Middletown transcript., 1896-08-22
A G sHNAT spFrct1.

A G HEAT sPEECH.
One Of the 1blest and clearest speak
ers in this country is Senator John Shel
man. He spoke upon finances last Sat
urday at Columbus, Ohio, and ever,
voter who wishes to be informed should
read that speech. Mr.. Sherman j rep
utation is too valuable for him to make
misreprt sentations and no man is bet.
ter authority on finances. The TRAN
Sept can refer to only a few of The
many things which be made so clear.
One Is the so-called
"CRIME Of 1873"
The coinage bill of 1873, passed te
restore specie payment, was pending in
Congress for three years and
special attention was called to the
omission of the 4123 grains silver dol
lar. The bill became law Feb. 10,
1873, by practically unanimous vote
of both parties and the Silver Senators
then in Congress voted for it and over
a year after its passage Senators Jones
and Stewart defended the act, for
which see Congressional Record June
II and II, 1874. Why did the silver
people favor the law thenp Because a
silver dollar, 10 to 1. was worth $1.0a
in gold. Their bullion was worth more
to them not coined. Then where was
the s'crime Of 1892 1t was not a
crime then but only since 10 them.
Take one more fact: the total number
of silver dollars coined from 1872 to
1873 was S,031 ,23S. Moreover. this
act provided for the coinage of the
trade dollar. APO grains, and 30. 965, 1924
of them were coined. Is not the cry of
the silver people both false and absurd
SO far as it relates to the ''crime of
1872?
AID TO SILVER.
But the purchase and the coinage OF
the trade dollar is only small part OF
the aid the United States government
has rendered to silver or more directly
to the silver mine owners. Under the
Bland-Allison act of 1878 there were
coined 430,790,041 standard silver
dollars. Under its provisions the
United States purchased over 291, ,0O0,-
600 ounces of silver at cost of
$3OS. .279, ,260. 1t was hoped that this
enormous purchase would arrest the
decline of silver, but in spite of it
silver steadily declined in market value
and at the present price the loss to the
Government on the purchase of silver
under this act amounts to over
500, 100000.
But aid did not stop here. Under the
act of July IA, 1890, passed to arrest
the decline in the market value of sill
yer and to maintain if possible gold
and silver on parity with each other
at the ratio of 16 to 1, the Government
purchased 1853, 900. 900 ounces at a cost
of S156, 100000. The experiment was
costly, the Government being out over
S45, 900, 600, and the law was repealed
Nov. /, 1898, by a Congress largely
Democratic and called together the
first summer Of the present administra-
tion. President Cleveland recommen-
ded its repeal as panacea for the pres
ent business troubles. The vote was
230 years and 11S nays in the House
and 43 yeas to 80 nays in the Senate.
1t did not prove panacea and in two
and half years the Democratic Party
turns to the Populistic idea of the free
and unlimited coinage of silver. OF
course the silver mine owners favor it,
for they are directly benefited, but can
others see the benefitp
MONEY IN CIR RCULATIoN.
Senator Sherman gave out in his
speech the following very interesting
statement:
We had July 1, last, in actual circu-
lation among the people of the United
States, 81, 500, 725, 200 as stated by the
report of the Treasury Department,
which / will read