benefit to all the nations of the world if, in some way or other, silver and gold might be put in such relation to each other that they would stand at par with each other at a given ratio. There is no doubt about that.
people, that the Government was in some way bound to redeem dollars which had been coined at its mints.
As I read the pending resolution it seems that it is for the
It says: purpose of increasing commerce.
There will be no opposition among any portion of our people to the use of silver to the extent where it will not demonetize gold. Every one of those who are commonly classed by the pop-requested to enter into negotiations with the Republic of Mexico looking to ular feeling as goldites would be glad to see silver and gold placed upon a fixed parity, so that they could be maintained at par with each other among all the nations of the world, and be used everywhere as the standards of money. Those of us who believe that the gold standard should be maintained also believe that the silver standard should be maintained, but it can be maintained only when the market value of silver at a given ra- tio is equal to the market value of gold at the same ratio. That is our belief.
That the President of the United States, with a slow to encourage and ox- tend our commercial relations with China and other Asiatic couatrics, be the coinage by the United States, at its mints, of standard Mexican dollars. Sir, to me it is a very humiliating admission to be found in an act of Congress that the Government of the United States, con- taining forty-four graat States, its commerce greater by a hun- dredfold than that of the Republic of Mexico, having commer cial relations with China, Japan, and with the islands of the sea, are not able to put into circulation trade dollars of 420 grains bearing the stamp or superscription of the United States. With all our commercial power and all our commerce with those na If it is possi-tions we were not able to circulate trade dollars and keep them This proposition is, I think, a very taking one. ble for the President of the United States to negotiate a treaty in circulation in those countries, but, at the expiration of a short with Mexico, by which the United States might issue practitine, found the coin returned to the United States and the Gov- cally the silver coin now known as the Mexican dollar, aid that ernment felt obligated to redeem them, and did redeem them in coin can be used for a commercial dollar to be exported, not standard silver dollars. made a legal tender and not to be coined to an unlimited extent except for exportation, then I can see that it would give em- ployment to probably a vast amount of silver.
I do not understand, though perhaps the Senator from Colo- rado cau instruct me, how it is possible by the coinage of Mexi- on dollars to increase our trade with China. If to-day a New York merchant buys a cargo of tea in China, he is obliged to pay for it by draft on England. The Chinese Government do bot receive our silver coin. Why should they receive the coins of the Republic of Mexico? If a Chinese merchant owes a mer chant in India a balance of trade, he is bound and obliged to pay the balance to the Indian merchant by a gold draft on London. So far even the silver countries themselves in making their ex- changes of products refuse to settle their balances in other than
No man can estimate the amount which might be used in such a country as China. China contains a population, it is said, of 400,000,000, and many of them are very intelligent people. They are shrewd, active people, who understand precisely the value of the dollar, and measure it to the last grain. If we can secure by a treaty stipulation an arrangement with Mexico, by which a dollar may be coined in our mints for exportation, then un- doubtedly we should be able to give employaient to a consider able amount of silver; we should relieve Mexico from the bur-gold. den, and probably the expense, of coining that silver, and if we can send $100,000,000 or as much as can be produced in this country to China or the eastern countries, it will tend to ad- vance the price of silver; and there is no one who does not desire to advance the price of silver nearer and nearer to the standard of gold. I shall, therefore, vote for the resolution,
I wish, however, to call the attention of my friend from Colo- rado to the fact that he has probably overlooked the ordinary language which is used in addressing resolutions to the Pros- dent. There should be inserted in the resolution the words, | "if not incompatible with the public interests." Those words should be inserted in the proper place in the resolution. I will ask the Secretary to read the resolution.
COTT.
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Now, I can not conceive of any plan whereby an Amorican mer- chant taking the Mexican dollars into China will be able to pur- chase goods in China to any better advantage than he would be with American dollars, to say nothing of the great humiliation which I think the American people must feel that we must add to our money, consisting to-day of eight different kinds of our rency, gold and silver coins and their certificates, national-bank notes, Treasury notes, and United States notes, regardless of the fractional currency, another kind of currency having no legal status under the laws of the United States, which must of necessity return from China, and Japan, and India. If it is sent there for the purchase of Chinese goods it will inevitably return bere for the purchase and payment of American goods. "There- fore we are simply issuing another kind of currency not recog- nized by our laws, not a legal tender, which it is very probabla the Government of the United States will in the immediate future be obliged by all honorable considerations to redeem.
I agree, so far as I can agree, with the wish of the honorable Senator from Colorado [Mr. WOLCOTT), to increase so far as wa can without harm and without injury to the financial condition of this country as it exists to-day the use of silver in our cirou-
resolution will not make a demand or a market för very much silver, except we are willing to admit at the same time that it will return to the United States to plague us,
The VICE-PRESIDENT. The resolution will be read. The Secretary read the resolution submitted by Mr. WOL
Mr. WOLCOTT. I suggest to the Senator from Ohio that if we were calling for information from the President of the United States, it would be perfectly proper and most courteous that we should say, "it, in his opinion, not incompatible with the public interests but we do a great many things here which, in the opinion of the President the United States, are probablylation, but it seems to me that the plan contemplated by the quite incompatible with the public interests. I suggest, there fore, that in a resolution directing something to be done, if it should not happen to meet with the view of the President and he did not want to do it, under the terms of the resolution he would not be required to do it. I am subject to correction if I am wrong.
