Year: 1879

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The discussion of the new silver bill
has become red hot in Congress-. We
have frequently called attention to tho
Importance ofthe coinage laws, and have
endeavored to show that all material
public interests are largely controlled by
those laws. We have urged the import:
ance of the silver question even when the
political parties seemed to be asleep IN
regard to it, and we are highly gratiied
to know that Congress has at last begun
to .agitate this exceedingly important
matter. The most vital material inter-
ests are involved in the question, inter-
osts so great that if people fully realized
their extent, the question would cause
nearly as much excitement as a war
Our limited space will not allow us tc
recount in this article the M O nstrous
frauds that have been perpetrated in re-
latlon to the coinage of silver, but we
will present some facts bearing upon the
subject, Our readers are aware, that the
present law in regard to the coinage OF
silver was passed in February, 1878, was
vetoed by President Hayes, and was
passed by Congress over his veto and be-
came law. The silver required to make
a standard dollar (4l23 grains of stand
ard silver) was then worth only about
ninety cents, and the President in his
veto message based his objections to the
bill on this one fact, as being detriment-
al to the interests of government bond
holders and the creditor class in general.
In the veto message he said:


GAS to all debts heretofore contracted, the
silver dollar should be made legal tender
only at its market value. The standard of
value should not be changed except by con-
sent of both parties to the contract"


Now, note that carefully. He wanted
a special provision that would make a
silver dollar worth no more for the pur-
pose of paying a debt than it was worth
in bullion, but was perfectly willing that
the silver dollar should be legal tender
at its face value to pay poor man for a
days work. At that rate, and at the
present price Of silver bullion, If you
owe a banker q hundred dollars on an
old note, it will take 12O silver dollars to
pay the debt but if you owe poor man
a hundred dollars for work that he has
just done, one hundred silver dollars will
pay him. Ifhonesty requires that debts
be paid on the basis of their value in
bullion when contracted, we presume
that the principle ought to be adhered to
when it happens to be in favor of the
poor debtor. Well, let US see. In July,
1864, greenback dollar was worth
about Ia grains of standard silver. A
man who then borrowed thousand dol
lars in greenbacks got only the equiva~
lent Of $3.50 IN bullion. Six years after
wards q greenback dollar was worth 338
grains of standard silver, and the poor
debtor referred to had to pay the equiva~
lent Of $500 IN bullion, more than double
the amount he borrowed, besides having
paid the annual interest. And the man
who borrowed thousand dollars in 1870,
payable in December, 1878, found that
the principal was equal to $3.50 more in
bullion at the latter date than it was
when he borrowed the money. But was
President Hayes at that time in favor of
a law requiring that the payment of
debt should be based upon its value in
bullion when the money was borrowed? ?
o, no. That brilliant conception never
entered his astute brain until it was need
ed to assist the wealthy money lenders to
extort little more from the scanty earn
ings Of honest toll. He, and the politi-
cal party that he represents, were in fa>
vor of laws that increased the value of a
debt running for fifteen years from July,
1864, at,,the rate Of one-eighth Of the orr
iginal sum each year, on an average.


But as soon as there is any posi- bil1ty
that the bankers and bondholders may be
compelled to accept in the payment of
debts silver coins, the bullion value of
which is not quite equal to their legal
tender value, President Hayes even goes
to the extent of interposlng his veto to
prevent such result, although he never
thought of such thing as protecting the
poor debtor class from an evil of the
same nature, but of much greater extent.


We have not yet seen the full text of the
new silver bill recently introduced in the
House, but we learn from the daily pa
pers that it provides for the unlimited


coinage of silver, and the unlimited issue
Of silver certificates upon uncoined metal


at the rate of one dollar for 412} grains
standard. The metal is to be coined and
held by the government for the redemp-
tion of the certificates. The certificates
will circulate as money, having the same
value as the silver coin they represent.
The. result. will be, if the bill becomes a


law, that the volume of money in circu-


lation will be greatly increased, every
branch of industry will receive new
impetus, the debtor class will find 1t
much easier to pay their debts, and there
will bea considerable advance in the val
ue and price of everything. In fact it is
just what the country needs. Gold will,
Of, course, cease to circulate, but there is
comparatively little now in circulation,
and that is matter of not much conse>
quence, In Congress the Greenbackers
and nearly ali the Democrats are III favor
Of the bill, and the Republicans are
against it. It will probably pass both
branches of Congress, but the President
will doubtless veto it, and thus deprive
the country of the beneficial results that
would otherwise follow. Congress now
shows disposition to enact laws; that
will, restore. prosperity to the country ;
but:as long as a Republican occupies the
Presidential chair, no bill that is not ap-
proved by the money lenders can become
q law, except by being passed over a veto.