; (- T-nR Vf m'T' Wl,
The Hill Coinage Bill.
A BILL
To maintain iho legal tender silver dollar at parity
with gold.
Bo it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre
sentatives of the United States of America in Con
gress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury
is hereby authorized to coin the silver bullion in the
Troasury, purchased under tho actof July fourteenth,
eighteen hundred and ninety, into such denomina
tions of subsidiary silver coin as ho may deem neces
sary to meet public requirements, and thereafter, as
public neccssiticsmay demand, to recoin silver dollars
into subsidiary coin, and as much of any Act as fixes
a limit to tho aggregate of subsidiary silver coin out
standing, and so much of any Act as directs tho
coinage of any portion of tho .bullion purchased under
the Act of July fourteenth, eighteen hundred and
ninoty, into standard silver dollars, is hereby re
pealed. Tho Secretary of the Treasury is hereby directed
to maintain at all times at parity with gold the legal
tender silver dollars remaining outstanding; and to
that end ho is hereby directed to exchange gold for
legal tender silver dollars when presented to tho
Treasury in tho sum of flvo dollars or any multiple
thereof, and all provisions of law for tho use or maiu
tonauce of tho resorvo fund in tho Treasury relating
to United States notes are, in tho discretion of tho
Secretary of tho Treasury, hereby made applicable to
the exchange of legal tender silver dollars.
Tho following correspondence explains itself:
Hon, J. II. Southard, Chairman House Committee
on Coinage, Woights and Measures, Washington, D.
0., Dear Sir: In response to your telegraphic invita
tlon to appear boforo tho committee during tho
hearings, I wired you that it would be inconvenient
for me to visit Washington, but that I would bo
pleased to submit my views in writing if you would
send mo a copy of tho bill under consideration. I am
now in receipt of your favor enclosing a copy of tho
Hill bill, as amended by your committee, and saying
that by unanimous consent it was ordered that such
views as I might present in reference to the proposed
legislation bo printed as a part of tho hearing.
Thanking your committee for tho courtesy which
it lias shown mo, I beg to submit the following:
Tho bill has a double purpose; first, to convert
'standard silver dollars into subsidiary coin, and,
second, to mako silver doUars redeemable in gold on
demand. In discussing the subject, however, it will
bo more logical to consider the latter proposition
first, as redemption is only a step toward retirement.
There is no necessity for redemption. Tho legal
tender law will maintain the parity between gold
coin and silver dollars so long as both can be used to
an unlimited oxtent in tho payment of publio rev
enues and private dobts. I should, perhaps, say that
tho parity will bo substantially maintained, for local
and temporary conditions may under any law put a
small premium upon any kind of money. For
instance, in tho summer of 1893 a local demand for
small change made a premium on silver dollars in
Now York during tho debate on tho bill to repeal tho
purchasing clause of tho Slurman Law. In support
of tho statement above made in regard to the effect
of legal tender in maintaining the parity, I cite the
testimony givon by Senator Sherman before a senate
committee in 1878, Tho following is taken from tho
published hearings:
Senator Bayard. By tho first of July next or the first of
January next you havo eighteen or twonty millions of dollars
whloli aro In circulation and payable for duties, and how long do
you suppose this short supply of sllvor and your control of It by
your coinage will keop it oaulvalcnt to gold when ono is worth
ten cents less than tho other.
Seerotary Sherman. Just so long as it can bo used for any
thing that gold is used for. It will bo worth in this country tho
par of gold until it becomes so abundant and bulky that people
will become tired of carrying it about; but in our country that
can bo avoided by depositing it for coin certificates.
As soon as the silver dollar ia made redeemable
in gold, another endless chain will bo created and tho
arguments used against tho greenbacks and treasury
notes will then be turned against silver.
. Before tho attempt to burden the gold reserve
The Commoner.
with this new obligation is consumated, it may be
worth while to consider tho opinion cxprcsbuu uy
Secretary Carlisle in 1895. In the published hearings
before tho nouse Appropriation Committee the fol
lowing question and answer will be found:
Mr. Slbloy. I would like to ask you (perhaps not entirely
connected with tho matter under discussion) what objection thoro
could bo to having tho option of redeeming either in sllvor or
gold Ho with tho treasury inslfcad of tho note holder?
Seerotary Carlisle. If that policy had been adopted at tho
beginning of rcsumptlon-and I am not saying this for tho pur
poso of criticising tho action of any of my predecessors, or
anybody clso-but if tho policy of reserving to tho government,
nt tho beginning of resumption, tho option of redeeming in gold
or sllvor all its paper presented, I bellovo It would havo worked
benoflclally, and thoro would have been no troublo growing out of
it, but tho Secretaries of tho Treasury from tho beginning of
resumption havo pursued a policy of redeeming In gold or silver,
nt tho option of tho holder of tho paper, and If any seerotary had
afterward attempted to chango that policy and forco sllvor upon a
man who wanted gold, or gold upon a man who wanted sllvor, and
especially if he had mado that attempt at such a critical period
ns wo havo had in tho last two years, my judgment is, it would
havo been very disastrous. Thoro is a vast difference between
establishing' a policy at tho beginning, and reversing a policy
af tor It has boon long established, and especially after tho situa
tion has bcon changed.
