CONGRESS. (FREE COINAGE.) 





. i.o Secretary of the Treasury IB hereby 



' ni<l .lirc.-tcd to issue Treasury notes of 

 .i.ih 1 . lv>o, to uii amount equal 

 i-t \aluc of the liullion made from the 

 now iii tin- Treasury, ami of the bullion 

 from other trade dollars, and also upon 

 value- of 10,000,000 of the iilrii'li-.l and 

 i.-urrent subsidiary silver coin now in 



'.at paragraph 8 of chapter cecxxvii of the 

 to tin- K. -vised Statutes of the United 

 . i-.i.-li rc-iuiri's that refining and parting of 

 led on at the mints of the United 

 1 at t lie assay office at New York, be amended 

 Miir, after (lie word u law "in the fourth line, 

 .viiii.' won Is: "and from the proceeds of the 

 ,,f In products resulting from the operations of 

 o refinery." so that the paragraph shall read: 



.';! be lawful to apply the moneys aris- 

 ni charges collected from depositors for these 



n> pursuant to law, and from the proceeds of 



i pro.lu.-ts resulting fn>m the operations 



tin. rv. so far as may be necessary, to the de- 

 _- in lull of the expenses thereof, including 



r. materials, and wastage." 



..-. '.i. That an act to authorize the receipt of 

 led States gold coin in exchange for gold bare, 

 approved May 26, 1882, be amended to read as fol- 



That tin- superintendente of the coinage mints and 

 ~,e United Mutes assay office at New York may, 

 the approval of the Director of the Mint, but not 

 erui>e, receive United States gold coin from any 

 holder thereof, in sums of not less than $5,000, and 

 pay and deliver in exchange Uierefor gold bars in 

 <iualing such coin so received: Provided, That 

 the Director of the Mint, with the approval of the 

 retary of the Treasury, may impose for such ex- 

 ge a charge which in his judgment shall equal 

 cost of manufacturing the bars." 



. in. That it is the continued policy of the 

 ted States to use both gold and silver as full legal- 

 cr money under the ratio now existing in the 

 ted States, or that may be hereafter established by 

 United States, acting in accord with other nations; 

 the United States is willing to join with other 

 men-ial nations in a conference to adopt a common 

 io between gold and silver, with a view of estab- 

 lishing, internationally, the use of both metals as. 

 full Ural-tender money, and securing fixity of rela- 

 Juo between them. And when, in the judg- 

 ment of the President, a sufficient number of such 

 nations shall have entered into such international ar- 

 M nt lie may declare the ratio so fixed to be the 

 ratio in the United States, and all coinage 



reafter shall be at such ratio until changed by law. 

 e President shall, by and with the advice and con- 

 it of the Senate, appoint commissioners, not exceed- 



thrce. who shall attend any such conference on 

 .alf of the United States, and they shall report 

 ir doings to the President, who shall transmit the. 



ie to Congress. Said commissioners shall receive 



sum of jjf>,ow each and their reasonable expenses, 

 be approved by the Secretary of State; and the 



>unt necessary to pay such compensation and ex- 



es IB hereby appropriated out of any money in 



Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 

 SEC. 11. That all the acts and parts of acts incon- 



nt with the provisions of this act be, and the 



e are hereby, repealed. 



Mr. Stewart, of Nevada, submitted an amend- 

 ment involving free coinage, and supported that 

 policy in an elaborate speech. Among other 

 things, he said : 



" The scheme reported by the Finance Com- 

 ! ttee is another dose of the ordinary quack med- 

 ie prescribed by dealers in money for financial 

 rders which their previous prescriptions have 

 "uced. The silver men propose a return to 



the ancient remedy which has been used for 

 thousands of years and never failed to cure when 

 the mines of gold and silver were productive. 

 The yield of the two precious metals combined 

 wilt furnish a sound currency for the present, 

 and may be sufficient in quantity for an indefi- 

 nite time. It will certainly give time to dis- 

 cover some other remedy, if any exists, to (pre- 

 vent contraction if the mines should again fail. 



"The shock to civilization produced by the 

 demonetization of silver has not been barren of 

 results. Usurers and gamblers in money by this 

 great outrage have attracted public attention to 

 the methods by which they roo and enslave the 

 masses. Theoretically every government in the 

 civilized world is empowered to make money, and 

 it was assumed that this sovereign authority was 

 really exercised in the interest of the people. It 

 is now seen that a ring of parasites at every cap- 

 ital city in the United States and Europe has 

 from time immemorial had exclusive control of 

 the law-making power, and has created or de- 

 stroyed the circulating medium as would best 

 serve the purposes of extortion." 



Mr. Reagan, of Texas, gave notice of an amend- 

 ment for the same purpose. He said : 



" The coinage of dollars was suspended by the 

 act of 1873, and the silver dollar was then "sub- 

 stantially retired from use as a part of pur 

 money. Silver had been a part of our constitu- 

 tional currency, at par with gold, and a unit of 

 value from the time of the passage of the act of 

 1792 until the passage of the act of 1873. 



" The passage of the act demonetizing the sil- 

 ver dollar inflicted on this country greater injury 

 than was probably ever inflicted on this or any 

 other country by a single act of legislation. It 

 caused a reduction of values of all property and 

 products about 33 per cent. It took from the 

 people the use of about one half of the metal 

 money of the country, and it increased the bur- 

 dens of all indebtedness from one third to one half. 



" This was done in the face of the fact that the 

 United States was then, as now, the greatest sil- 

 ver-producing country in the world, producing 

 more than 40 per cent, of all the silver being 

 mined in the world. It was done in the face of 

 the fact that the United States was at that time 

 one of the great debtor nations of the world, 

 our national debt then being about $2,500,000.- 

 000 ; when most of the States were large debtors ; 

 when most of the municipal corporations of the 

 country were largely indebted ; when the rail- 

 road corporations of the country owed three or 

 four billions of dollars, most of their obligations 

 being held in Europe, and when other corpora- 

 tions and private citizens were largely indebted, 

 for we had before that time an abundant cur- 

 rency, business had been active, and credits ex- 

 tensive. This was done, too, in the face of the 

 fact that our people had millions of dollars en- 

 gaged in the silver mining, in which business 

 tens of thousands of our people found employ- 

 ment which furnished support for hundreds of 

 thousands of other people. One of the conse- 

 quences of this demonetization of silver was that 

 after the fall of prices caused by it it required 

 double the amount of the products of the soil, 

 double the number of days' work, to pay either 

 the public or the private indebtedness of the 

 country. 