M. SHERMAN. The President of the United States has the sole power to make treaties, but we may express our opinion of the expediency of his making a treaty of a particular kind. That would be right enough, and, therefore, we embody in such reso- lutions the ordinary terms. We merely ratify a treaty by a two- thirds vote, but the President makes the treaty. I am, how- ever, rather indifferent about the form of the resolution, though I think the form I have suggested would be more courteous.
Mr. WOLCOTT. I certainly want to do whatever is proper in the matter.
Mr. MCPHERSON. I understood the Senator from Ohio Mr. SHERMAN] to say that he proposed to offer an amendment pro- viding that the Mexican dollar should be coined for the purpose of export. Did I understand him correctly?
Mr. SHERMAN. I did not propose that. That would be left open to negotiation. As stated by the Senator from Colorado, these dollars are for export, and the treaty, as a matter of course, would be based upon that idea. It could not be otherwise.
Mr. MCPHERSON, So also the trade dollars were intended for export, and the law providing for the coinage of the trade dollars expressly stated the purpose and use of those dollars to be for export to foreign countries. The Senator from Ohio knows full well what the result was in regard to the trade dollars. We were obliged to take them back and recoin them, under the idea and impression which obtained possession of the
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I have been so busy with other things that I have not been able oven to read the resolution of the honorable Senator from Colorado until it was laid upon my desk this morning. I inquire of him if it would interfere with his purpose, plan, and wish if I should ask to have the resolution go over until to-morrow? I should like to present some observations on the subject.
Mr. STEWART, I should like to submit some observations before tho resolution goes over.
Mr. McPHERSON." Very well; then f yield the Hoor to the Sonator from Nevada. I am not prepared this morning to state the case as fully as I wish to state it.
Mr. STEWART. Mr. President, the Senator from Ohio [Mr. SHERMAN] made an observation which may be misleading." He says the advocates of gold are also the friends of silver, and that all they desire is to maintain the parity. I wish to repeat what I have often said, that bimetallism is not the result of parity, but parity follows bimetallism. It followed it for thou- sands of years on the simplest principle in the world, that ag long as you can get a given uumber of dollars or other units of money for a given quantity or weight of silver for another and different weight of gold, the amount of gold required and the amount of silver required to obtain that number of dollars aro always of the same value and at a parity. Parity was main tained for thousands of years in that way, and whenever one of the metals became scarce, so that it was inconvenient to get it, they used the other, and the demand fell on the other until the parity was restored. It was automatic and worked for thou- sands of years.
Those who say they are in favor of parity and refuse the only legislation which can produce parity are either ignorant of what they say or they do not mean what they say. Everybody who has any sense at all knows if you cut of the market for silver it is just like anything else. It will fall. The market for sit- ver at the minis was unlimited through all the ages until the fatal act of 1873, and while the market was unlimited it made no difference whether there was more silver produced or more gold; the parity regulated itself, From the discovery of Amer- ica until 1803, von Humboldt tells us there were 44 ounces of silver produced for every ounce of gold, and it continued nearly the same up to 1850. There was a great preponderance of sil ver through all the ages; but from 1850 to 1860 there were not more than 4 or 5 ounces of silver produced to 1 of gold. The parity remained. If they could not get silver they used gold. As long as we had binnstillism we had parity. Nobody expects that we will have a parity while we have no bimetallism. which admits both metals to coinage. We do not coin silver. It is idle to talk about silver demonetized competing with gold mon- otized. We have made gold dear, and we have made labor and property cheap and produced stagnation because we have do- prived the people of their money.
As to the pending revolution, I know no reason why it should not be adopted, except the fact that no opposition comes from the gold advocates. That makes it suspicious. But I am willing to act on my judgment. I fear, however, that Mexico will not con seut, and it will amount to nothing. If they do consent and we coin some of those dollars and they are sent to China, they will augment the circulation of that kind of money in China, and it may possibly do some good. The mover of the resolution does not expect any great benefit from it. It has nothing at all to do with the silver question in this country.
know what is the matter. Thon, by putting an equivocal candi- date before the people who can make promises in public and coed with the gold party; and when you get into power you may break them when he gets into the White House, you may suc- uprising. You may have those laws; you may bind the people Jave Federal election laws which will prevent the people from hand and fout; you may create insurrection and the necessity for 1 stronger Government; you may change the form of govern ment; but you can not do it if you will tell the people before- band what you intend to do.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the resolution. Does the Senator from New Jersey [Mr. McPHER- SON) wish to be further heard upon the subject?"
the resolution go over until to-morrow.
Mr. GORMAN. The Senator from New Jersey suggested that [Mr. WOLCOTT] agrees that it shall go over.
