The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-21

this form, without any provision for the
coinage Of any kind of silver dollar the
bill was passed in the Senate on the 10th
day of January. 1871, upon the call of the
yeas and nays, and the record shows that
the two Senators from Kentucky, Hon
Garrett Davis and Hon. Thomas c. Nc
Creery, the distinguished democratic sena-
tor from Ohio, Hon. Allen @. Thurman
the present senator from Nevada, Hon.
william NJ. Stewart. together with all the
other senators from the Pacific slope,
voted in the affirmative, while Senator
sherman, Senator Morrill, and twelve 9th
ers voted In the negative. The reason
given by Mr.. Sherman for voting against
The bill was that the Senate had, in obedi-
ence TO the demands of the senator's from
the Pacific coast, so amended the bill after
II was reported from the committee as to
abolish the charge of one-hfth of one
per cent. for coming gold, thus making
the coinage of that metal entirely free
The bill went TO the House OF Represen-
tauves, but 1t was not disposed of during
that congress, and at the first session of
the next congress Mr.. Kelley of Pennsyl-
Vania introduced IL IN the House and It was
referred to committee. So far as the
coinage of the silver dollar was affected
the bill introduced by him was precisely
the same as the one that had passed the
Senate-that Is, 1t made no provision for
such coin. However, when the bill was
finally reported back from the commit
tee to the House, it was so amended as TO
provide for the coinage Of subsidiary
piece to be called a dollar, and to con-
tam SSi grains of standard silver the
same as the French 5-franc piece, and il
was to be legal tender to the extent Of
80, ana no more In this form il passed
the House by very large majority-in
taet the opposition to it was so weak
that the yeas and nays were not even
called. The Senate struck out the 5-franc
subsidiary dollar and substituted for it
another subsidiary coin, called the trade
dollar, containing 420 grains Of standard
silver and provided that it should be n
regal tender to the amount of S. and no
more. A committee of conference was
appointed, the Senate amendment was
agreed to, and the bill became a law by
the APPROVAL of President Grant on the
18th days OF February 1873. This brief
historical statement of the proceedings
which is fully sustained by the official
record, shows that it was well understood
IN congress that the old standard silver
dollar of 4l2ls grains was not to be there-
after coined at our mints and that rho
only difference of opinion that ever ex-
listed, even temporarily, between the Sen.
ate and House was whether they womb
substitute in its place a subsidiary coin
containing 1884 grains, or subsidiary coin
containing 42O grains of silver. No promo
sition was made in either body 70 con.
tnue the coinage of the old dollar, or TO
make any silver coin the unit of value
or full legal tender in the payment of
debts.
The plain truth is that this act of 1873
which has been the subject of so much
mlsapprehension and denunciation was
simply legal recognition of monetary
condition which had existed in fact in
this country for about thirty-five years
or ever since a short time after the mass
age of the coinage act of 1884 From about
the year 1888 until after the passage Of
the Bland-AlliSOn act in 1878 no silver
dollars were i'm circulation i'm this countrv
and our whole currency consisted of gold
CONS and bank notes, except from 1862
TO 1873 when our active circulation. our
side of California and its neighboring ter
ritory was all paper There was during
the latter period about So, 600 900 in gold in
circulation on the Pacific coast. and the
United States was collecting customs dues
in gold and using it in payment of inter-
est on the public debt, but there was no
silver in circulation anywhere in this coun-
Try, not even the lightweight subsidiary
coins. The value of the United States
note or greenback was always measured
by gold and not by silver, and commo-
dities had a gold price and paper price.
but never silver price, because silver
eAceut the hali-QOllarS, quarters and dimes
coined under the act of 1853. had been out
of use here for more than twenty years
before the commencement of the war and
even these subsidiary coins had not been
in use for eleven years prior to 1878 our
own monetary history had already fur
nished two most striking illustrations Of
the operation of the natural law under
which the coins which are oVer-valued by
statute always drive out of circulation
the coins which are under-valued Our
own experience had again demonstrated
what the history of the world already
showed-that whenever the coinage laws
Of any country permit the free coinage
of both metals with fun legal tender quail
tiles at ratio of value
which does not conform substan-
TALLY to their intrinsic or commercial
ratio in the markets of the world. both
kinds of coin cannot be kept in circula-
ton at the same time. The reason Is
that, both being fun legal tender. the
least valuable coin will always
be used in making payments
and will become the sole
measure of value, and the most valuable
will be boarded or sent out the coun-
try into the markets where its real value
can be obtained.
our first coinage law was passed in 1892
and II provided for fun legal tender GOLD
and silver coins at the ratio of Is to /;
that is to say, Is pounds Of silver were
to be considered as equal in value to /
pound OF gold. and the weights of the
coins were adjusted to that rule. In de-