Evening star., 1934-04-08

| bills that will do something for sill
ver." Some ill-natured citizen was
proposing recently that each of you
| be required to pass an elementary
! examination on the economics of any
| question you legislate on before you
be permitted to vote. This vas un-
kindly. evidently proposed with the
thought that it would greatly reduce
the votes on most issues. Another
| cynic has said that psychology is not
yet a practical science for the reason
that while it can tell us how a Con-
gressman's mind works. it cannot tell
us what we can do about it.
This sort of talk is unfair Un-
doubtedly man. of you are intelligent
and informed men, quite as we'll pre-
pared to understand a difficult eco
/ nomic problem as a captain of indus
/ try or a bank president. The trouble
| is that you have to pass upon the
most complex and vital industrial and
| financial issues without adequate time
| for study. You do not even have time
! to get the basic facts. About the
! best you can do is to send for some
expert witnesses. And. most unhap-
PLY. you manage to get before you
/ some very queer persons.
No Congress in the history of the
/ country has had as many advisers, or
| as unsatisfactory. as you have had
this session. You get the advice Of
wise and thoughtful men like o. M.
w. Sprague and Owen D. Young and
/ E w Kemmerer and then you get
| the advice of quite different experts,
| and you do not know what to do.
But even with all the difficulties un-
der which you labor. it can in fair
ness be said that there is not much
excuse for your being fooled by the
silver propaganda for full 60 years.
Lincoln's famous idea about not fool
ing all the people all the time Ger
tainly ought to apply to Congress.
Let's Look at Silver.
Let us look at this silver business
very briefly Here is what you have
been told about silver: That silver is
the money of half the world; that
silver dollars make an auxiliary re-
serve" for gold; that silver was for
merly the money of the plain people;
that raising the price of silver will
improve our trade with the Orient;
that raising the price of silver will
help China out of depression; that
1.-The crime of '73' destroyed the old
16-to-l ratio, reduced the volume OF
currency and mistreated silver. The
first statement about silver being the
money Of half the world has been
officially made by members OF your
Upper House literally hundreds OF
times.
Here are the simple. plain and un-
deniable facts: Silver is the money
of China only. with one-sixth OF tne
worlds population and 3 per cent OF
the worlds trade.
Every silver dollar coined and stored
in the Treasury vaults adds to the
liability of the Government. weakens
the gold standard and increases the
danger of governmental insolvency.
Silver has never been used in this
country, which has been on the gold
standard in fact since 1884 and in law
since 1873.
Raising the price of silver will not
improve our trade with the Orient;
raising the price of silver will hurt
China, which is bitterly opposed to it.
The law of 1873 merely confirmed
a condition that had existed since
1894.
Dangerous Coin.
The silver dollar is a debased, use
less and dangerous coin that has been
rejected by the people of this country
for exactly 100 years. The only time
it has been coined in any amount was
when, as in 1878, 1890. 1918 and 1898,
YOU were persuaded to give a subsidy
to the metal out of governmental
taxes The silver laws of 1873 and
1890 brought on the panic Of 1893
and started the tragic depression OF
that year.
There is no more reason in justice,
economics or history for buying silver
and piling it in the Treasury than
there is for buying cheese. There is
even more reason for giving a subsidy
to cheese, as the cheese industry is a
fairly important minor industry,
whereas there is no silver industry.
The metal is a mere by-product of
other industries. like sawdust. AS for
restoring" bimetallism at 16 to /, that
is simply a form of national financial
suicide. And yet 80 of you in the
Senate voted to visit this calamity
upon the Nation.
1t seems only fair to your conStitu-
ents that you should find out the ele-
mentary facts about silver before you
pass any more of these silver bills.
Your Congressional Library contains
many books that tell the whole
story. You have noticed that Sec
retary Morgenthau has sent Prof
Rogers to China to consult the Chi
nese farmers on this subject. This is
the funniest thing that our Treasury
has done so far. Undoubtedly it is
possible for Prof. Rogers to learn
much about silver. But China is the
wrong place. The nearest public
library will provide all the facts. And
If you want to know what is behind
this shouting for silver, the place to
go is Wall Street.
Consider the A. A. A.
The silver question is transparently
simple as compared with the problem
of regulating industry. AS has been
so aptly stated, you cannot hope to
make a hit every time you come to
bat. But it Is beginning to look as if
in this particular game against de-
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