Mr. MCPHERSON. I understand the Senator from Colorado
Mr. SHERMAN. I offer the amendment which I suggested a few moments ago, so that it will read the President of the etc. I think those words ought to be insorted in the resolution United States, if not incompatible with the public interests," as they are ordinarily in such resolutions.
the Senator from Ohio will be stated.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The amendment proposed by
The SECRETARY. It is proposed to insert after the words "United States," in the first line, the words:
If not incompatible with the public interests. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator from Ohio desire to press his amendment now, or that it shall go over with the resolution?
Mr. SHERMAN. I think there will be no objection to the amendment.
Mr. GORMAN. There is no objection to it. Mr. QUAY. I understood the Senator from Colorado to object to the amendment. Mr. SHERMAN. be considered when the resolution comes up.
He acquiesces in it. Mr. MCPHERSON. I should like to offer an amendment to I do not ask a vote the words "for exportation." on it now. After the word "dollars," in line 6, I move to insert
morrow.
But the Senator from New Jersey [Mr. MCPHERSON speaks of humiliating this country. Financially, it can be no more hu- millated than to be at the beek and call of an English syndicate. We have reached tho do th of humiliation when we have become 2 financial colony of Great Britain. That is degradation enough. He says further that he does not wish to disturb the present status. I think the majority of people in this country desire the present status of things disturbed. They desire a change for the better. We see discontent everywhere. We see a con- dition of things prevailing that has prevailed in every country before a grout catastropha happoned --discoutent; men teamping over the country starving for bread in this land of plenty. "We may deride then, we may make fun of them, we may put them in our jails, but that experiment is not a new one. They were put in jails in Paris. The authorities put in jail as many as they cosid, until the prisons were full. The starving multitude moved on. Death marked their progress to Paris until they came in such numbers that they made resistance impossible. Force against universal insurrection has always failed. A Frenchman, whose name I do not remember, when this maltitude was coming, axelimed, Force against universal insurrection is impossible." We may go on contracting the currency: we may go on depriv-accept the amendment to-morrow. I should like to look it over, ing the people of money; we may go on reducing prices; we may
however. go on inflicting calamities upon the country; bat we already hear and it will be so ordered.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair hears no objection, the murmurings coming up here.
When any one speaks of the present satisfactory condition of the country, Lask to whom is it satisfactory? It is ouly satisfac- tory to the owners of gold, and bonds rosting upon undoubted security, and holders of office whose salaries have not been re- duced. Those with fixed incomes may rejoice at cheap men and cheap labor and cheap property and stagnation, because they can realize what others have lost. This thing may go on; the gold party may be triumphant; they may be triumphant in the cowing election. Some of the elections we have had indicate that it will be; but let me tell Senators right here and now that if the gold party are triumphant in the noxt election they will have to select a man for standard-bearer whom the gold party knows and the people do not know.
No man can go before the country in its suffering condition and ask for their votes in the next Presidential election on ac- count of the repeal of the Sherman law and the adoption of the gold standard. If the gold party go forward they must put forth a man whom they know and can use. They dare not put forth a man who has fallen on his face before the money power. They dare not do it on either side; neither party will do it. The gold party may be successful by the destruction of the Democratic party or otherwise. By the destruction of the Democratic party the gold party may succeed. It may be that the chains of slavery can never be broken in this country. That is possible. But the people must be kept in ignoranco. It must be done by subter- fuge, and other issues thin the real one must be kept before the country.
You inast contend over the tariff question or something that does not affect the world generally. You must not lot them
No. 05-2
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The amendment will bo stated. Mr. MCPHERSON. I do not wish a vote upon the amend- ment now, but I will wait until the resolution comes up to-
Mr. HARRIS. Has the resolution gone over? New Jersey asks that the resolution with the pending amend- ment and proposed amendment go over. Is there objection?
Mr. WOLCOTT. I have no objection to the resolution going Senatore to speak upon it, a vote may be had pou the resolution over until to-morrow. I hope that then, if there are no further and the amendineat. It is very possible that I shall be glad to
The PRESIDING OFFICER. It has not. The Senator from
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175
Mr. HARRIS, Mr President, niliteving as I do Mar May Is no one question in which the 70.00 1,000 people whom we repre- early determination and final conclusion as to what the import sent here are so deeply and directly interested as that of the duties of merchandise to this country are to be in the future, I am exceedingly anxions to reach some agreement by which we can devote auch more time to its consideration day by day than we have done in the past. There is cortainly no one question more important, and in my opinion no one question half as im portant, as that the business of the country shall know, and know at the earliest hour possible for us to inform them, what the rate of duties to be paid in the fula are to be. In view of that fact I am tempted to ask the unagious consent of the Sen- »to that we come to some agreement as to the hours that shall be devoted to the consideration of this question each day with- ous interruption. Consulting my own wished and opinion and that of a large number of Senators upon this side of the Cham- ber, will ask unanimous content that after to-day the Senate meet at 11 o'clock instead of12.
Mr‡QUAY. I object, M. President.
MY HARRIS. The ection comes very early. I have not finished, but it appears that I need not finish. However, I will proses. The Senator might have withheid his objection until he heard the full statement.
Objection being made, I now ask the other side of the Cham- ber to tell me, and to tell this side, whether there is any agree ment possible to devote more time, day by day, to the considera- tion of this great and vitally important question.
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