The quotations from the national party platforms of 1896 and 1912 reveal the complete reversal of opinion on the part of both parties with reference to the underlying relations of money and prices; political expediency still appears to be of more practical significance than analysis or truth.

By way of reviewing the whole history of monetary evolution one should compare the statistics of production of the precious metals at various periods with the monetary controversies that have come and gone. It will be found that monetary history may be very largely explained by reference to the conditions of production of gold and silver at the mines.

A. The Agitation for the Recoinage of Silver

I20.

THE CRIME OF 1873: THE INDICTMENT1
By J. P. DUNN

The bill which was presented to the Senate for amendment and passage contained provision for a standard silver dollar as well as for a trade dollar. In the words of Mr. Sherman: "This bill proposes a silver coinage exactly the same as the French, and what are called the associated nations of Europe, who have adopted the international standard of silver coinage; that is, the dollar provided for by this bill is the precise equivalent of the five-frånc piece. It contains the same number of grains of silver, and we have adopted the international gram instead of the grain for the standard of our silver coinage. The "trade dollar” has been adopted mainly for the benefit of the people of California and others engaged in trade with China. That is the only coin measured by the grain instead of the gram. The intrinsic value of each is to be stamped upon the coin." (Congressional Globe, 3d sess., 42d Cong., p. 672.)

Human perversity cannot misinterpret this language. It means that the bill provided for two dollars. The one, measured in grams, the standard of our silver coinage, and the other, measured in grains, a special coin for convenience in the Chinese trade. The Senate passed this bill and it was referred to the House, which declined to concur in some of the Senate amendments, thus necessitating a Conference Committee. This committee in reporting to the House and Senate made no reference to the omission of the standard silver dollar Adapted from "The Silver 'Grievance,' " Journal of Political Economy, 1892, pp. 436-38.

from the list of coins that could be struck. This section of the bill had not been amended by the Senate, and therefore was not a section open for adjustment in the Conference Committee. Someone secretly drew the pen through the silver dollar. The fact that it was done in the Conference Committee, where it was not an issue, is the significant point which is usually overlooked by those who hold that there was no intentional deceit.

121.

THE CRIME OF 1873: THE DEFENSE

BY JAMES T. MCCLEARY

The mintage act of 1873 is a subject about which there has been a great deal of misunderstanding. Aspersions galore have been cast upon the methods and the motives of the men who were responsible for its enactment. For twenty years "the crime of 1873" has been held up as one of the most atrocious in the entire political calendar.

The original bill was prepared in the Treasury Department in the winter of 1869-70 by John Knox, then Deputy Comptroller of the Currency, under the direction of George S. Boutwell, then Secretary of the Treasury. The laws relating to the mint had not been revised for more than a generation, and much confusion existed. The first section of the bill was largely a codification of existing law, with such improvements as experience suggested.

Then immediately following, and in the precise place where anyone interested in such legislation or attempting to follow its course would most naturally look for a statement of what was contemplated, was a short paragraph headed in large capital letters: PROPOSED AMENDMENTS. In this paragraph an enumeration of "the new features of the bill" is made. There are twelve different amendments specified-one of which is plainly stated to be "discontinuing the coinage of the silver dollar." This is the clause that has given rise to the long controversy. The bill as thus perfected was introduced in the Senate April 25, 1870, accompanied by a report giving the reasons for its introduction, the method of its preparation, and an explanation of every section in it. (The original bill and the report accompanying it are to be found in the Senate Misc. Document No. 132 of the second session of the Forty-first Congress.)

Section 14 of the bill specified the weight and fineness of the gold

coins, and made the gold dollar the unit of value.

I

Adapted from Sound Currency, III, 1896, No. 13, pp. 2–10.

Sections 15 and 18 were as follows:

Section 15. And be it further enacted, That of the silver coin, the weight of the half-dollar, or piece of fifty cents, shall be 192 grains; and that of the quarter-dollar and dime shall be, respectively, one half and onefifth of the weight of said half-dollar. That the silver coin issued in conformity with the above section shall be a legal tender in any one payment of debts for all sums less than $1;

Section 18. And be it further enacted, That no coins, either gold, silver, or minor coinage, shall hereafter be issued from the mint other than those of the denominations, standard, and weights herein set forth.

Ask the first twenty free-silverites that you meet, "Did the Act of 1873 ever contain the old standard silver dollar of 412 grains?" and nineteen of them, if not all, will promptly answer, "Why, certainly, and it was surreptitiously dropped out just before the passage of the bill." Many a good man has had his righteous indignation aroused by being told this tale. And very frequently it has been told by men who sincerely believed that such was the case. But, as we have seen, the story is not true. The 412-grain dollar was never in the bill from first to last! Its omission was carefully pointed out in the report accompanying the original bill, and the reasons for the omission were plainly given. The dollar for which the trade dollar was finally substituted was a 384-grain dollar, of limited coinage and tender. The change was made for the benefit of the silver-producers, and at their request, to enable them to find a market for their silver in the East.

