Every direct tax or tax on income or property CURRENCY. (Continued.) and Denmark in 1873 and by Norway in 1875. By this treaty they adopted the single gold standard and made silver a subsidiary metal, to be coined on Government account only, for change purposes. Third. Holland, which had been on a silver basis since 1847, practically followed the example of Germany in 1875, for although in that year it nominally adopted the double standard at the ratio of 1 to 15 5-11, it, as a matter of fact, prohibited the coinage of silver, thus becoming, like Germany, gold monometallic. "Fourth. The price having fallen to a point at which it becomes profitable for brokers to purchase silver in Germany and ship it to the states comprising the Latin Union for conversion into 5-franc pieces, the parties to that monetary treaty decided, in 1874, to limit the amount of 5-franc pieces to be coined by each. This, however, did not have the effect to steady the price, and in 1878 the mints of the Latin Union were closed to the coinage of full legal-tender silver coins, and have remained so ever since. "Fifth. In September, 1876, Russia suspended the coinage of silver, except as to such an amount as might be required for trade purposes with China. "Notwithstanding the fact that the silver standard legally prevailed in Austria-Hungary until 1892, the free coinage of silver has been suspended in that country since 1879. In 1892 it formally adopted the single gold standard. "By the act of 1873 the coinage of full legal-tender silver was tacitly prohibited in the United States and gold made the sole standard of val. ue, but as we were then on a paper basis, the price of silver can not be said to have been appreciably affected by that act, especially as it provided for the receipt of silver from individuals for coinage into trade dollars, and the further fact that large purchases of silver were made for the subsidiary silver coinage under the acts of 1873 and 1875, to replace the fractional paper currency which had been used for change purposes since 1862. "The act of February 28, 1878, authorized the coinage of silver dollars of the weight of 412 grains, as provided for by the act of January 18, 1837, and which were a full legal tender. Under the act of 1837 the coinage was free to individuals, but the act of 1878 provided for the coinage of full legal-tender silver dollars on Government account only. It also provided for the purchase for this coinage of not less than $2,000,000, nor more in $4,000,000 worth of bullion each month, at the market price. But twithstanding the magnitude of the purchase of silver required to be made under the act of 1878 the decline in price continued. 1 "Further legislation by the United States, still more favorable to silver, was enacted by the act of July 14, 1890, which provided for the purchase of 54,000,000 ounces annually, the estimated production of our domestic I say that under these circumstances, and in view of these facts, we are justified in finding some fault with the way in which this old soldier is treated after his pension has been allowed. -Hon. James A. Tawney, Minnesota. CURRENCY. (Continued.) mines. The effect of this act was to cause a temporary advance in the price of silver, but the high price could not be maintained owing to the largely increased output by the silver-producing countries of the world, and the price commenced to decline in September, 1890, and continued to do so. "Sixth. On the 26th of June, 1893, the Legislative Council of India passed a bill closing her mints to silver coinage for individuals, and her action has been followed in the United States by the repeal of the purchasing clause of the act of July 14, 1890. "The present price of silver in the London market is 324d. for silver .925 fine, equivalent in United States money to $0.707 10 for silver 1,000 fine. "Seventh. The great increase in the production of the metal. In 1873 the world's production of silver was estimated to be $81,800,000, and in 1892 at $196,605,000-an increase in the annual supply, in twenty years, of over 140 per cent. "Considering the enormously increased production of silver and the decreasing demand for it for coinage purposes, it would be a matter of surprise if the price had not very greatly declined. "The increase of the production has had more to do with the depreciation of silver than has its demonetization by some countries and the suspension of its coinage by others. CURRENCY, SILVER, COURSE OF IN 1893. "The year 1893 was a memorable one in the history of silver and silver legislation, rendered so by the passage of the act of the Governor-General of India in Council of June 26, which closed the Indian mints to the free coinage of silver, and by the repeal, in November, of the purchasing clause of the act of Congress of July 14, 1890, which provided for the purchase by the Government of the United States of 4,500,000 fine ounces of silver per month. These measures deprived silver, so far as legislation could accomplish that end, of its two largest and most remunerative markets, and left Mexico the only country of any importance in which the coinage of the white metal continues free. "The highest price reached during the year for an ounce of British standard silver (.925 fine) was in January, when it amounted to 38 9-16 pence, equivalent to $0.84724 per fine ounce, and the lowest 30 pence for British standard, or $0.66426 per ounce for fine silver. The highest average London price for any one month in the year was 38.356 pence in February, and the lowest 32.015 pence, the average price in December. The highest monthly average price of fine bar silver in New York was $0.84380 in February, and the lowest $0.70250 in December. ""The difference between the highest and lowest monthly average price was greater than in any year since 1890, amounting to 16.7 per cent. In violating these rights you put the soldier of the country upon a level below the commonest criminal. You say to the criminal in the dock, "You shall not be convicted until you have been tried." You say to the soldier, "We will convict you before you have had a trial." -Hon. Charles H. Grosvenor, Ohio. CURRENCY. (Continued.) "The average London price for the whole year, of bar silver 925 fine was 35.596 pence, and the average price during the year of fine bar silver in New York was $0.78219, a decline as compared with the average price in 1892 of over 10.5 per cent. "Owing to a steady although declining demand of silver for India, no great variation in the price of bar silver occurred until May, when the dearness of money in that country enabled the Indian council to sell large amounts of telegraphic transfers, and the demand for silver being consequently smaller, the price fell from 38 9-16 pence ($0.84724 per fine ounce) to 37 11-16 pence ($0.83090 per fine ounce), from which price there was a recovery in June to 381 pence for bar silver, British standard, or $0.84672 for fine bar silver. The closing of the Indian mints to the free coinage of silver caused a panic both in London and New York and silver fell to 36 pence in London