doings thereof to the President, who shall transmit the same to Congress.

"Said commissioners shall each receive the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars and their reasonable expenses, to be approved by the Secretary of State; and the amount necessary to pay such compensation and expenses is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

"SEC. 3. That any holder of the coin authorized by this act may deposit the same with the Treasurer or any assistant treasurer of the United States, in sums not less than ten dollars, and receive therefor certificates of not less than ten dollars each, corresponding with the denominations of the United States notes. The coin deposited for or representing the certificates shall be retained in the Treasury for the payment of the same on demand. Said certificates shall be receivable for customs, taxes, and all public dues, and, when so received, may be reissued. "SEC. 4. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

"SAM. J. RANDALL,

"Speaker of the House of Representatives.

"W. A. WHEELER,

"Vice-President of the United States and

Passed over President's veto.

"President of the Senate."

THE SHERMAN ACT.

"An act directing the purchase of silver bullion and the issue of Treasury notes thereon, and for other purposes.

[Public-No. 214. 1890.]

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby directed to purchase, from time to time, silver bullion to the aggregate amount of four million five hundred thousand ounces, or so much thereof as may be offered in each month, at the market price thereof, not exceeding one dollar for three hundred and seventy-one and twenty-five hundredths grains of pure silver, and to issue in payment for such purchasers of silver bullion Treasury notes of the United States to be prepared by the Secretary of the Treasury, in such form and of such denominations, not less than one dollar nor more than one thousand dollars, as he may prescribe, and a sum sufficient to carry into effect the provisions of this act is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

"SEC. 2. That the Treasury notes issued in accordance with the

provisions of this act shall be redeemable on demand, in coin, at the Treasury of the United States, or at the office of any assistant treasurer of the United States, and when so redeemed may be reissued; but no greater or less amount of such notes shall be outstanding at any time than the cost of the silver bullion and the standard silver dollars coined therefrom, then held in the Treasury purchased by such notes; and such Treasury notes shall be a legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract, and shall be receivable for customs, taxes, and all public dues, and when so received may be reissued; and such notes, when held by any national banking association, may be counted as a part of its lawful reserve. That upon demand of the holder of any of the Treasury notes herein provided for the Secretary of the Treasury shall, under such regulations as he may prescribe, redeem such notes in gold or silver coin, at his discretion, it being the established policy of the United States to maintain the two metals on a parity with each other upon the present legal ratio, or such ratio as may be provided by law.

"SEC. 3. That the Secretary of the Treasury shall each month coin two million ounces of the silver bullion purchased under the provisions of this act into standard silver dollars until the first day of July, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and after that time he shall coin of the silver bullion purchased under the provisions of this act as much as may be necessary to provide for the redemption of the Treasury notes herein provided for, and any gain or seigniorage arising from such coinage shall be accounted for and paid into the Treasury."

EFFECT OF FREE COINAGE ON SAVINGS DEPOSITS, INSURANCE POLICIES, ETC.

More than 2,000,000 of our people have taken out life insurance policies, which are now in force, amounting to $4,202,857,323, and have paid the premiums on them year after year in good money, while the mutual benefit and assessment and cooperative and fraternal companies and associations have 3,500,000 members who have contributed a large part of their earnings to the funds held to reimburse losses sustained by sickness or death. The obligations of these companies and associations to their members amount to $5,184,670,936; and the industrial companies in the United States have a membership of 6,919,998, with insurance amounting to $816,650,678 in addition to all the foregoing, and it is constantly increasing. How many laboring men and women have taken out

policies or otherwise contributed from their earnings to insure themselves against loss by accident while engaged in the prosecution of their work can not be accurately ascertained, but the number is known to be very large.

The banks, trust companies, building associations and other similar institutions owe the people of the United States to-day $5,353,138,521 for money actually deposited, a sum nearly eight times greater than the total capital of all the national banks in the country; while the life insurance policies held by the people in the various kinds of corporations and associations and in force to-day amount to $10,203,504,357, a larger sum than has been actually invested in all our railroads, and about fifteen times larger than the capital of all the national banks. In view of these facts, which can not be successfully disputed, I submit that you ought seriously to consider all the consequences to yourselves and your fellow-citizens before you agree to the free and unlimited coinage of legal tender silver at a ratio of 16 to 1, in order that these great corporations and associations may have the privilege of discharging their debts to the people by paying 51 or 52 cents on the dollar, for that is exactly what it means.

It is a low estimate to say that each one of the depositors in savings and other banks and in building associations, and each holder of a life insurance policy and member of a mutual benefit and assessment association has dependent upon him or her an average of at least two other persons, and, if so, a majority of all our people are directly or indirectly creditors of these corporations and associations and are interested in the preservation of a standard of value which will insure the payment of their claims in as good money as they parted with when they made their loans or deposits or paid their assessments or premiums. Every dollar the people put into these banks and trust companies and other institutions, and every dollar they paid for insurance was worth 100 cents' worth of commodities in the market when they earned it and when they invested it, and they have an unquestionable right to demand that it shall be refunded to them in dollars worth 100 cents everywhere. The adoption of any policy that would deprive them of this right would not only inflict an enormous loss upon them, but would so seriously impair their faith in the fidelity and utility of such institutions that attempts to accumulate and save surplus earnings would be abandoned, or at least greatly discouraged for a long time to come.

