Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-07-23

to Mr. Hayes to veto the bill, and he
said the request was in behalf of the
depositors i'll his bank, who held bonds
to the amount Of $1J,O0O,OOO. The
President vetoed it, and it was passed
over his veto by two thirds of both
/ houses of Congress. believe in Civ
ing credit to all to whom credit is due.
When President Hayes vetoed that
bill, there was a member of Congress
from Ohio, who was since elected
President of the United States-whO
voted to pass that bill over the Presi-
dents veto.
"At that time the silver in the sill
yer dollar was not worth as much as
the dollar. If you melted silver
dollar there was loss of several cents.
And there were people there who said
it was reputation to pay the debts OF
the government in silver dollars,
which, when melted, lost some OF their
value. So in order to pledge the gov
ernment to a proper course. Mat
thews, man from Ohio, introduced
a resolution. 1t declared that this
government had the right to pay its
coin obligations in either gold or sill
yer. 1t declared that even though
silver WAS of less value in bullion
form than it was at its coinage value.
this government had the right to make
these silver dollars a full legal tender
to pay its obligations with. They said
it was not repudiation; it was not a
breach of contract, and when that
resolution passed the House l rejoice
to be able to state that the President
of the United States was recorded as
being in favor of the right of the gov
ernment to pay its obligations in
either gold or silver.
The matter went along until 1890.
In 1890 another effort was made to
pass free coinage bill. At that time
it went though one of the houses, but
could not get through the other, and a
compromise was effected, and we
had, rs n result, what is known rs the
Sherman law. 1t did not provide for
the free and unlimited coinage of sill
yer, but it provided for the purchase
of twice as much silver as the former
bill compelled; and while on this
point, want to show you again the
deception that was practiced.
"That bill was named the Sherman
bill, after the Senator from Ohio. The
Senator from Ohio-Mr. Sherman
made speech in support of the bill,
which you will find in the Congress-
iondl Record for succeeding genera
tions to read. In that speech he went
on to explain that an increasing peo-
pie needed an increasing currency.
He went on to tell how much the
population was increasing, how much
money we had, and furnished the esti-
mate of how much the increase of
population and increase of business
demanded of money to meet it. But
he said that the demand for money
increased much faster than the pop
ulation, because population was only a
factor. Industry must be considered
as we'll as population, and he called
attention to the fact that the national
bank notes were being retired, and
that it would take $54, ,00O, 900 year,
the amount provided by the Sherman
law, to keep pace with the population,
and in order to make good the retire
ment OF national bank notes. This
was the argument, and when the Sher-
man law was framed the American
people was given to understand that it
was to furnish an increasing quantity
of money. And when that BIZ was
before Congress and the present Pres
ident of the United States made a
speech in its defense, he made it on
the ground that the money then being
furnished by the Bland-Allison act
was not sufficient, and that the Sher-
man act was good because it gave the
people more money annually than the
Bland-Allison act provided. But as
soon as that act was passed, the people
who were opposed to silver as money
began to conspire to repeal it. And
Sherman, in his book recently issued,
entitled, John Sherman's Recollec-
tions,' states that while he helped to
pass the bill, he would have been
willing to vote for its repeal the next
day, if it could have been repealed
without substituting the free coinage
of silver it its place. After praising
the bill because it gave the people an
increasing money of $54,OOO,OOO a
year, he stated that he would have
voted to repeal it, and take, away this
$54 900 600 they needed, and he did do
it when the time came. He voted to
repeal the Sherman law uncondition-
ally, and left no provision for increas-
ing their money for the increasing
people.
al speak of these few little things
in order to let you see what arguments
are used in support of the bill. They
started to repeal the Sherman law
Did it go before the people, and they
make demand with their ballots fol-
its unconditional repeal? Not at all
There was no issue made before the
voters of the United States for the re-
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