The silver state. [volume] (Unionville, Nev.) 1870-1903, 1902-06-02
HOSTILITY OF REPUBLICANS.
How That Party Would Defeat the Friends of
Silver

TWO hours general debate emphasizes the
hostility of the Republican party to silver
and its insincerity in dealing with the
money question. Not daring to make the
! silver dollar specifically redeemable in
/ gold that provision of the original bill was
/ taken out.
The bill provides for coinage of bull
lion now In the Treasury into subsidiary
nieces instead of dollars, and then as
m,blie necessities may demand silver dol
lars the Secretary of the Treasury to de-
terrn,ne when such necessity exists and
the nature of the necessity. Thus the ex-
Dtant TO which the volume of standard dol
lars may be reduced is to depend entire
" upon the Judgment of the Secretary of
Treasury.
Then by the practices of the Treasury
Department all of the fractional coin will
be redeemable in gold.
The pet hobby of Mr.. Hill, who is
pressing the bill, is total elimination Of
silver dollar, and this Is merely a step in
tended to secure the desired end. A Sec
retary regarding the silver dollars as
menace TO our finance system would aim
TO get rid of them as rapidly as possible
by converting them into smaller coin. II
these latter became superabundant; the
next step would be to melt them and sell
them as bullion.
The speeches in favor of the bill. all
made by Republicans. breathed a spirit
Of intense hostility to silver and the New
the Republicans like a red flag in the face
OF bull Mr.. Grow offered an amend
ment providing that the subsidy coins
should be half-dollars, quarters. ten and
hye-cent pieces and that they should be of
the same proportionate weight as the dol
lar No Republican opposition was mani
j tested TO this but when Mr.. Newlands
proposed an amendment to the amend
>sent making such coins full legal tender
II was at once met by a point of order
that it was not germane. Mr.. Hill at
tackled IT, while Mr.. Newlands, Shafroth
and others on the Democratic side de-
Tended it.
The fight was sharp and pretty one,
but 1t was made so clear that the amend.
ment was germane that 1t was impossible
for the chairman of the Committee o
the Whole to rule 1t out Then, amid, der
isive shouts on the Democratic side OF
too late" MIR. Grow attempted to with
draw his amendment in order to cut out
the Newlands amendment. OF course he
was too late and the chair was obliged TO
so hold
When the vote was taken on the New
lands amendment the division was on
straight party lines. every Republican
voting against it, thus placing the party
on record In favor of a measure which, If
it becomes a law, will destroy the market
for silver In this country for subsidiary
coinage as long as there is a silver dollar
in the treasury. and gradually reduce six
hundred millions of full legal tender now
existing to the grade of token money,
having a debt paying function only in
sums of not more than five dollars in one
payment.
As a last effort Mr. Shafroth moved
to recommit the bill to the committee
with instructions to report bill simply
for coinage of the bullion now In the
treasury into subsidiary coin; this would
provide for more than sixty million dol |
lars additional coin of smaller denomina-
tions, but 1t left the standard dollar un-
affected and every Republican, except
Sutherland of Utah and Mondell of wy
oming, voted against the motion.
A rather curious incident connected with
the final action of the House was the cir
cumstance that Senator Stewart sat upon
the floor and saw his Republican friends
vote as unit in favor of closing the de-
bate in ten minutes upon a bill which is
intended as the initial move for the utter
destruction of the silver dollars now
coined.
H II. BARTINE.
.