The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1896-09-23

Carl Schurz' great speech at Chicago
is generally regarded as one OF the
most effective blows against Organism
so far delivered in the campaign. His
treatment OF the brazen falsehoods in
vented by the silver agitators concern
ing the circumstances under which the
act Of 70 was passed is especially tell
ing. The speech should be read by
every honest truth-seeker Mr.. Schurz
was a member OF the senate which
passed the act ~suspending the free
coinage Of the silver dollar, and on this
subject he said. in part, at Chicago:
But 1 hear myself asked, If this is
so, why was this act of 1873 passed Sc
eretIy. surreptitiously, stealthily? For
silver orators nave been persistently
DINING into the popular a for many
years, until millions believed it, the
story that the silver dollar was as
sassinated' through the law Of 1873 by
some dark. corrupt plot. This fable has
heen so often and 50 authoritatively
disproved that l am unwilling 70 take
it up again in detail. Senator Sherman
did that recently in a most conclusive
manner. l will only add that l was a
member Of the senate at the time and
know whereof / affirm: and l emphat-
icaHy pronounce all the stories about
the act Of 1873 being passed surrepti-
tiously; about senator's and members
being somehow hypnotized, so that
they did not know what they were do
ing; about some Englishmen being on
the ground with much money to pro-
mote the demonstration Of silver, and
so on, as wholly and unqualifedly
false. l wish to be ~scrupulously cour-
teous to my opponents. But as a con-
scientious student Of contemporaneous
history I am bound to say that in the
forty years during which l have been
an attentive observer Of public affairs,
L have never witnessed nor heard Of
such INSCRIPTIONS, shameless, persist
ent, %audacious, cumulative, gigantic ly-
ing as has been and is now lone with
regard to the act Of 1873. its origin,
its nature, and it's consequences
How did it happen that the act Of
1879 did not attract more popular al
tention at the time? Simply because
the dropping Of the obsolete silver dollar
from the coinage was regarded by ey-
arvhody toEip0 al, ir..-.g. q, .,oL
matters as the mere recording Of an ac-
complished fact, az a matter Of course,
just as much so as a law would have
been providing that the old 1intlock
should no longer be used in the army.
And how did it happen that a few
years afterward such an uproar arose
about it? The reason for that, too,
was very simple. In 1873 the market
value Of silver, although already yield
ing, was still high. The silver in the
silver dollar was worth $1.O2. The sill
yer mine owners did not care to take
S102 to the mint and get only 81 back
for it. He was then enthusiastic for
gold. But a few years later silver had
declined in market value considerably.
and when the silver miner might have
aiken 80 cents worth Of silver to the
mint and got for it 81 he was enthu-
siastic for silver, and he grew more
and more enthusiastic the more silver
declined in the market, and the more
profit free coinage would have given
him. The silver mine owner is no doubt
d great and good man, but he is not
the most disinterested Of philanthro-
pists. He knows on which side his
bread is buttered. Finding the act Of
1873 in his way, he discovered that act