Evening star., 1919-12-20
HEARING PROMISED
. ON SILVER COINAGE
Mr.. McF adden States Why
His Bill to Safeguard Cur
rency Is Needed.

ICiIVy 10 NCCUCUs
| Representative McFadden of Penn
/ sylvana has been promised hearing
soon after the Christmas recess before
the House banking and currency COM
mittee on his bill for safeguards for
| the silver currency. Chairman Platt
of thecommittee heartily indorses the
McFadden bill.
The Pittman act now on the statute
books authorizes the breaking up of
300.000,o0O worth of standard silver
/ dollars. and already 1854 900. 900 have
been thus broken up. The McFadden
bill removes the limit and calls for the
breaking up of all the standard silver
dollars. of which there are $450.0O0,-
| 600
Mr.. McFadden points out that when
silver reaches S1.29 per fine ounce it
! is profitable for the silversmith and
others to melt up the standard silver
dollars instead of buying the silver
bullion. Recently silver sold at a
higher figure than that.
Value of Subsidiary Coins.
The subsidiary silver coins. one-half
! and one-quarter dollars and ten-cent
pieces. contain about Z per cent less
silver than the standard silver dollars.
| The standard silver dollars has 412l y
grains. while two half-dollars con-
] tain 3S5 grains. When silver is worth
| traction over S1.3S, and it has reach
! ed S1.31 y. it would pay silversmiths
and others to melt up the subsidiary
| silver coins. of which there are S213.-
| 100000. This was actually done in
! 1852 when stamps were used as cur
| rency.
| The McFadden bill seeks not only
! to meet this condition, but is also
provides for minting the silver coins
! on an so per cent fine instead of 90
per cent fine basis He points out
| that Holland has already dropped to
| an 80 per cent basis from 92E per
cent. and to "a per cent for sub
sidiary coins.
! Explanation Of Measure.
| Mr.. McFadden says of his bill:
| From 1853 to 1873 few standard
silver dollars were coined, not be-
| cause there was no law authorizing
| their coinage. but because no silver
| bullion owners were fools enough to
| take 103 cents of silver bullion to the
| mint to be coined in exchange for a
! 100-cent dollar. The act of 1873 elm
| mated the standard silver dollar, as
| the law authorizing the coinage of
| that piece had become obsolete, yet
| that act has been characterized as the
! thievery and crime of all the ages.
| Before you can convict a person
of theft you must prove that he stole
| something of value. So you can't con-
| vict the Congress of 1878 of having
| 'demonetized' the standard silver dol
| lar, because none were in circulation
or in the Treasury. The eight mil
| lion which had been coined from the
! esta blishme of the mint in 1892 had
| gone out of circulation by the opera
tion of inexorable law. The act of
| 1873 was on the statute books for
| nearly three years before any COM
ment was made on it. and if silver
had not declined in price as result
| of it's increased production in the
I ms a n
| covered that crime.
| Immediately following the passage
| of the silver act of 1S7? the worlds
production of silver surpassed any
| thing ever heard of before. 7 have
not at hard the figures for the worlds
production at that time. but ] chance
| to have those for the United States,
| which are as follows: For the twenty
| years from 1874 to 1893 inclusive. the
| average annual production of silver
| in the United states was s52,11ss7s,
as compared with less than 100000
| for the ten-year period from 1S49 to
| 1858. OF course, silver declined in
price during the latter period at a
| rate never heard of before, and such
| decline was due to such increased pro-
| duction. and that alone.
Silver Purchase Acts.
| THAT brought on the silver agita-
| ton which resulted in the paternal-
| istic legislation of that period-the
| silver purchase acts of the 70s and
| of 1890. under which the government
| was required to purchase the bullion
! and either coin it into standard silver
| dollars or issue certificates against it.
And the governments production in
| some of those years was equal to the
| whole of that years production of
| silver in this country. OF course that
| had the effect of stimulating the price
| of silver. but 1t was only temporary.
The effect was the same as if the
government had purchased the Amer
| lean production of wheat and stored
it in warehouses and issued certifi-
| Gates against it. The government had
| carried this ton1foolery to such an ex-
| tent that the whole world had be-
gun to dfscredit our ability and good
, faith in maintaining the gold stand
ard, Notwithstanding the fact that
| the government had sold several hun
| dred million of bonds to buy gold to
| bolster up its silver policy. So the only
| thing to do WAS to put stop to the
| further purchase of silver. The Fifty
| third Congress did put a stop to it
| by repeating the purchasing clause of
| the Sherman act of 1890, and the Six
| ty-sixth Congress should repeal the
| repurchasing clause of the Pittman
| act, or else we will have a repetition
| of the silver agitation, which cursed
| the country for nearly quarter of a
| ncetury. My bill provides for just that
| thing.
| Section 3514 of the Revised Statutes
| establishes the standards for both
| gold and silver coins at 90 per cent
| fine My bill re-enacts that portion
| of that section which pertains TO gold
| and provides that our subsidiary sill
yer coins shall be coined on an so
| per cent standard. That is to say, our
| gold coins shall continue to contain
| go per cent of gold and 10 per cent of
| alloy, while our subsidiary siver coins
| shall contain 80 per cent of silver and
| 20 per cent of alloy"