Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-04-08


monetized by the act of 1873" as you
stated. The latter act declared that 1.-The
silver coins of the United States shall be
a trade dollar, a half dollar or 50-cent
piece, a quarter dollar or 25-cent piece,
and dime or Decent piece, and the
weight of the trade dollar shall be APO
grains Troy; the weight of the half dol
lar shall be IL grammes and one-half of
a gramme; the quarter and the dime
shall be respectively one-haf and one
fifth of the weight of the half dollar"
and then they were continued as legal
tender in payment of debts of not over
Sc, and the act of March Z, 1875, declared
that 1.-THE silver coins of the United
States shall be a legal tender at their
nominal value for not exceeding So In any
one payment" 49, e.as
The act of 1873 demonetized the silver
dollar of 4121s grains by dropping 1t from
coinage 1t substituted the trade dollar,
and made 1T and the subsidiary coins
legal tender for sums not exceeding S..
1t did not limit the coinage of the trade
dollar, and left the amount of subsidiary
coinage to the discretion of the secre-
tary, where it stood under the old law.
So you see, you were In error when you
stated that subsidiary silver was de
based and demonetized by the act of
1872 No coin Is demonetizeds as long as
it remains a legal tender in payment of
debts The statement that the act of
1873 provided for the free coinage of gold
was d DlSldhe. lU6s dCl tiAtQ Lie COiii-
age charges on gold at one-fifth of per
cent, and for the coinage of silver trade
dollars the charge was fixed by the direc-
tor of the mint, with the approval of the
secretary of the treasury, just as under
the old law. The charge for the coinage
of gold was repealed by the act of jan
uary IA, 1875. The $100,000,000 of sub
sidiary coin, which you claim was de-
based and demonetized by the act of :
1879" was not thus treated at all and has
Tho ara1xr alaa 10 in
silver coinage by the act of 1873 was to
substitute the coinage of the trade dol
lar, containing seven and a half more
grains of silver, for the dollar of the
daddies" and to make silver coins le-
gal tender for only debts not exceeding
SIS in amount. This limitation, or re-
strietion, of the legal tender quality of
the dollar was the most damaging blow
to silver. The subsidiary coins remained
as heretofore. The continued coinage
of the trade dollar would have given us
free coinage, for that was as free as any
other coinage. But after the passage of
the Bland-Allison act, returning to the
coinage of the dollar of the daddies,
the trade dollar was called in and re-
coined. The Bland-Allison act did ev-
erything for silver which its most ardent
advocate has ever asked, except that the
law limited the amount to not more than
| 100000 and not less than $2,oO00O0 per
month, and did not make 1T free to indi-
viduals, but coined 1t on government ac-
count
When I stated that 1--WE never had
law authorizing the free and unlimited
coinage of silver" was in error. There
has been such a law, but the amount of
silver coined during its existence was
so small that 1t was infinitesifnal COM
pared with the amount coined by the gov
eminent under the Bland-Allison act,
which limited the amount. Apd when
coinage was declared free, with small
avpbanQa DaintaUp the
amount of silver in the dollar was worth
as much, and sometimes more than a
gold dollar but free and unlimited COIN
age of silver dollars at the ratio of 16 to
now, when the silver dollar is worth in
the markets of the world only 81 cents,
would indeed "be a new and untried ex-
pertinent in this country" AS long as the
metal in gold dollar and a silver dollar,
when melted, We're of the same CONNER
cial value the free and liberal coinage OF
both was highly beneficial to us. Now
the gold dollar, whether coined or melted,
is worth dollar in every country in the
world, while the silver dollar If melted,
Is worth but So cents In its coined state
| Ii passes as a law dollar and a CONNER
cial dollar only so far as people have con-
fidence that the United States will main
tain it's law of parity and make all our
dollars exchangeable., But the silver dol
lare when melted, ceases to be either a
law dollar or a commercial one. ut is
then lump of silver bullion worth all
over the world So cents and no more.
Such a change In our coinage laws as
you advocate would indeed be a new and
untried experiment.
The free coinage advocates honestly be-
lieve that free coinage by this country
Hon all over the world to $1.29 an ounce,
and thus make the silver dollar Of equal
commercial value to gold. II II believed
this would vote and work for free coin