OCR Text |
Show WASHINGTON. The Senate. o'isiiinutos, !). ( .. Jan. C In the sem e today a large number Of papers w ere pre-sentod pre-sentod and referred. One was from the chamber of eotnmeres of Seattle. Washington, Washing-ton, praying thut congress, by more liberal appropriation, would enable the war and navy detriments to place the country in a thorough condition of defense so us to !o ired to maintain its national dignity and protect Its humblest citizen in any part of the World, The vicc.paesidcnt laid before the senate a iio-ssage from the president, transmitting the agreement made by the commissioners with the Indians of the t'oivilb- reservation, Washington. iuong the bills Introduced and referred is one granting pensions t . soldier- in the s minolo and other Indian war-. Morgan offered a resolution directing the committee on foreign relations to Inquire into the progress made on the work of the Nicaragua, coital. The' resolution was laid on tin table, Morgan stating that he would call it up tomorrow. The senate bill Introduced by Stewart to provide for the free coinage of gold and silver sil-ver bullion was taken up, and Morrill pro-ceeded pro-ceeded to address the senate. Morrill criticized the speech heretofore made by Stewart on the same subject, and -poke in opposition to the bill for the free and unlimited coinage of silver. Ho is now and ever in favor of maintaining both gold and silver In circulation, and silver to tlie cxtremcst boundary that it could be maintained main-tained on a parity with gold. lie bad not. voted for the silver act of lS'JO for the reason that silver bullion was neither to be plid or paid out In ac cordance with tho safer proposal of Secretary Wiudom, and that the silver to be purchased was fixed at a too magnificent amount and also that full pric e was to be paid for the commodity which the government could neither sell nor part from to any considerable extent without with-out a financial revolution and serious loss. Morrill went on to say the national bank n oles wore rapidly being made to step down and out to give room to silver paper. The original L'nited States notes or the green-backs green-backs were likely to be the next sacrifice demanded de-manded and stoned in order to give the Whole field to silver paper. No expedient had Been left untried and no cost withheld to pu sh or carry the silver dollars into circulation, cir-culation, hut it was demonstrated that no more than about (10,000,000 dollars, of the four hundred million coined could be coaxed or kicked outside tbo treasury The weight was objected to as top heavy and Ihe value too light. In the treasury today to-day there was over 12,000 tons of sMvor and more was coming in monthly. When aud whore was this silver deluge to end? In ten years more, under the existing statutes, the government might have locked up n its subterranean vaults silver to aggregate an amount of perhaps more than one thousand million dollars, dol-lars, for nil of which its obligations, payable In coin, would be outstanding and should this .inundation be further aggravated aggra-vated bj unlimited free coinage, no silver certificates or treasury notes issued for silver bullion had been presented for payment in silver, but they were paid In gold when so demanded. How long they could thus be kept on pur with gold? Already it was a matter of public and profound concern, and largely dependent upon the honest and proper interpretation of the law and the courage and skill of the secretary of the treasury. Whenever gold in the treasury should vanish these certificates and notes could then be paid only In Bllver dollars, and those as money were known to bo not worth their race value. As security for silver certificates certifi-cates or treasury notes which to circulate at par with' gold they were notoriously in-adquato, in-adquato, as 4l i(; grains of silver nine-tenths fine would fetch no more than 74 ceuts. It would be hardly less safe aud certainly equally honest to base such certific ates and notes aud circulate them aa good money upon iron or copper or upon wheat or tobacco purchased and accumulated accumu-lated In like manner at 38X1 per cent, above mark t value, us to base tuch a eliculatlon upon the so-called standard stan-dard silver dollars under the free coinage. Whatuvor advantugo from tho unlimited free coinage of silver might accrue to the corporate owners of silver mines when gold advanced to a premium would be brief and and uot permanent us there was no secretary of tho treasury who would be willing to sell United States bonds in order to obtain gold to keep any paper currenc y paid out for the silver on purity of gold. These corporations therefor at no remote period would have the ir own drug return to plague the Inventors and find the silver certificates or the treasury notes re :elvetl for silver bullion when unsupported by gold of no greater value than Hint of silver contained In the free-coined silver dollar The experiment which Is now being made to have gov. riuniiit purchase On compulsion a fixed monthly amount Of silver had, he feared, complicated and more or less retarded re-tarded any international compact relative to silver, and perhaps contributed to tlie degre-dation degre-dation of Its value by largely restricting the demand to one country alone, and bj the practical exclusion 01 any popular demand de-mand from any other, a menace of unlimited i oinag. With swelling accumulations of coined and uncoined silver In U.-! treasury, which might in some, linun-! linun-! cial contingency be thrtlW upon any or all I other markets not only tended to perpetuate ' .resent uncertainty of value, but might further tend to sink it to a lower depth. (Jer-lainlv (Jer-lainlv unlimited coinage would Indefinitely postpone all hope of international compact. The depreciation of silver had be.n Accelerated not only by its greatly increased cbundance, but also by il- dlmlnisl d use as money by the leading ; commercial nations. Tho allver miners had no promise of on increase of wages in ease 01 the free coinage of silverr and silver, as a stiindu'cl money, mnst for all the world stand or fall upon its intrinsic merits, and not upon (he merits of the place whence it cilllle The silver propagandists declarod they only sought t.e bave silver placed on au equality with gold, i. moving us they did that their Inequalltj had been displayed from age to age. in i oni liision Morrill said: '1 attempted to demonstrate that the depreciation de-preciation f silver was both so great and universal Ihaf unlimited coinage could not be maintained on the present standard with gold but would suddenly wreck th com, i . ;v a silver revolution; that unlimited un-limited coinage would Interdic t all inlerna- , tioual silver compact; that there is no scarcity of money In circulation; that a sil- j v r standard would he equivalent to a hori-sontal hori-sontal re election of the tariff of 35 per cent, if not i and equal reduction all pensions pen-sions thut parties to first profit by free- coin-as coin-as would i ii Incorporate owners ol tlie ell- vi r mines only and tbo parties to finally suffer tbe largest losses by it would be great the muss of our people into whose bauds the depreciated coin and treasury note would finally pas. We have paid off mole than ilirce-fourths of our great debt in gold win n our resources were far less than now, and I am unwilling to forfeit our well earned reputation and lose pnWte confidence and all the ancestral pretige of our history bv paying th- sorry remnant of this debt In legal ieudcr of much less value. House. Tin bouse discussed at length the question of rcfe ring the senate joint-resolution auth oriislng the secretary of the navy to transport contributions for Hie relief of flic: suffering people of Kussiaand to petitions to the effect that the United State extend Its aid to the Russian - itterers. I 'residential Apfotateente, Washinotox, Jan. ft The president to. da) sent to tna senate th following uomi uons Walter Wyman, of -Missouri, supervisory sing ... : eneral of the Marine hospital service. ser-vice. Duncan A. Me Heath, postmaster at Snohomish. Snoho-mish. Wash, |