The Cordova daily times., 1921-04-27
Senator Pullman Relates
 Lessons That Led U. :. to
 Adopt Silver Purchase Act

l lowing statement by Senator Key Pittman, explaining the reasons that led the United States to enact the | Pitman silver purchase act, and the unlikelihood of its early repeal, is one of general interest.
 Neither the bill nor the purchas- ing clause will be repealed, because, in the first place, it would be moral ly wrong, and, in the second place, there are sufficient western senators to defeat any such attempt. In fact, any such attempt would be such violation of the moral obligations of the government to the silver produc ing section of the country that the senators from such sections would be justified in conducting an open fili- buster. No amendment and no bill ! can pass the United States senate in the face of such a serious and in tense filibuster.
 But, as to the moral grounds. In April, 1917, Great Britain had to have large quantity of silver to use in the redemption of her silver notes is1 Indian. It was frankly ad- mitted by the British representatives that unless this silver was supplied for redemption there would probably be revolution in India. A revolu- tion in India at that time might have changed the whole result of the war in Europe and undoubtedly would have at least long delayed our vic tory
 "There was only one place to ob- tain the silver and that was from the coined silver dollars in the treas ury of the United States, which were held there as security for the silver certificates issued against them. The silver could not be used except by authority of congress. The admins traton realized that the dumping of three or four hundred millions of dollars worth of silver On the mar kets of the world would have tendency to long depress the market price of silver. They were aware that western senators and western representatives would oppose, and justly oppose, the dumping of this silver on the market unless at the same time there was a provision made to protect the American pro ] ducer against loss resulting therefrom "The government, therefore, en- ] tered into frank discussion of the matter with the senators and repre- I sentatives from the silver producing 1 states. It was evident that no bill could be passed without their ap- proval. These senators and represen- 1 tatives were patriotic, and were i'm case. They only insisted upon the silver being sold to Great Britain at a fair price, and that with the money obtained from Great Britain an equal amount of silver be pur. chased from American producers with which the silver dollars would be replaced.
 Tt was finally agreed that our government should sell not to exceed
 three hundred and fifty millions oi the silver dollars at dollar ar
 ounce net to the government, and that it should purchase American pro
 duced silver when rendered to il at a dollar an ounce until an amount of silver had so been produced equal
 to that which was sold.
 "The government neither made nor
 lost anything in the transaction
 The government is not paying any
 bonus to silver producers. If any
 bonus is being paid, it is being paid
 by Great Britain, because our gov
 ernment is purchasing the American
 silver at a dollar an ounce with Brit
 ish money.
 "The whole matter was the result of the solemn agreement between the
 executives of the government and
 the congress of the United States
 and the act received an unanimous
 vote of the committee on banking
 and currency of the senate and the
 committee of banking and currency
 of the house of representatives and
 was passed by both bodies with hardly a dissenting voice.
 "It matters not if the Pittman act
 does guarantee that the price of sil
 yer does not fall below a dollar an
 ounce for many years. This protec
 tion was we'll earned and the coun
 try does not suffer by reason of it
 Any further talk of the repeal of the
 Pittman act or the purchase clause
 in it must be either the result ot
 ignorance or a premeditated notion to