But if free and unlimited coinage of legal-tender silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 is established in this country, a very large part of the money deposited in these various kinds of savings institutions will not even be repaid in depreciated silver, but will be

wholly lost, because such a reckless monetary system would precipitate a financial panic, which very few, if any, of the depositories could survive. I doubt that there is a single financial institution in the country that could sustain the pressure that would be immediately made upon it by its depositors and other creditors, when it became apparent that our standard of value was to be lowered and our currency depreciated by free coinage. From Ex-Secretary John G. Carlisle's address to the workingmen of Chicago, April 15, 1896.

"THE CRIME OF '73."

Although the copyright on this time-worn expression has nearly expired, the country continues to hear a great deal about this alleged act of violence against the integrity of the white metal. In spite of the fact that nearly three times as many silver dollars were coined during the one year of 1897 as in all the years from the establishment of the mints to 1873, people are still told that silver was stricken down surreptitiously by the act of 1873 (see elsewhere), and strange to say, this beguiling fiction finds belief among many persons, who have not the facts at hand to contradict it. It should be remembered that in 1873 neither gold nor silver was in circulation. The bill to make gold the standard of value had been before Congress three years. From the date of its introduction in the Senate it was printed, by order of Congress, with amendments, thirteen times, and was considered during five different sessions by the Senate and House. The debates on the bill in the Senate covered 66 pages and in the House 78 pages of the Congressional Globe. It was finally passed with a provision authorizing the coinage of the so-called trade dollar. The omission of the standard silver dollar was broadly commented upon during the debate. It was first proposed to include a silver dollar, but not of 4121⁄2 grains. Mr. Hooper, of Massachusetts, who in February, 1872, reported the bill from the Committee that formulated it, in the House, said:

"Section 16 reduces the weight of the silver dollar from 4121⁄2 grains 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. The silver dollar of 4121⁄2 grains, by reason of its bullion or intrinsic value, being greater than its nominal value, long since ceased to be a coin of circulation."

The opposition to the bill came from those who, as others are doing now, sought to derive personal profit from the continuance of free coinage at the ratio of 16 to 1. Then the antagonism emanated from the bullion brokers as now it does from the silver barons; and the New York members, headed by Mr.

Brooks, especially manifested a strong opposition to the measure, which is explained by these circumstances: Although the law of 1853 abolished the coinage of our minor silver coins for private account, Mr. Guthrie, Secretary of the Treasury under President Pierce, ordered the Mint to receive silver from private individuals and coin it. This order gave the coin and bullion brokers an opportunity for immense profits. They collected our silver dollars, which had a normal value of 100 cents, took them to the mints and had them coined into minor coins. Every two dollars yielded four half dollars, a dime and almost half a dime, or about 7 per cent profit. From $250,000 to $1,000,000 were made in this way every year, with a prospect of many millions profit when we should resume specie payments.

As shown by the remark of Mr. Hooper, the bill of 1873 was intended to put a stop to these immense illegitimate transactions by reducing the weight of the silver dollar from 4121⁄2 grains to 384 grains, "thus making it a subsidiary coin in harmony with the silver coins of less denominations;" it was subsequently done by omitting the standard silver dollar entirely. Mr. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, in a speech provoked by the persistent efforts of certain members to cause the defeat of the bill, vigorously assailed the dishonest methods of these bullion and coin brokers. He said:

“But, sir, I again call the attention of the House to the fact that the gentlemen who oppose this bill insist upon maintaining a silver dollar worth 32 cents more than the gold dollar and worth 7 cents more than two half dollars, and that so long as those provisions remain you cannot keep silver coin in the country. * *

"Let me, Mr. Speaker, hastily point out some of the interests that are on this floor seeking to protect themselves by preventing the passage of this bill. One silver bullion dealer in New York during the last Congress admitted to Mr. Hooper that under one defect in existing laws he was making at the cost of the Government from $75,000 to $100,000 a year. His profits-and he is but one of those who are growing fat and greedy upon the defects in our mint laws-arise in this way: Our country, like every other civilized government, should procure its own metal out of which to make subsidiary coinage. Now, sir, every coin of ours that is not gold is subsidiary. Our silver dollar, half dollar, and every other coin that is not gold is subsidiary. All other governments pay the expense of minting by the difference between the intrinsic value of subsidiary coins and the value at which they circulate. And such was the law of this country until by a ruling of Mr. Guthrie the Mint was ordered to receive silver from private individuals and coin it. Now, it so happens that a constituent of the gentleman from New York has been taking advantage of that ling and deposited silver to be made into half dollars and other r coins. He has, as he stated to my colleague (Mr. Hooper, Cassachusetts) and myself, been doing a business of from 0,000 to $2,000,000 per annum, giving him as profit an annual