156 THE AGRARIAN CRUSADE 



not exist. In 1873 Congress, moved by the report 

 of a commission it had authorized, had demone- 

 tized silver; that is, it had provided that the gold 

 dollar should be the standard of value, and omitted 

 the standard silver dollar from the list of silver 

 coins. s In this consisted the "Crime of '73." At 

 the time when this law was enacted it had not for 

 many years been profitable to coin silver bullion 

 into dollars because silver was undervalued at the 

 established ratio of sixteen to one. In 1867 the 

 International Monetary Conference of Paris had 

 pronounced itself in favor of a single gold standard 

 of currency, and the principal countries of Europe 

 had preceded the United States in demonetizing 

 silver or in limiting its coinage. In 1874 as a re- 

 sult of a revision of the statutes of the United 

 States, the existing silver dollars were reduced to 

 the basis of subsidiary coins with only limited legal 

 tender value. 



The Act of 1873 was before Congress for four 

 sessions; every section, including that which made 

 gold the sole standard of value, was discussed 

 even by those who later claimed that the Act had 

 been passed surreptitiously. Whatever opposition 



s The only reference to the dollar was to "the trade dollar" of 

 heavier weight, for use in the Orient. 



