208 



CONGRESS. (SILVER PURCHASE.) 



tion. When we want silver legislation in the 

 interest of the people we will take action upon 

 it here, and not at the dictation of the gold specu- 

 lators. When the Democratic party in the last 

 campaign, and especially gentlemen on this side 

 presenting this bill now, went before the people, 

 they said that the free coinage of silver and the 

 silver question was nothing in comparison to the 

 tariff question. That was the overshadowing, 

 paramount issue which the people had to face. 



" But as soon as the election is over we hear 

 nothing of the Committee on Ways and Means. 

 They have absolutely subsided. The tariff ques- 

 tion is relegated to the rear in this body. If we 

 do that, we will have betrayed every promise 

 made to the American people in that campaign 

 on the tariff and silver question, and up to this 

 moment, sir, in this House, the people of this 

 country will have been deceived in the last 

 election. 



" I defy you to undertake to demonetize silver 

 again in this country and go back to the in- 

 famous legislation of 1873. The Democratic 

 party for the last twenty years has denounced 

 that as the most infamous piece of legislation 

 that was ever accomplished in American history, 

 and here it is calmly and coolly proposed in a 

 Democratic House that we shall demonetize, go 

 back to that act of 1873, wipe out the silver 

 legislation all laws which recognize that metal 

 as money in this country and ratify and con- 

 firm the most villainous and tyrannical piece of 

 legislation that was ever enacted in the history 

 of the American Government. 



" Mr. Speaker, I wish to say that the so-called 

 Sherman law puts in circulation about $50,000,- 

 <)00 annually, or over $4,000,000 every month, 

 in the way of legal-tender Treasury notes issued 

 in the purchase monthly of 4,500,000 ounces of 

 silver bullion. This to some extent meets the 

 wants of increased population and needs of 

 business. To repeal the law and stop there 

 would mean a practical contraction of the cur- 

 rency to the amount of $50,000,000 annually. 



"This would cause prices to fall and make 

 times still harder, especially in all our agricul- 

 tural districts. This will not do as the first step 

 in Democratic reform, for this would be to re- 

 form backward. It is no answer to say that 

 gold would come here to supply currency de- 

 mands, for we all know there is no gold to bring 

 here without bringing on a panic in the gold- 

 using countries. 



" Besides, the countries now using gold are 

 those where all or nearly all our exports go. 

 The more we drain those people of their gold 

 the lower of necessity will prices go in those 

 countries ; so that when we sell them our wheat, 

 corn, pork, beef, and cotton we must expect 

 them to pay us less than they give us now. Cer- 

 tainly those things are at this time much lower 

 than they should be, and so low that the pro- 

 ducing of them yields but little profit. The 

 Democratic party can not afford to so legislate 

 as to cause prices here and abroad to fall. 



" The people who sent us here did not think 

 they were voting for such a thing as that, but, 

 on the contrary, they were aiming to improve 

 matters in this direction and not to make them 

 worse." 



Mr. Reed, of Maine, advocated taking up the 



subject in the House and passing a measure re- 

 pealing the Sherman act. He said : 



" Mr. Speaker, I was not aware until the ses- 

 sion opened this morning that there was to be 

 any preliminary debate on this question, and 

 therefore I shall not be able to express myself 

 with that accuracy which ought to be used upon 

 an occasion so important as this. However, I 

 have no doubt that what I say will be received 

 with indulgence by the House under these cir- 

 cumstances. Questions of finance are always 

 exceedingly difficult, and on such topics no wise 

 man indulges himself much in prophetic utter- 

 ances. We may, however, safely deal with some 

 portions of the past. 



" The so-called Sherman act was a compromise 

 measure, intended to stay for the time being a 

 strong feeling which existed on the part of a 

 good many citizens of this country in favor of 

 the free coinage of silver. The friends of the 

 free coinage of silver thought that the result of 

 the Sherman act would be to bring silver to par. 

 If it could have done that, the problem which 

 had convulsed this country for a long time would 

 have been solved and finished and relegated to 

 the past. Other people supported the Sherman 

 act because they were afraid that the public 

 mind was in such condition, owing to various 

 circumstances too numerous to describe now, 

 that there was danger of our going even to the 

 extent of free coinage. Nobody ever regarded 

 that act as anything but a measure passed for 

 the time being, as. indeed, all legislation upon 

 complex human affairs must be. 



" We have now come to a change of condi- 

 tions, or perhaps, to speak more accurately, of 

 apparent conditions ; and to my mind the Sher- 

 man act stands in unfortunate case for two dif- 

 ferent reasons. It seems to be to-day one of the 

 obstacles which prevent bimetallism all over the 

 world. I think almost every reasonable man, 

 who has not talked so much about this question 

 that he has ceased to think, believes that when- 

 ever bimetallism is sustained it must be upon 

 the shoulders of the whole world. Nations which 

 are monometallic are naturally now desirous of 

 not changing their condition. They feel that 

 perhaps the United States will undertake to 

 shoulder the whole load. Therefore, it seems to 

 me that the present condition of things is in our 

 way in the negotiations we are making for the 

 purpose of reaching a bimetallic standard all 

 over the world, which we desire, both silver men 

 and those who are denounced as ' gold bugs.' 



" On the other hand, the constant increase of 

 our currency, more than was contemplated at 

 the time of the passage of the Sherman act, so 

 called, together with the efflux of gold from this 

 country, is producing another kind of fear a 

 fear in regard to the basis upon which our finan- 

 cial affairs are to be conducted. I do not fully 

 share that fear myself. I think that the efflux 

 of gold is in all probability the result of causes 

 other than the Sherman act, although the pos- 

 sibility of the indefinite continuance of the Sher- 

 man act may have some influence upon the sub- 

 ject. 



"We are now to perform an act which is to 

 have in all human probability (for we might as 

 well talk plainly and openly about this business 

 as about all other matters of legislation) we 



