Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1877 — THE SILVER QUESTION. [ARTICLE]

THE SILVER QUESTION.

Position of the Administration Do tilled. [Washington Cor. Chicago Times.] Now that it is known beyond a question that the administration is in favor of the remonetizing of silver, it is of interest to know just the meaning of their proposed plans. Sherman’s bill, introduced in the Senate on the 16tli of January, 1877, -as a substitute for Bland’s Silver bill, very properly outlines what the administration proposes to advocate. Bland’s bill remonetized, not the silver dollar of our fathers, bit the lighter dollar of 1837, for all payments ; and it also permitted everybody to take bullion and have it coined into dollars* Sherman’s bill says said silver dollar shall be issued in redemption of United States notes on demand of the holder, under general regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury ; and United States bonds redeemed under this act shall be canceled and held to be a part of the sinking fund provided for by existing law ; interest to be computed thereon as in the case of bonds redeemed. Under this act canceled greenbacks would, with canceled bonds, become a part of the sinking fund, now made up exclusively by the canceling of bonded obligations of the Government, although none of the coin customs revenues now devoted to buying bonds for the sinking fund would be diverted from the purposes contemplated in the act of 1870, for the redemption of bonded indebtedness. One method by which greenbacks would disappear and silver dollars be substituted through this bill, under a general regulation of the Secretary of the Treasury,, might unquestionably be by using the currency balance for this purpose. Goverumeut would get its “ promises to pay ” off the market, and the people would get an even cheaper dollar than the greenback, and which it would not be called on to redeem. This would suit Sherman, who wants less greenbacks, and suit his friends, who want more silver. The last section of Sherman’s bill provides for a commission to attend any international convention which may be called to adopt a ratio in the gold and silver coinages in the different countries of the world. One object which such a convention may be called on to carry out is outlined in a report made by Sherman a year ago last winter, proposing that when gold stood at 103 j, and a paper dollar was worth 97 1 cents, the American gold dollar should be reduced to the last-named figure, which would make it exactly a fifth of a pound sterling, on condition that England changed her money of account to a dollar, this country changing its standard and England its nomenclature.