The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-02-06

publican party. and by its sole action
. Neither the one circumstance nor the
other can affect either the law or tho
4 equity of it. Because sometimes we
have 1araded before ~ the fact, as was
the case when the restitution. was origi
nally considered, that only some eight
:. million standard silver dollar pieces
were coined by the United States prior
to 1873, an argument is made that coin
as used in the bonds could not have had
reference to silver, since so little had
been coined, and it is attempted to bt
REINFORCED by the declaration that
Thomas Jefferson. when President
stopped the coinage of silver dollar
pieces.
These are but"half facts, and can only
deceive the ignorant who do not know
the whole fact. Jefferson never had any
legal right to stop and never attempted
to stop at any time the coinage Of silver.
He favored the coinage of silver. lie
participated in the construction of the
act that coined it freely; during his adj
ministration all he could get OF 1t was
coined freely, and he desired to get and
to coin more. He wanted more of 1t,
and hence caused an order to lie ISSUED,
as was his rightful discretion 10 coin
it into smaller denominations than dol
lars for the reason that our dollar pieces
contained so much silver that they flow
ed away from us into European mlnts,
I where less metal was put into the com.
While it is true we coined only some
SS,00OOO0 into dollar pieces, it is also
true that we coined nearly hundred
million in lesser denominations; and it
is also true that at the very TING When
silver was dcmonctizcd in 1873, we were
coming more silver dollar pieces than
ever before in the history of the country.
1t is II historical fact that when General
Grant was president of the United
States and unwittingly signed the bill to
dcmonetize silver he was in contempla-
lion of silver to come into the mint to
help him to execute the act funding the
bonds of the United States and TO per-
feet lis plan for the resumption of
specie payments.
He saw what the act meant He
knew what specie meant. He looked 10
the coinage of his country, silver and
gold, to enable him TO execute the law;
and he was the NEST aStonished man in
all this land when there was related to
him the fact which he had never before
known or discovered, that the party TO
which he belonged. the party to which he
was the chieftain. had silently dropped
out Of the coinage that silver dollar
which he looked to for rescuing his
countrymon from debt.
Ernest Seyd has explained this matter
of the little coinage of silver in para
graph in one of his works, which l beg
leave to cite as pertinent to this debate:
sill ura WINS nj
ways liable to expectation, for the simple
reason that it contained an undue pro
portion of silver. In all countries where
the double valuation prevails the rela-
tive proportions of value between gold
and silver stands at / to 151a, and the
market value of silver in countries
where it is not standard give on the
average the same result. In the United
States alone the rate taken was 1 part
of gold to 16 of silver (15.9SS37), the
proportion resulting from the eagle at
25S and the silver dollar at -412l2 grains.
s'The dollar, therefore, contained 3 1-3I
1920 per cent. more silver than it
ought to have contained according TO its
nominal value. No wonder then that the
dollar was rapidly exported and that no
one found inducement TO bring silver to
the mints for coinage And let it be un-
derstood that the supply of gold had lit
tile or nothing To do with the effect OF
this. Long before the discovery of gold
in California, ever since 1887, has the
effect of this premium ON the United
States silver dollar made itself mann
fest
I'm exchange for it the foreigner need
not have supplied god. Other COM
modities served the purpose of realizing
elsewhere tlle large profit which the
United States gave to the exporter of
lher silver ccin. Much that has been
doubtful. peculiar. and unsatisfactory in
the history of the United States cur
rency between 1887 and 1850 owes cts
origin to this astounding mistaken the
part of the Government, which must, as
every one can see, have given rise to
general Reorganization of the currency
and to disappointment in the capacity
of the country to retain metallic cur
rency.
Il go further and say that it was the
cause why America was obliged to
make so large a use of paper money,
with all it's evils of unequal interests,
extravaganza habits and expenditure. -
Seyd ON Metallic Currency, pages 81 and
50.
If interest rates on our bonds have
been reduced we alaye paid for this re-
duction of interest in more ways than
one. First. by agreeing to pay them in
coin and not in legal tender paper money.
Forty per cent OF the principal is
pretty good price for the reduction of
/ or . per cent in interest. Second, by
extending the time for the payment of
the principal and insuring the bond
holder "a long instead of u short invest
ment. Instead of ms suffering by 1T Inc
Olas been benefited by it. SO far at
least We have voluntarily and gratuit-
ously paid him in gold, and that we have
paid him in gold is a fact eXtraneOrus to
our engagement, eXtraneouS to law, eX-
! tlaneous to equity, but fact neyerthe-
less which should excite his gratitude
for the past instead of wlhetting his
greed for the future
Mr. President, | will read, as apropos
of this line of my remarks, from the pen
of Prof. John Clark Ridpath:
Besides" says he, the reduction OF
interest has been u reduction only In
name. I'm TO case has the reduction
been made until the value of the dollar
of the payment lleis been so enlarged as