Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-07-18


Horr then said: NOW, have before me
. letter of Mr.. Leach, who was for many
years tn director Of the mint; man
whom I know well. and who Is considered
authority on all the money matters in the
United States. He takes precisely the
same view that Judge Vincent took. He
tells Us, II, as Mr.. Turck says, the silver
dollar was the unit which measured the
value of the gold coins from 1892 to 1873,
what becomes Of the act Of January 18th,
1887 supplementary to the act OF 1884.
which changed the ratio in coinage to 1898
10 u, in which act no reference whatever
Is made to units, but in prescribing the sill
yer coin says: "The dollar shall be the
weight Of 412ls grains" Nothing about
unit" Ard the gold coins, the weight for
the eagle shall be 25s grains. and that fer
all sums whatever the eagle shall be legal
tender Of payment for ten dollars. The
true reason that the gold dollar was re-
duced in weight in 1884 to conform to the
new ratio rather than the silver dollar
was that gold being undervaiued by the
ratio of Is to I, gold coins constituted no
material part Of our circulation"
Just as I stated last night exactly.
The bulk of the circulation in 1884 consist
ed OF silver coins, and il was easier prac-
ticaily 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 bimetal-
tic system presumes a unit OF account,
unit OF name CT number to be represented
In coinage by a given quantity OF silver. X
s!ther is the sole measure the system is not
bimetaI!ic.' UIorr then quoted Knox.
deputy comptroller CT the currency, in the
min: report for iS6S-Si, to the same effect.
and said this was written before this
discussion on tie subject Of demonetizins
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 1879"
Harvey said: Yesterday Mr.. Herr 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 twis, s5mething back into the dis
cussion by which we are to believe him as
saying ono thing yesterday and something
else today, / leave him to such fate as
the readers of this debate think is proper"
bimetal!ism 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 tie subject Of decentralization. ca
I that was the agreed subject for the day.
Horr denied his. but Harvey went on to
discuss the act of 1879
He said: ITO understand how silver
10 IN, 1fc f,p
reader should understand that we had
then paperb money, and no silver or
gold was in circulation, except in Cal.fcr-
MIA. The conspiracy to demcnetize silver
originated in London. European f1nan-
ciers had discovered that the demonetiza-
ticn Of silver by England had no effect en-
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-
ton needed. A coed 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 1865 that
was en- its face intended to establish the
gold standard. Senator Morgan of New
York jumped on il in the Finance Comit-
tee. Sherman saw that Morgan under
stood genuine bimctallism, and this bill
died that day and was never heard OF
again. Senator Morgans term of Office
expired in 1869. and the very next ses-
sion another bill made its appearance The
bill this time went to committee, in
which the second attempt to leave out the
silver dollar was again discovered. and it
was inserted at the ratio OF 151a to I. To
knock this dollar out surreptitiously at the
last moment then became the plan of the
consp;rators."
Here Horr interrupted to call Harvey's
attention to page 9 OF the School," which
says that about 1000. coo in foreign
silver had found it's way into our circula-
ton prior to 1850 and had been made legal
: tender by an act Of Congress. which act
was quoted. Herr said there was not an set
/ in the currency laws of the United States
/ that made foreign coin legal tender, and
4 thought that Coin had net fully quoted
/ the law, leaving off the very Part that re-
stricted the legal tender quality of foreign
coins. The law as quoted By Horr made
''all foreign coins named in the act legal
/ tender IL they come up to a certain STAN
/ dard, that is. il they have so much fine
I gold and so much fine silver in them, and
| il they are worth SO much. then and not
! Otherwise
! This matter came UP several times dur
ing the discussion. Horr insisting on get
ting it right as he stated Harvey ex-
planned by saying that all that was done
was to test the foreign coins to see what
/ they were worth in our currency. Horl
then referred to the law of 1851 which
required the treasury to melt up all for.
/ eign coins ard recon them all. He had
another objection to the quotation in
Coin" II did not quote the whole law
leaving out gold. which was mentioned ir
/ the first section. Harvey said ,he had
| quoted the whole section, but Horn said
I he had net quoted the whole law. Harvey
I closed the subject for the session by say.
/ ing that he quoted section Z correctly. what
there was in another section he did not
care about.
Resuming the subject OF silver demone
| ti.ation Harvey said 1.-The intention of tts
conspirators was to strike out secretly tn.
/ single line providing fer the silver dollar
/ the size Of a French fivc-franc piece ant