The silver state. [volume] (Unionville, Nev.) 1870-1903, 1902-02-13
BARTINE ON SILVER ISSUE.
Former Nevada Congressman Writes of Hill
Measure Now Before the House.

Measure NOW DeIoIc t0e house.
In my former letter / made some gem
aral reference to the inconsistency of
those who broke away from the Repub-
lican party upon the silver question in
returning to that party upon the the
ory that the issue is dead one. 1t may
NOT be untimely for me to advert to
the matter little more specifically,
for the reporting of the Hill bill to the
House shows that while some of our
former silver champions may be will
ling to consider the question az settled,
the extreme gold men are not, and new
er will be, until the last legal tender
silver dollar is eliminated from our
| vdes that the silver bullion now in
the treasury and standard dollars al
ready coined, so far as they may be
necessary. shall be coined into subsid-
larry coins-that is to say into half-dol-
lars and smaller pieces, the legal ten
der of which is limited to five dollars
The bill also makes the standard sill
yer dollars redeemable in gold
The avowed object of the measure,
as stated by Mr.. Hill himself, is ulti-
mately to get rid of the silver dollars
now existing, and to prevent any more
from being coined. The gold men are
looking anxiously forward to the time
when the flood tide of prosperity may
become an ebb tide, and the money
question again become urgent and pres
sing. They know that under such con-
ditions the presence of 600. 600, ,000 silver
dollars in our monetary system would
naturally suggest the propriety of coin
inc more of them; but If we have no
silver coinage except our small change,
they feel that the position of the sill
yer men would be greatly weakened.
and that the argument could be plaus-
ibly made that there would be no more
propriety in coming full tender money
out of silver than to make it of some
other substance.
Furthermore. as Mr.. Shafroth inti-
mates in his admirable report against
| the bill, the fact that the silver dol
Agrs were redeemable in gold. would
| their retention. 1t requires no more
gold to redeem a paper dollar than it
does a silver one, and the silver dol
lars sold as bullion, even at greatly
-.
for currency purposes TO last the coun
try for ages. But it is useless to dis
cuss this point. The purpose of the bill
is to give the finishing stroke to silver
as money metal. and such purpose is
frankly admitted by Mr.. Hill. So it is
| by the Eastern gold standard press. the
| only objection urged to it in that quar-
ter being that the bill will not wipe
out these dollars quickly enough.
This is a matter of grave import to
the people OF Nevada. who still have
silver interests which need protection.
Even If none of the silver dollars were
actually sold as bullion (Which many
Of them doubtless would be-, the enact
ment of the Hfll bill into law would
mean that the United States would not
buy another ounce of silver for sub
sdiary coinage during the next half
century. The market for the silver
miners product would be limited to
u Just that extent, and that the price of
Y the metal would be depressed. even be-
low the present miners figures. is so
6evident that it goes without saying
Nor need we stop here. If even one
fourth of the silver dollars should be
I. melted down and sold as bullion, ii
/ would practically destroy the silver
market, for a considerable time, at
i least. But leaving that contingency
n out to view, there can be no question
i that the example of the United States
would be contagious, leading to similar
action in other countries. and the drop
in silver might easily be such as to
! close every American silver mine, except
those in which the metal is only by
product
The demonetization of silver was the
most insensate and cruel legislative act
that ever took place in the United
States. It was body blow at our
national prosperity. Every line of pro-
duetive industry felt it, and for years
We We're literally wallopinp in the