1 t
I
Conservative *
THE I , "CHIME" OF 187.-J.
[ By Rev. .T. O. Roberts , of the Kansas confer-
unco. ]
I nm often asked , "What do you think
of the crime of ' 78 ? " and "Why do you
in the April number of Money style the
holy cause of free silver coinage , n
' ' "
'trust' ?
When General Jackson vetoed the re-
charter of the Madison United States
bank , in 1882 , 1 had begun to be some
what familiar with money principally
of Spanish silver coins ; of supposed
value at 64 , 12 , and 25 cents ; except
when they became so smooth the "pil
lars" could not bo scon. "Whoever un
dertook to pass one of those coins found
them shrunk to 5 , 10 and 20 cents re
spectively. I have long had a 25 cent.
Spanish coin which is nearly one hun
dred years old. The coin is perfect on
the surface , but unfortunately the
milling on the edge was long since filed
off , also a small clipping cut from the
edge probably for the benefit of private
lead , pewter , or copper "free coinage"
silver washers.
lu those days the current silver money
was principally Spanish small coins and
French 5-franc pieces , value 95 cents.
I saw thousands of these coins while
scarcely ever an American dollar.
Somehow I came into possession of one
of the latter in 1860 and since sold it for
$5 to become part of a cabinet of rare
coins in Cincinnati. I have often read
of attempts to arrange gold and silver
coins to be and stay at parity , but those
attempts were universally failures.
Accordingly when the three years' dis
cussion in the congress of the United
States commenced which resulted in the
passage of the act of February , 187)3 ) ;
seeing that specie payments were
utterly suspended , and recognizing the
necessity of a specie currency to put us
in harmony with the world's exchanges ,
I believed that then was the time to es
tablish our national finances on a gold
basis. As the debates proceeded ,
declarations were made , particularly
like this one from the Hon. Wni. M.
Stewart , of Nevada :
"I do not care how much you discuss ,
or how many resolutions you may pass ;
they do not make any difference ; you
must come to the same conclusion that
all other people have ; that gold is recog
nized as the universal standard of
value. "
I do not remember that a single dis
cordant declaration from this was made
in either house of congress from 1870 to
1873. I believed then that the world's
history had demonstrated the utter im
possibility of making gold and silver coins
prorate with one another. The use of
scales , as in the days of Abraham and
iu our own early history , was very in
convenient. At the date of the act of
1878 I had never imagined the prop
ping up of 40 or 50 cents' worth of sil
ver to the level of a dollar , and by legal-
tender or other device , and by contin
uous fictions , persuade ourselves that
40 or 50 cents' worth of silver was
worth 100 cents.
But 1 There is another phase of this
"awful crime of ' 753. " When reading
over the gold speeches of Mr. Stewart
and others , I hoped never more to lose
20 or more per cent on depreciated sil
ver coins. Who thought at the time of
demonetization , when section 15 of the
act read : "The silver coins of the
United States shall bo a trade dollar
* * * and the weight of the
trade dollar shall be 420 grains , Troy ,
etc. " Was this demonetization of silver ,
or the substitution of a 420-graiu silver
dollar in place of the old 412igrain
dollar ?
How many of these 420-grain trade
dollars were coined from 1873 to 1878 , as
compared with hundreds of millions of
412)-grain ( dollars which were and are
yet being coined , and that with full
legal-tender ? Reports show coinage of
trade dollars : 1873 , $1,225,000 ; 1874.
§ 4,910,000 ; 1875 , $6,279,600 ; 187G , $6,192-
150 ; 1877 , $18,092,710 ; 1878 , $4,250,000 ;
total , $35,869,860. This was nearly six
times as many silver dollars coined in
the short time as had been coined in all
the previous history of the republic.
When the false fires kindled on this
subject are gone out and the smoke , in
which so many have sought to hide
their purposes , has been swept away ;
and those people , in the language of
Tacitus , the philosophical historian of
Rome , "are subjected to the vengeance
of history , " who would not prefer eter
nal forgetfulness to their fame ?
Lawrence , Kan. , June 28 , 1899.
THE GOL.I ) STANDARD IN INDIA.
The establishment of the gold stan
dard in British India is evidently near
at hand. A parliamentary committee
has just reported approving the decis
ion of the government not to go back
to the silver standard , and recommend
ing that steps be taken toward the defi
nite establishment of a gold standard.
"The effective establishment of a gold
standard is of paramount importance to
the material interests of India , " says
the committee , "not only to promote
extending trade , but to encourage the
influx of capital. "
This is an incident in the procession
of financial events that would have been
of transcendent importance had it oc
curred three or four years ago , before
the cause of silver was so absolutely
dead us it is at present , and even at this
late day it is important.
A few years ago the cry of the free
silver advocates was that British India ,
China and Japan were growing rich at
the expense of the United States and
other countries which rested upon the
gold standard. It was seriously main
tained that any country which used
silver in its business transactions could
worst a competitor who used gold , and
thousands of American farmers were
made to believe that they were not re
ceiving for their wheat what they ought
to get , because the people of India , who
were also in the wheat business , were
buying and selling in silver. Within
the few brief years which have elapsed
since E. Benjamin Andrews and other
eminent American bimetallists went
around preaching this queer doctrine ,
the situation has undergone wonderful
changes.
Japan has deserted the silver standard
which was said to be making her rich ,
and has adopted gold. The statesmen of
China have been feeling their way to
wards the same decision , and now Brit
ish India is to bo put upon the gold
standard.
If there were anything in the conten
tions of the wilder set of bimetallists
that a free silver country enjoys a great
advantage over a gold country in com
mercial transactions , then these Orien
tal nations would be voluntarily throw
ing away their principal business ad
vantage. Of course Japan and British
India , and even China , have statesmen
of sufficient intelligence to know it
when they enjoy a good thing , and their
reliuquishment of the silver standard
ought to convince the most skeptical
that no such supposed advantage really
existed. The parliamentary commission
remarks that the change iu India will
be in the interest of extending trade and
the encouragement of capital. Oakland
( Calif. ) Enquirer.
FATHER DE COIN , MISSIONARY.
Father Do Smot was the first and the
most zealous of the efficient mission
aries among the Indians of the upper
Missouri river. Father De Smet was
sent into Nebraska because no white
men lived there and all its inhabitants
were idolaters , barbarians. Missionar
ies are sent and proselytes are employed
where a new faith desires to take hold
by the uprooting of an existing one.
Had Nebraska been then , as now , cov
ered with churches and school houses ,
no missionary would have been em
ployed within its domain.
The present tedious and detailed itin
eracy of Coin Harvey in Nebraska , who
is preaching in hamlets , villages and
cities every night , of the efficacy of the
free coinage of silver , at the ratio of
sixteen to one , as a means of redemption
from poverty , and salvation from all
future ills , indicates that Bryanarchists
generally regard this an abode of the
savage and relentless tribes of the gold
standard. The presence and efforts of
Mr. Coin Harvey in Nebraska are a con
fession that the state is regarded by
them as almost a part of the enemy's
country ! In none of his speeches does
Mr. Harvey point with pride to banks ,
railroads and factories which have been
established in Nebraska by virtue of
Bry anarchists.