It will bo seen that Mr. Carlisle thought it a
mistake to commence paying in gold but considered
it dangerous to interfere with the custom afte.r it
was once established. By the same logic it can bo
argued that we should not establish the custom of
redeeming the silver dollars in gold.
The measure recommended by tho committee
gives to tho financiers absolute control over tho
national debt. They can increase it at any time by
presenting silver dollars for redemption and com
pelling an issue of bonds to replenish tho gold
reserve. They can in the same way contract the
volume of money in circulation, since money drawn
into tho treasury by an issue of bonds cannot go out
again unless it is used to meet current expenses (and
that is only possible when the expenditures exceed
the receipts) or loaned out to favorite banks.
Second, Tho conversion of standard silver dol-
lars into subsidiary coin is equivalent to the retire
ment of silver as standard money, and this is the
last act in the program instituted same twenty-seven
years ago and persistently pursued ever since. If
this plan is completed, gold will bo the only legal
tender money and bank paper the only credit money.
Bank notes not being a general legal tender and gold
not being in circulation among the people, the masses
will then bo doing business with money which will
not legally discharge their debts
To convert a standard money into a credit money
is to narrow the foundation of our financial system
and at the same time enlarge the superstructure.
Such a course weakens the system and both hastens
catastrophe and intensifies it when it comes.
It is estimated that ninety-five per cent of the
business of the country is done with substitutes for
money, but as all these substitutes aro convertablo
into money on demand there must be a proportion
between the substitutes and the money beyond which
it is not safe to go. If, as at present, a large part of
tho money in circulation is not a legal tender, the
proportion between the volume of legal tender
money and substitutes for money is even greater.
The proposed measure, by decreasing the money of
ultimate redemption and increasing the volume of
promises to pay money, still further enlarges the pro
portion between money and its substitutes; this
necessarily adds to tho risk of the business man and
lessens tho security of the general public.
If, at any time, foreign complications or panics
compel a considerable exportation of gold, tho pro
portion between money and its substitutes will bo
still further increased or an immense reduction will
bo qecessary in the vplurae of business.
Respectfully yours,
W. J. BEYAtf.
If Roosovelt really wants to get strenuous, he
should hike back to Lincoln and get into tho senato
rial game. Eoports from tho state house indicate
that hunting mountain lions is n girls' gamo com
pared with running for senator in Nebraska. Omaha
. World-Herald.
O, iAHy .Should tli Spirit .of
Mortal Be Proud ?
By William Knox.
LINC0IjN'8 FAVORITE rOEM.
' ,'
0, why should .the spirit of mortal be proud?.
Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud,
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,
Man passes from life to his rest in the grave.
The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade,
Bo scattered around and together be laid;
And the young and the old, and the low and the
high
Shall moulder to dust and together shall die.
The infant a mother attended and loved,
The mother that infant's affection who proved,
The husband that mother and infant who blessed,
Each, all are away to thoir dwellings of rest.
The maid on whosecheek, on whose brow, in whose
eye,
Shone beauty and p'easure, her triumphs are by;
And the memory of those who have loved her and
praised,
Are alike from the minds of tho living erased.
The hand of the king that tho sceptre hath borne,
The brow of the priest that the mitre hath worn,
. The eye of the sage, and the heart of the brave,
Are hidden and lost in the grave.
The peasant whose lot was to sow and to reap,
The herdsman who climbed with his goats up tho
steep,
The beggar who wandered in search of his bread,
Have faded away like the grass that wo tread.
The saint who enjoyed the communion of heaven J
The sinner who dared to remain unforglven,
The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just,
Ilave quietly mingled their bones in the dust.
So the multitude goes, like the flower or the weed
That withers away to let others succeed;
So the multitude comes, even those we behold,
To repeat every tale that has often been told.
For we are the same that our fathers have been;
We see the same sights that our fathers have seen,
We drink the same stream, and we view tho same ,
sun,
And run the same course that our fathers have run.
The thoughts we are thinking our fathers would
think;
From the death that we shrink from our fathers
would shrink;
To the life that wo cling to they also would cling;
But it speeds for us all, like a bird on the wing.
They loved, but the story we cannot unfold;
They scorned, but the heart of the haughty is cold;
They grieved but no wail from their slumbers will
come;
They joyed, but the tongue of their gladness is
dumb.
They died, ay! they died: and we things that are
now,
Who walk on tho turf that lies over their brow,
Who make in their dwelling a transient abode,
Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage
road.
Yea! hope and despondency, pleasure and pain,
We. mingle together in sunshine and rain;
And the smiles and the tears, tho song and tho dirge,
Still follow each other, like surge upon surge.
'Tis the wink of an eyo, 'tis the draught of a breath,
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death,
From the gilded saloon to the bier and tho shroud,
0, why should the spirit of mortal bo proud?
. Fortunately ox-President Harrison didn't go to
Manila to do any of his talking against tho constitu
tionality of the administration's methods. If ho had
MacArthur -would 'have deported him to Guam. Kan
sas City Times.