic the
reader should understand that we had
then paper money, and no silver or
gold was in circulation, except in Cal!for-
MIA. The conspiracy to demonetize silver
originated IN London. European fnan-
ciers had discovered that the demonetiza-
tion of silver by England had no effect on
the commercial parity Of the two metals at
the ratio fixed by France. 1t was there
fore current that in order to break the
commercial parity and substantially de-
preciate silver all of the great governments
would have to be included In the legisla-
tlon needed. A good deal of diplomacy,
concealment and Misrepresentation was
practiced in securing the cooperation Of
politicians in Germany, France and the
United States.
Following his trip to London and Paris
Mr.. Sherman introduced bill in 1868 that
was on it's face intended to establish the
gold standard. Senator Morgan Of New
York jumped on it in the Finance Comit-
tee. Sherman saw that Morgan under
stood genuine bimetallism, and this bill
died that day and was never heard Of
again. Senator Morgan's term of Office
expired in 1869, and the very next ses-
sion another bill made its appearance. The
bill this time went to a committee, In
which the second attempt to leave out the
silver dollar was again discovered, and 1t
was inserted at the ratio of 151R to 1. To
knock this dollar out surreptitiously at the
last moment then became the plan of the
conspirators."
| Here HOrr interrupted to call Harvey's
attention to page of the School" which
says that about $1OO,OOO,OOO in foreign
silver had found its way into our circula-
tion prior to 1860 and had been made legal
tender by an act Of Congress, which act
was quoted. Horr said there was not an act
in the currency laws of the United States
that made foreign coin legal tender, and
thought that Coin" had not fully quoted
the law, leaving off the very part that ro-
stricted the legal tender quality of foreign
coins. The law as quoted by Horr made
call foreign coins named in the act legal