CONGRESS. (FREE COINAGE.) 



231 



>il\er product of the world has not pro- 

 il ill.- i iu reuse of its value, which to-day is 

 f.mr (.MIS per ounce less than it was on 

 of the silver net of the la>l seion, 

 it.- price then had been lifted by the gen- 

 iiiiticipulioii of some sueh mea.-mv. It is 

 -ed i hat the 1'niteil States markets and 

 hall bo opened to the whole silver pnxl- 

 the world. The patient is either to be 

 ire.l or killed. The audacity of such an experi- 

 i'iit si.U-ly at our risk, it appears to mo, is more 

 MI -nous than its financial soundness. It can 

 possible to hold the price of silver in 

 at from 15 to 30 per cent, above its 

 Europe. Yet we are asked to attempt 

 us miracle, as if it were a very little thing. 



There is much uncertainty whether or not 

 ir action may not encourage all European mi- 

 ni- to further depreciate the value of silver by 

 holly discarding its use except as subsidiary 

 . If silver is in purgatory now, it will 

 t do. by our further action, to sink it to hades. 

 ieiv it would be past praying for. All the sil- 

 Siates, except Nevada, have interests para- 

 junt to that of silver, and that of itself is be- 

 to be more prosperous than any industry 

 all other States. Its price very likely for a 

 ief time might be increased by some extrava- 

 int art of Congress a bomb of great noise and 

 allow sound but, if our massive present ac- 

 innilations were to be so broadly extended as 

 bring about such a short-lived result, would 

 be any more justifiable than the buying and 

 inling for a higher price the entire crop of 

 i, tobacco, wheat, or corn, iron, or tobacco? 

 we consent to the issue of United States 

 sury notes on silver, why refuse them on 

 Some large profits would doubtless accrue 

 the rich owners of silver mines by free coinage 

 itil the coin itself should drop to the level of 

 tie commercial value of silver bullion, but every 

 *rthing of these large profits realized above the 

 ommercial value would be at the loss of the 

 Dvernment, and, therefore, at the loss, of the 

 sple. For the sake of argument let it 'be ad- 

 I that there is a temporary need of an in- 

 of circulating currency, yet the proposi- 

 >n is not merely to bridge over a fleeting exi- 

 ency by pouring out a flood to satisfy a sudden 

 t, but the design is to pour out a continuous 

 for all time to come. The Government is 

 take all the silver offered at a fixed price for- 

 mer, being a dollar for each 371$ grains, and pay- 

 ble by the issue of legal-tender notes, whether 

 currency shall be needed or not, the in- 

 not being based upon any reasonable or 

 r >! >al tie ratio of the increase of population or 

 usiness. Large power and advantage would 

 to the' happy owners of silver, to whom 

 al-tender paper oy millions must be exclusive- 

 issued for their silver bullion, but in the end 

 lat advantage would perish in the general dis- 

 ster that would overtake the whole country by 

 he vain attempt of men to increase their property 

 oy computing it in a cheap dollar." 



Mr. Teller, of Colorado, argued against the 

 lotion that free coinage would result in silver 

 nports : 



' I have asserted over and over again for ten 

 pears that there is no country in the world that 

 pants to part with its silver, save and except 



Germany, and Germany parted with so much of 



il that all the agricultural interests of (ii-rinanv 

 were in arms against the further parting with 

 it. When they made their appeal to Bi.-inarck. 

 I'i.-marck said, 'We have already too much wa- 

 ter in the soup, and it is too thin.' He said on 

 another occasion : 'Too many people are pulling 

 for this gold blanket . and somebody has got to 

 be left out in the cold if you attempt to cover 

 yourselves with gold alone. 



"Now, Mr. President, I insist that a proposi- 

 tion that is simply a return to the financial sys- 

 tem that has been in vogue all over the world 

 for the last two or three hundred years at least, 

 in the use of metal that has been thus in com- 

 mon use as money, I say that it is incumbent <>n 

 the opponents or that proposition to come here 

 with something besides, as I said, declamation, 

 assertion, and prophesy, and that is all they have 

 ever come here with. 



' Mr. President, there has never been an argu- 

 ment made here during the years I have been a 

 member of this body that has deserved the name 

 of argument to show that the fears of these dan- 

 gers to result have the slightest foundation. It 

 has been ignorant assertion on the part of the 

 opponents of the measure, which they can not 

 prove and do not attempt to prove. I challenge 

 the gentlemen who take that side in this discus- 

 sion, and who are asserting that there is danger 

 in this proposition, to tell us wherein that dan- 

 ger lies. If there is a troop threatening danger, 

 who is the captain of the troop, who heads it, 

 and under what banner does it comet 



"They tell us Spain will send it here, that 

 France will send it here, when the whole history 

 of the world is against their assertion, more par- 

 ticularly when they touch France than any other 

 country in the world. If Senators think that 

 India would adopt the gold standard and aban- 

 don silver they reckon without their host, for 

 the British power made them abandon the gold 

 standard, which they did years ago and adopted 

 silver, because it was to the interest of the British 

 Government that they should have that silver 

 standard. And it is to their interest to-day, and 

 you could no more get the British Government 

 to consent that India should abandon silver and 

 establish a gold standard than you could get her 

 to agree to abandon gold and adopt silver in their 

 own country not a particle." 



Mr. Evarts, of New York, defended the legis- 

 lation of the previous session : " Mr. President, 

 there is nothing whatever that should change 

 our satisfaction with the resolution that we came 

 to in July last. If we have been disappointed in 

 there being less activity on the part of the Ex- 

 ecutive in promoting by diplomatic means an 

 opportunity of a resolution of this great difficul- 

 ty abroad, we have found nothing in the experi- 

 ence of this country that could show us that we 

 erred when we took our stand then, or that we 

 should now be any wiser than we would have 

 been if we had undertaken free coinage. 



Mr. President, the people of this country, 

 the people of commercial countries in Europe, 

 can not hide from themselves the severity of this 

 relation, putting these two metals so wide apart, 

 as was accomplished by the sequel of what nap- 

 pened in 1873. All invective against the errors 

 of Germany and the errors in our legislation do 



