The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-06-26


representations sophistries and de-
nunciations have been recently punched
in clever little book called "Coiu's
Financial School," embodying in a
compact and popular form the creed of
the silver people.
The essential facts respecting the use of
silver as money during the current GEN.
fury are as follows: Up to 1873 the minis
of the world, excepting only England,
were open to the free coinage of both
gold and silver. Gold and silver coins
remained 80 near the same value as to
circulate freely side by side, and were
paid and received in the settlement of
foreign as we'll as domestic debts.
Both were of full legal-tender value,
excepting, of course, the subsidiary
silver coins, which were tender for
debts not exceeding $500. In the
United States there had been coined,
up to 1878, only $8,00O,000 in standard
silver dollars, having 3714 grains of
pure silver. For some twenty years
preceding this date, not an ounce of
silver bullion had been presented at
the minis for coinage. Coinage of the
white metal was limited to the CONVEX
sion of the foreign coins the United
States had taken for customs. In two
consecutive years the mint turned out
but trifle over 81 900 each year. The
silver dollar was the unit of value, but
it was at that time QS73) of full bullion
value with the gold dollar. If there
was any difference, it was in favor of
silver, which was regarded as the
dearer dollar, and, for aught that any
one knew or could foretell, the gold
dollar was the one in which it would
continue to be to the advantage of the
debtor class to pay its debts, ii the COM
mercial value of the metals should part
company. There had been practical
international bimetalism, because, En-
gland excepted, the minis of the world
were conformity coming both gold and
silver. At that time the question of
paying the public debt, principal and
interest, in gold had not arisen. This
was the status of the two metals when,
in February, 1878, congress passed the
law revising the coinage. This act
made the gold dollar the unit of value,
discontinued the coinage of standard
silver dollars, and limited their legal
tender quality to five dollars.
This measure had been before con-
gress in one form or another for two
years. 1t was considered, debated, and
passed in the light of day, as publicly
as any measure was ever acted upon
OF course the charge of conspiracy and
crime is arrant folly. There was at the
time so little interest in the matter of
coinage no one seemed to care much
about the measure. 1t in fact con-
formed the laws to the state of things
then existing, and which, for aught any
one knew, would continue to exist. But
if wrong was done, Willingly or I'M
Willingly, it was speedily righted when
the fact of the demonstration of silver
became known. By the act of 1878,
silver coinage was restored and the
standard silver dollar was reinvested
with its full legal-tender quality. I'm
der this act 1923 100000 had been
coined, when it was repealed in 1890,
and the act of that year was passed, re-
quiring the government to purchase
monthly 100000 ounces of silver bull
lion and issue against its purchase price
the notes of the United States. Under
this act S150,000,000 in treasury notes
had been issued when it was repealed
at the extra session in 1898. Since 1878,
or in fifteen years, there had been
added to the silver currency of the
country the equivalent of $4,000, 900
in standard silver dollars, or more than
seventy times the amount the govern
ment had coined in the previous eighty
nine years since the adoption of the
constitution. In the mean time, silver
had been demonetized by all the ma
tions of Europe, 30 that the United
States, single-handed and alone, had
been maintaining the parity of gold
and silver, had been maintaining prac-
tical, effective bimetalism.
The advocate of free and unlimited
coinage of silver lays great stress on the
fact that there was free coinage in the
United States up to 1873, that silver
was of equal value with gold, and de-
cares that the same results would hap
pen if the mint was again thrown wide
open to silver. He suppresses the vital
fact that prior to 1873 the nints of Eu-
rope, excepting England, were also
coming silver and using it as money,
and that England was large buyer of
silver bullion for use in India, whose
money was silver. Since 1873 all the
miAts of Europe have been closed
against silver, and the metal has but re-
Gently been excluded from the Indian
minis. The restoration of the status