The oasis., 1896-08-22
WHO DEmoxorrzED SILVER.


 are pertinent questions to be an- swered for information of the Ameri- cab people just now. So many times has it been asserted that it was done in 1873, that most people believe that was the time. But the facts are that demonetizatlon of silver was practi- cally accomplished by a democratic congress in 1853, and that when the bill which did so was under discussion in congress the gentleman who had it in charge in the house, Mir. Dunham, declared it's objects were to establish the gold standard, and to reduce sil- yer to the position of subsidiary coin. In part he said
 "I repeat in reply to the gentleman we prOpOse to make tie silver subser- vient to the gold coins of the country. We intend to do what the best writ CTS on political economy, have ap- proved; what experience h&s demon strated to be best, to make but one standard of currency, and make all others subseryient to it. We intend to make the gold the standard coin. Wherever the experiment Of a stand ard of a single metal has beea tried 1t has proved eminently successful. h. deed, it is utterly impossible that you should long at time maintain adoub- le standard. The one or the other will appreciate in value when com pared witk the other. It will then command premium when exchanged for the other, when it ceases to be a currency and becomes merchandise. This was the case with gold before the act of 1854. It is now the case with silver. Gentlemen talk about a double standard of gold and silver as thing that actually exists and that we propose to change. We have had but single standard for the past three years; that has been and now is, gold We propose to let 1t re- main so, and adapt silver to it; to reg ulate 1t by it.
 "The value of coin, like the value of anything else, is jn proportion to the cost of production, or as some might chose to put it, in proportion to the supply and demand We are all aware that within the last few years 1t has required less labor than formerly to raise gold, while the cost of raising silver has remained about about the same. The quantity Of gold raised has been increased as conse- quence, and it has become cheaper when compared with silver" lSee ap- pendix to Vol. 90, Congressional Globe, pages 1901.
 The measure Mir. Dunham support ed reduced the weight of the fifty, the twenty-five and the ten cent pieces. The bullion value of the silver t..ey contained made them more profitable in the melting pot tha1 in coin, and they were reduced in weight, their coinage limited to government ac- count and their legal tender yaluc limited to five dollars, in order to keep them in circulation and remedy the scarcity of change, from which the country suffered.
 Again it has been asserted that the act of 1873 WAS snrreptiously put through congress, and that no one un- derstood it's effect. In fact it is an act of sixty-nlne sections, was com plete revision of the coinage laws from l792 down to that date, and was under consideration and debate for months before final adoption. Furthermore in that very debate it was asserted that the bill officially declared the gold dollar the unit of value, as 1t had been in actual commercial custom many years.
 On April 9, 1872, MT. Hooper in an elaborate speech making ten columns of the Congressional Globe, page 2306 vol. lO2, in explaining the provisions nf the bill said
 Section 16 reenactJ the provisions of the existing laws defining the sll- yer coins and their weights respective q =