And the bill on its final passage was voted for by every man from the Pacific Coast. They had got exactly what they asked for.

That the matter was fully discussed in Congress may be seen by the following extracts from the debates:

On January 9, 1872, in reporting H.R. 5, which (like the original bill, S. 859) contained no silver dollar of any kind, Mr. Kelley, chairman of the committee in charge of the bill, said: "The Senate took up the bill and acted upon it during the last Congress and sent it to the House; it was referred to the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures, and received as careful attention as I have ever known a committee to bestow on any measure. We proceeded with great deliberation to go over the bill, not only section by section, but line by line, and word by word; the bill has not received the same elaborate consideration from the Committee on Coinage of this House, but the attention of each member was brought to it at the earliest

day of this session; each member procured a copy of the bill, and there has been a thorough examination of the bill again."

Mr. Harper on April 9, 1872, for instance, spoke as follows on section 16: "Section 16 re-enacts the provisions of the existing laws defining the silver coins and their weights, respectively, except in relation to the silver dollar, which is reduced in weight from 412 to 384 grains, thus making it a subsidiary coin in harmony with the silver coins of less denomination to secure its concurrent circulation with them. . . . . This bill provides for the making of changes in the legal-tender coin of the country and for substituting as legal-tender coins of only one metal instead as heretofore of two. I think myself this would be a wise provision, and that legal-tender coins, except subsidiary coin, should be of gold alone; but why should we legislate on this now when we are not using either of those metals as a circulating medium?"

On May 27, 1872, the bill was once more called up in the House by Mr. Hooper for the purpose of offering an amendment in the nature of a substitute.

In view of certain statements which have been going the rounds to the effect that the bill or its substitute was never read, it may not be out of place to state somewhat more fully the events preceding the passage of the act in the House, as they are recorded in the Globe: 1. A motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill without reading was defeated.

2. Mr. Hooper then asked that the bill about to be passed be read. 3. The record reads, "The clerk began to read the substitute” (which was the bill passed).

4. Mr. McCormick later said, "I ask that the nineteenth section be read again."

5. After further discussion the bill was passed, yeas 110, nays 13. The bill was again printed in the Senate on May 29, 1872, and referred to the Finance Committee, from which it was reported back December 16, 1872. After debate, the bill was once more printed in full, with amendments, and was considered by the Senate section by section.

After passing the Senate, January 17, 1873, the bill was sent to the House, and on January 21, 1873, it was again printed with amendments. Subsequently conference committees were appointed, consisting of Messrs. Hooper, Houghton, and McNeely of the House, and

Senators Sherman, Scott, and Bayard of the Senate. The reports of the Conference Committee were agreed to, and the bill became a law on February 10, 1873.

122. AN ECONOMIST'S VIEW OF THE ACT OF 1873'

BY FRANCIS A. WALKER

As one who has read a good deal upon both sides of this subject, I do not believe that any fraud was committed or intended by the Act of 1873. Very few people knew what the monetary system of the country was by law. Our public men had almost no training in economics or finance. The general public had not had its attention at all called to the subject of the standard. Some committeeman, or some few committeemen, ran the pen through the silver dollar; and the thing was done. The measure passed through the usual course; the bill was duly "read" the regular number of times; and without debate the demonetization of silver was effected.

But while I am disposed to discredit the allegations of sinister motives, it seems to me, nevertheless, that the silver men have a grievance. No man in a position of trust has a right to allow a measure of such importance to pass without calling attention sharply to it. Everyone knows that but few men upon the floor of Congress read the text of one in twenty of the bills they have to pass upon; and it is the duty of the committees dealing with any class of subjects to see to it that every proposal is fully explained to Congress and to the country. They are not discharged of their obligations simply by giving members an opportunity to find it out for themselves.

During the sixties the United States suddenly developed silver resources second only to those of Mexico; and Congress, desirous of assisting American mine-owners to secure an Oriental market for their product, in 1873 consented to their having their silver stamped at the government mint into coin adapted for the Eastern trade. So great was the foreign demand for Mexican dollars at this time that they continually commanded a premium; and, as the Mexican govern

I

Adapted from "The Free Coinage of Silver," Journal of Political Economy, I (1892), pp. 169-70.

2

* Adapted from Quarterly Journal of Economics, XVIII (1903–04) 329–31.