Show IGNORANCE AND carelessness IN legislation IN the great controversy relating to silver now agitating the country reference is in made frequently to the act of 1873 advocates of freehand free and unlimited coinage of silver claim that this act was surreptitiously paused passed by goodites gold ites and that the country was not fully aware of its real nature until some years afterwards it to is admitted however on all hands bands that a silver dollar in 1873 was worth three cents more than a gold dollar the anti free silver men claim that this thin act had nothing to do with the of silver and that it did not interfere with the standard silver dollar that to is all true but it only authorized the coinage of silver into half and quarter dollars and dimes according to the standard of 1853 1858 and into a trade dollar above the standard of the unit dollar and prohibited these coins from being a legal tender for more than five dollars in any one pay went ment the act it is true contained no change in the old unit dollar it simply omitted to mention it as one of the coins to be made at the mint section 17 of the bill reads no coins either of gold silver or minor coinage shall hereafter be reatter be issued from the mint other than those of the denominations standards and weights herein set forth 11 II I the unit dollar was not mentioned in the bill therefore under this clause it could not be issued from the mint from the time of the passage of this bill silve ail vei j began to depreciate preci ate and iu 1876 the question of this became a topic of discussion throughout the nation at large in a lengthy address on silver nione money yand and its relation to the commerce and progress of the world P at colorado springs a few days ago the hon HOD charles S thomas touched on the bill of 1873 he said that for a period of some three years thereafter the great majority of the leading men of the nation were ignorant of the fact that thai by it silver had been demonetized de in 1874 president grant did not know it nor did senators hawley and hoar in 1876 landers of indiana garfield of ohio blaine of maine and conkling of new york did not know it and openly confessed their ignorance in order to show that this was the case mr thomas taomas quoted a dialogue which took place in the united states senate on march it reads as follows mr conkling will the sensor senator allow me to ask him or some other senator a question la Is it true that there li n now by yaw law no american dollar andia and if ao is it true that the effect of this bill is to be to make halt half dollars and quarter dollars the only silver coin which can be used as a legal tender mr sherman I 1 will answer the senator from new york that since the law ef 1853 the tide use of the silv WW bole dollar has been discontinued ana nd none has been issued that has hai been so since 1853 mr conkling Conkli Dg Is there power to issue M W mr sherman there is no power and has been none mr bogy the power to issue existed from ISM 1853 to 1873 but since 1873 1 I think there has been no power mr sherman there has been no silver dollar issued since 1853 and my imbres sion ion is that the law of 1853 1858 did not confer the power to issue it the senator thinks it dido did confer the power but the law of 1878 1873 cut off the power in my judgment I 1 if it existed mr jones ot of nevada the law of 1853 authorized the coinage of the silver dollar and it was never de until february 1873 but it needed no law to prevent peo people le from coining such business gu a dollar for use in business siness when there was another dollar to be got 3 or 4 per cent cheaper the people did in 1853 and up to 1873 1878 have the option that if gold became dearer they could fall back on the silver dollar in 1873 that privilege was taken away 4 this puts the case in a nutshell and I 1 shows conclusively that the statesmen of twenty years ago did not give that I 1 attention to financial and currency questions that is devoted to them to day and when such a man as roscoe boscoe conkling was hoodwinked it is little wonder that the representatives form kansas and aad texas were also misled there is another thing disclosed by recent discussion of this subject and that is that national legislators like those of some states and territories give their sanction to measures of paramount importance without under standing their true inwardness and their effects upon the people whom these lawmakers are chosen to represent such car carless nesa in legislation is ruly deplorable and condemnable |