Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1886 — THE WHITE METAL [ARTICLE]

THE WHITE METAL

The House Makes Inquiry of the Government Concerning Its Silver PoHcy. [Washington special.] Mr. Bland, of Missouri, reported to the House, from the Coinage Committee, the resolution offered by him on the Ist inst, ind referred to that committee. Its preamble recites the fact that, at the convention of the American Bankers’ Association, held at Chicago, 111., in September, 1885, Mr. George S. Coe, President of the American Exchange National Bank of New York City, said that the present administration had taken steps, in concert with the New York Clearing-house committee, to avert financial disaster by refraining from making monthly payments on the funded debt in order that the surplus revenue might supply means requisite to withdraw a sufficient amount of silver certificates issued on previous purchases to overcome the excessive accumulations which so perplexed prior administrations; also the fact that on Feb. 26, 1885, the House of Representatives refused by a decided vp<;e to consider a then pending*'propßMtiOn'looking to suspension of coinage of silver dollars. The resolution is as follows: Beeolved, By this House, that the Secretary of the Treasury be and is hereby requested to inform this House whether or not any such agreement or arrangement was effected by the management of the Treasury Department with the Clearing-House Committee in New York, or with any other association or person, as alleged in the address of Mr. Coe ; and, if so, by what authority of law such arrangement was made and carried out; and, further, to inform this House what amount of silver dollars were in the Treasury on the 4th day of March last unrepresented by outstanding certificates, and ivhat amount of silver certificates were in circulation, what amount of such dollars are now in the Treasury unrepresented by outstanding certificates,and what amount of such certificates is now in circulation; also what amount of silver dollars were in the Treasury on the 4th day of March last that could have been applied in the payment of the interest-hearing debt and other dues of the government, and what amount of such dollars now held in the Treasury could be applied ; also, what amount of silver certificates are held in the Treasury that could be reissued; also, what amount of "interest-bearing debt 13 now subject to call, and will the same policy be pursued in the payment of silver coin ana on other public dues in the future as in the past.

A motion made by Mr. Hewitt (N. Y.) to recommit the resolution with instructions to the committee to strike out that portion which asks the Secretary of the Treasury to define the policy of the administration was lost by a vote of 88 to 168, and the resolution was adopted. During the discussion of the bill relating to the taxation of fractional parts of a gallon of distilled spirits in the committee of the whole house to-day, Mr. Mills (Texas) offered an amendment, providing that all taxes imposed by the act shall be paid in standard silver coin, and, using this amendment as a text, addressed the committee upon the entire silver question. If silver was stricken down, he said, then the value of all the products of labor would decrease just one-half. Whenever prices were falling, money would go out of circulation. There was no such curse in existence as the contraction of the volume of currency. When this contraction was brought about, then would come sorrow in the bosoms of the people, tears to their cheeks, and hunger, want, and starvation. That was what the advocates of scarce money were asking Congress to do, and to do in the interest of the laboring man. In conclusion Mr. Mills said: This scourge which is sought to be visited on the people of the United States comes from the cold marble and phlegmatic avarice which seeks to impale the whole country on the bed of suffering in order to gratify its lust for gold. In this hour, fraught with peril to the whole country, I appeal to the unpurchased representatives of the American people. Let us stand up and call the battle on, and never leave the field until the people’s money shall be restored to its full value. [Loud applause.]