The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-01-28
FINANCE WAS DISCUSSED
SENATOR NELSON MADE AN ARGU.
 MENT ON THE BOND BILL.

He is Opposed to Free and Unlimited Coin-
 age of Silver Under Existing Conditions
 Must Stand at the Head of the Industrial
 World.
 Washington, Jan. 27.-As soon as the journal of Friday last was read, the credentials of Frank J. Cannon and Ar thur Brown as senators-elect from the new state of Utah were presented, read and placed on file and the new senators were then escorted to the vice presi- dents desk and took and subscribed of senators now in office is S9, there being still a vacancy from the state of Delaware.
 Among the petitions presented and re- ferred to committees was one from the wife of John l.. Waller, held in prison by the French authorities, in which she declares that such impris sonment is "a crime against justice" and that, if her husband had been British sub jetc he would have been released long since. She prays congress that some suitable and immediate action be taken for his release.
 On motion of MT. Mitchell, rep, of Oregon, the drawing took place between thetWo Utah senators to determine their relative terms of service. Two papers of equal size were placed in a box the one marked number one and the other number three. Number one in- dicated the long term ending March 3, 1S99 and number three the short term ending March 3, 1897. Each of the sena- tors having drawn one of them, the two papers were handed to and opened by the vice president, who thereupon announced that number one 0he long term) had been drawn by Mir. Cannon and number three Che short term) by MT. Brown.
 Mir. Hansbrough, rep, of North Da- kota, then took the floor and proceeded with a. speech relative to matters per- taining to the department of agricul- ture
 At 2 o'clock the vice president inter rupted MT. George and laid before the senate the house bond bill (with the free silver substitute)
 MT. Nelson, rep, of Minnesota, ad- dressed the senate.
 MT. Nelson said that the free and un- limited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 by the United States alone at this time and under existing condi- tions would destroy the last vestige and hope of genuine biemtallism and would reduce us to pure state of silver mono- metallism with Mexico, China and Japan as our chief metallic money associa tes. During the seventy years from 1792 to 1862 we have, except as to subsidiary silver, bimetallic free coinage, but in no sense binletallic circulation. Techni- cally and as a matter of law the gov ernment could stand on silver as legal tender. But the government was charged with the duty of maintaining bimetal- lie circulation, and could not afford at all times to stand on its technical right, but must always be ready to pay in the deader metal. It was not true, MT. Nell son said, that prices were gauged by the volume of silver in circulation. At no time in our history had we had so large a volume of silver currency in circulation as during the last three years and yet prices and values had scarcely ever been so low as during these years, nor had We ever before had any greater business depressions. In conclusion MT. Nelson said
 Our form of government our climate and our resources, and above all the restless energy and vigor of our people, entitle us to stand at the head of the industrial and commercial world. But we can never hope to reach that high plane by reducing our currency to the level of Mexico, China and Japan. If we would win and conquer we must ad- here to the universal money standard of the world Anything else than that is unworthy of us and will place us at great disadvantage now and in times to come'
 MT. Baker, dem. of California, next addressed the senate. He strongly fa- vored the restoration of silver to general currency on the same terms as gold. The use of both metals, he argued was necessary to supply the money necessa- ry to do the business of the world Mir Bacon argued that there was no authority for the issue of bonds, and that if there were such a law 1t ought to be repealed.
 Mr. Hill, dem, of New York, asked Mir Bacon whether it was quite fair to charge that the maintenance of the gold standard was the sole object of the bond issues. Would it not be more &C., curate to say that the issue of bonds was intended to maintain the greenback currency?
 Mr Bacon answered the last question by a negative and quoted from the pres- ident's message to prove his point. To maintain a gold standard there was not only a loss Of untold wealth in the paralysis of business, but hundreds of millions were added to the government s indebtedness.
 MT Bacon said if the government per sisted in ignoring silver as money and in redeeming it's obligations only in gold there would be in a. few years five hun dred millions locked up in the treasury in the shape of greenbacks and treas- ury notes and the circulation of the country would be diminished to that ex- tent.
 MT. Bacon pointed to France as an il- lustration of how silver and gold re- main in circulation on practically equal terms. At the close of MT. Bacon's s speech MT. Clark. rep, of Wyoming, obtained the floor.
 MT. Lodge, rep, of Massachusetts, gave notice of an amendment to the bond bill providing for the issuance of s100, 100000 in 3 per cent. bonds to pro-