The Portland daily press., 1895-07-13
THE SILVER QUESTION.
What Delayed the Disasters of Demoneti-
zation,
To the Editor of the Press:


10 the Editor of the Press:
There may be persons who fail to per-
ceiVe the relations of cause and effect
which connect the legislation of 1916 with
the disastrous results the English mem
orialists foresaw, viz, contraction of the
currency, increased burden of taxation,
fall in the value of land, and of CONNER
cial property, embarrassment of publ C
and private credit, curtailment and les
sened profits of agriculture, manufactures
and commerce. The effect however of
economic changes by law or by usage upon
anything SO well established and so stable
as the metallic currency of the CONNER
cial world is, as economists have declared
necessarily slow and gradual, especially
because the displacement and degradation
of silver, instead Of being brought about
by concerted action after deliberation,
as would have beeen fair and just, was
effected insidiously and indirectly, an d
by the effort of single nations to gain ad-
vantages at the expense of others In
no way could the vitality and validity of
the cheaper metallic money have been bet
ter exemplified, than the length of time
and the number of blows it has taken to
bring it to it's present degradation
The suspension of specie-paynlents in
both England and the United States,
While it seemed to mask the revolutionary
character of the acts of 1916, and of 1878,
postponed their disastrous results. The
?
fact that silver bullion from 1916 down to
1871 had only to be shipped across the
tehannel to France, where it was freely
coined into money at Is 1-2 to for gold,
kept it for all that period from any con-
siderable depreciation. The coinage in
the United States of a limited ssamount of
silver required by the Bland and the
Sherman acts, although the salutary
effect of both of these laws was nearly
annihilated by the hostility of the nation
al administration and of the money ed
class organized in the banking associations
for while held up silver but was in
effectual after it became apparent that the
national government did not intend to
make any monetary use Of its silver
coins.
When the French support of silver was
partially withdrawn in 1871 and definitely
In 1877, and when Congress adjourned it's
extra session after having under strong
executive coercion repealed the Sherman
law without substituting anything in its
place to ensure the maintenance of the
double standard, the monetary system of
the United States was put a strictly gold
basis as completely as in England. IN
CONTROL OF CONGRESS SET ASIDE
1t is generally believed that the Con-
stitution devolves upon Congress the
regulation of the currency, but we shall
turn over the statute book in vain to
find it's deliberate and considerate action
in bringing about this consequential
change in the financial policy of the
country We woke up one fine morning
and found gold -monometalism practically
established, the legal-tender quality OF
silver coins was not indeed withdrawn,
but they were mere tokens, something
not to pay with, but to be paid in gold,
and there were to be no more of them
and we naturally asked when did the
people, the presumptive initiators of
legislation, determine upon this innova-
tion, and what considerate investigation,
discussion and study of expert commit
tees of the two Houses of Congress gave
the measure the shape in which it became
law. In the no more radical changes rem
.u6r6u IeCSSSdiyS ny bu6 SUPPRESSION Ol UQo
rebellion all these successive steps, that
show how careful the national legislature
was to hold in it's hands the whole prob
lem of reconstruction, are prominent in
the record and will be equally SO in his
tory; and the attempt of the president to
put in operation a reconstruction scheme
of his own, came within one vote of cost
ing him impeachment and removal from
his high Office.
The extra session of Congress was sum-
moned for the sole purpose of repeating
the silver purchase clauses of the Sher-
man law and was driven by sheer execu-
tive force to that alternative as the only
remedy for a prevalent panic which the
money power had largely produced and
and could aggravate at pleasure until it's
purposes were accomplished All the
while in both the Senate and House the
sentiment in favor of bimetalism was
pronounced and decisive. The former
body were known to favor the immediate
free coinage of silver and if the House
had hesitated to follow the Senate in that
action, it would have been with the ex-
pectation of arriving at the same end by
international agreement. 1t is not at all
probable that if it had been understood
that the President and his advisers had
not matured or even seriously thought
of any substitute scheme for restoring the
parity of silver to gold, or intended to
move finger, unless compelled to do 1t
by an overwhelming public opinion, to
bring about international bimetalism, the
repeal of the Sherman law would have
commanded fifty votes in both branches of
Congress. By cajoling the unsuspicious
and alarming the timid, by whip and
spur, it was driven through at last.
DECENTRALIZATION UN-AMERICAN.
England did not so obviously fly in the
face of her own interests as we did. She
had not silver mines or silver industries
TO encourage and protect. True she had
no gold mines in 1876 but seems to have
made a lucky guess in selecting the metal
to favor, which her own colonies in Aus
tralia al South Africa have since SO
copiously supplied We, on the other
hand, who have never as a people adopted
the free-trade theories of our old-world
relatives, we With whom the protection