THE FARMER AN I 



859 



a bill passed the Senate, which had been prepared by the 

 Secretary of tiie Treasury and tiie director of the mint, which 

 adopted the gold dollar as the monetary unit, and discon- 

 tinued the silver dollar* which was then worth $1.02 in gold. 

 The matter attracted no public attention, for it was not thought 

 of as having popular interest. For lack of time the bill failed 

 to become a law at that cession, but subsequently, in 1873, was 

 duly enacted. It w^as freely discussed in both Houses, but 

 attracted little attention, as very few congressmen or editors 

 knew anything about the subject. It was a matter upon 

 which Congress and the pul)lic were accustomed to rely 

 upon the experts of the Treasury Department, and coinage 

 committees. 



It has been believed by a great many people that these 

 experts w^ere corrupt, and that the omission of the silver 

 dollar, which amounted to a demonetization of silver, was the 

 result of a criminal conspiracy, intended to operate to the 

 iin})roper advantage of capitalists. There is not the slightest 

 evidence that such was the case. On the contrary, in the light 

 of the experience of the world up to that time, and of the 

 condition of economic science ^t that time, it would seem that 

 no economist or statesman could have had any reason to sup- 

 })ose that any serious results, affecting values on a large scale 

 would follow\t Of course if we had known then what we 

 have since learned it would have been different. Most of 

 the really important things bearing on this question had not 



* Three other coins were discontinued in 1873 — the three-cent, two-cent, and 

 silver five-cent piece. 



t It was predicted by a few, notably by Mr. Ernest Scyd, an English expert, 

 and a strong biraetalist, who foretold, at the beginning of the movement, which 

 he strongly opposed, almost precisely what has happened. By a curious 

 inversion of facts, vehich is really comical, this most pronounced of all bimetal- 

 ists appears in the popular legend of the "Crime of 187-S '' as the head devil 

 in corrupting our congressmen to demonetize silver. Very few economists or 

 statesmen — none in fact who were in a position to act — were impressed with 

 this prophecy, and I do not think they can be blamed. Men who can see a 

 generation ahead are called cranks, and have very little influence in their own 

 generation. 