and to $0.78405 in New York on the 26th. Between that date and the 30th it dropped in London, to 35 pence on the 27th, to 34 pence on the 28th, to 311 pence on the 29th, and to 30 pence on the 30th; and in New York to $0.76227 on the 27th, to $0.73959 on the 28th, to $0.68604 on the 29th, and to $0.66426 on the 30th, per ounce of fine bar silver. "On the 1st of July British standard silver was quoted in London at 33 pence and fine silver in New York at $0.72960. After this there was a gradual advance, owing to the fact that for the first time China became an important buyer of bar silver and continued to take large sums until late in the year. The advance was uninterrupted until about the middle of September, when the price in London for bars ready for immediate shipment was 344 pence and the price of fine bars in New York $0.75449 per ounce. The price on the last day of 1893 was 31.175 pence in London and $0.69471 in New York. "The suspension of the free coinage of silver in India does not seem to have lessened the imports of silver into India in 1893. The net imports of ounces of silver into that country are shown in the following table for the Indian fiscal years (ending March 31) 1887-'88 to 1893-'94. With the closing of mills and factories throughout our land, beginning most abruptly after the result of the election of 1892 was known, multitudes of laboring people were forced into idleness. -Senator H. C. Hansbrough, North Dakota. CURRENCY, THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS ALL ARTICLES RELATING TO PAPER MONEY USED AS CURRENCY. CURRENCY, NATIONAL VERSUS STATE. At the close of the Revolutionary war the public debt amounted to about $80,000,000. The script had become worthless. The confederation had no power to levy taxes, and its financial credit had disappeared. The money of the several States was in utter confusion, both as to kinds and value. To bring order and credit out of this financial chaos was the problem which confronted Hamilton when he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by Washington under the new Constitutional Government. And this was accomplished by a series of financial measures, which have given to his name imperishable renown. 1. Assumption of the revolutionary debts of the confederation and the States, with promise to pay them in full. 2. Passage of a tarifflaw to provide for the support of the Government, the payment of these debts, and the encouragement and protection of manufactures. 3. A Mint act, to give unity to the denominations and value of money. 4. The establishment of the Bank of the United States, to provide a fiscal agent, and a sound and uniform paper currency. CURRENCY, THE UNITED STATES BANKS. The act to authorize this bank was passed by Congress, and approved February 25, 1791. "The measure originated with the Secretary of the Treasury, and was violently opposed by Jefferson and the Anti-federal party." The controversy thus begun has continued to wage ever since. The bank was reorganized in 1817, with a charter for twenty years, which, therefore, expired in 1837; and the successful war of President Jackson and the Democratic party against its re-charter was one of the notable events of his administration. The party issue from thence on has been clear and unmistakable. The Whig party was in favor of a national currency, to be supplied through a national bank and branches, and throughout its existence strove to secure such an institution, but in vain. The Democratic party having defeated all such attempts, was fully committed to the system of State banks, declaring in its national platform f 1840, "That Congress has no power to charter a United States Bank; and we believe such an institution one of deadly hostility to the best interests of the country, dangerous to our Republican institutions and the liberties of the people." As the total amount of the gold coinage up to 1837 was only $23,140,340; and of the silver coinage $48,815,879.90, it is quite apparent that some sort of a paper currency was essential to business, I thank heaven that men are sent here whom you can trust; that we have behind us this great constituency that will always either sustain us in what is right or condemns us in what is wrong. -Senator Anthony Higgins, Delaware. CURRENCY. (Continued.) The country gradually reccv ered from its commercial disasters, but did not profit by its experience. A Democratic Congress repealed the tariff of 1842, and enacted the Walker tariff of 1846. Banks were again multiplied, and flooded the country with their paper as variegated as Joseph's coat of many colors. At the beginning of the war there were 1396 banks existing in 29 States and Territories, which were thus described by a Senator: "Their systems of banking are as diverse as anything can possibly be. We have a complex system of bank-notes. The ordinary bank-note reporters and detectors contain an infinite variety of descriptions to tell the value of a bank note, and whether it is counterfeit. The loss by counterfeiting, and the loss by bad notes of various kinds in this country, is estimated by gentlemen who are engaged in the business as nearly equal to the interest on the whole circulation. The people, therefore, are not only compelled to use this money, and substantially give to the banks a profit of the interest on the whole circulation, butin addition to that they fully lose $9,000,000 in the form of defaced notes, counterfeit notes, etc. Every year more or less of these banks break. There is no stability about them. They have no common bond of organization; any important event that disturbs the money market of the world makes a greater flutter among them than a shot among a bevy of partridges. The uncertain rate of exchange between the different States grows out of the multitude and diversity of the banks. The bank paper of States adjoining each other has varied in value as much as one year's interest of money." As long as the Democratic party was in power this currency was local, issued under authority of the States, in accordance with their fundamental principle of State Sovereignty. In 1876 ex-Secretary Hugh McCollough gave this dispassionate but graphic picture of this system: "In anticipation of the expiration of the charter of the United States Bank many banking institutions were chartered by the States, some of which-known at the time as pet banks-became the depositories of the public moneys. It soon became apparent, however, that these banks were likely to become unsafe Government depositories, and all connection of the Government with the banks was terminated by the SubTreasury Act, under which the public revenues were collected in coin and deposited in the Treasury. From the time of the expiration of the charter of the United States Bank up to 1861 the State banks furnished the country with its paper circulation, and, to a great extent, controlled its business. It is not necessary to dwell upon the defects of the Statebank system, or the character of a considerable part of the notes which the people were compelled to receive and treat as money. There were |