1876 to 1890 declined to $108,000,000, a falling off of 15 per cent. The average annual product of silver for the same period increased to $116,000,000, an increase of 127 per cent. There is the whole silver question, and in the face of these facts, it is now impossible for the United States, single handed, with free and unlimited coinage, to bring silver to a parity with gold on any such basis as 16 to 1; it is more impossible than for a thousand men to pick up our great Pike's Peak' and transport it bodily to Denver."

ACTS RELATING TO THE TRADE DOLLAR.

By the Act of July 22, 1876, it was provided that "the trade dollar shall not hereafter be a legal tender," and the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to limit the coinage thereof “to such an amount as he may deem sufficient to meet the export demand for the same." By this Act the silver dollar was entirely eliminated from the list of United States coins. Subsequently an Act was passed authorizing the redemption of the outstanding trade dollars at par, and directing their recoinage into standard dollars. Before the passage of this Act, however, considerable loss was sustained by the people through the destruction of the trade dollar as lawful money. Trade dollars to the number of 35,965,924 were issued from the mints, a large proportion of which was sent to China and never returned for redemption.

EXTENT OF COINAGE UNDER ACTS TO 1878.

From the establishment of the mint in 1792, to 1806, the aggregate number of silver dollars coined was only 1,439,417, and from 1806 to 1835 there was no coinage whatever of this piece. In 1836 the number of dollar pieces coined was only 1,000. The two years following coinage of dollars was suspended, but was resumed in 1839, when 300 were issued,

and the coinage was continued until 1873, when the standard silver dollar was supplanted by the trade dollar. The largest annual coinage of standard silver dollars was made in the years 1871 and 1872, when it was $1,117,136 and $1,118,600 respectively, which is equal to nearly two-fifths of the aggregate of standard silver dollars coined from 1792 to 1873, which aggregate was 7,830,538. The number coined in January and February, 1873, was 296,000, which are included in the above aggregate. The " Demonetization Act" was passed February 12, 1873. It will be seen, therefore, that standard silver dollars were coined down to the passage of the Act which substituted the trade dollar.

COINAGE ACT OF 1878.

Remembering now that for seventeen years prior to 1879 -the date of resumption-neither gold nor silver coins were in circulation in the United States, and that by 1876 silver had fallen to $1.15 per ounce, we are prepared for the era of agitation which began with the introduction of free silver coinage bills into Congress. More than one of these was introduced into the House, but that particular one which was prepared and championed by Mr. Bland, of Missouri, passed the House in the fall of 1877. It became known as the "Bland Bill," and the coinage of silver that followed in its wake became known as the "Bland Dollars."

What was really the "Bland Bill," that is, the bill passed by the House and sent to the Senate, never became a law. The bill provided for the coinage of "silver dollars of the weight of 4121⁄2 grains Troy, of standard silver, as provided in the Act of January 18, 1837." "Which coins, together with all silver dollars heretofore coined by the United States of equal weight and fineness, shall be a legal tender, at their nominal value, for all debts and dues, public

and private, except where otherwise provided by contract. And, any owner of silver bullion may deposit the same at any United States coinage mint or assay office, to be coined into such dollars for his benefit, upon the same terms and conditions as gold bullion is deposited for coinage under existing laws."

The above is the "Bland Bill" as to its vital points and as it passed the House and appeared in the Senate. It gave free coinage (that is, the same coinage as was given to gold) to any owner of silver bullion who presented it at the mint. It gave unlimited coinage of silver dollars for all silver bullion presented to be coined. It made coinage compulsory. At the ratio existing between silver and gold, it was prac tical mono-metallism, with silver as the standard and gold at a premium, for the cheaper metal, when coined, invariably takes the volume of circulation and expels the dearer.

The entire character of this bill was changed in the Senate by the Allison amendment and became known as the BlandAllison Bill. It was then passed by both Houses and became the Bland-Allison Act. As passed, it involved the principle of bi-metallism, for it limited the coinage of the cheaper metal, silver, and undertook to maintain it at par with gold by providing for its redemption.

This Act of February 28th, 1878, restored the silver dollar of 4121⁄2 grains to the coinage with full legal tender power, but did not restore silver bullion to the minting privilege which attached to it prior to 1873, and which was in every respect equal to that bestowed upon gold. This Act re-established the "dollar of the fathers," made it legal tender for all debts, "except when otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract," and directed the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase silver bullion monthly "at the market price thereof, not less than two million dollars' worth per

month nor more than four million dollars' worth per month, and cause the same to be coined monthly, as fast as so purchased, into such dollars." The third section provided that holders of silver dollars "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."

It also provided as follows:

"That immediately after the passage of this Act the President shall invite the governments of the countries composing the Latin Union, so called, and of such other European nations as he may deem advisable, to join the United States in a conference to adopt a common ratio between gold and silver, for the purpose of establishing internationally the use of bimetallic money and securing fixity of relative value between those metals."

This bill represented the same order of thought that pervaded the silver agitation of after years. Those who favored the "Greenback" inflation scheme were its ardent supporters. Representatives from the Silver-producing States were strongly in its favor, in the belief that it would enhance the value of their product. While it made the coinage of silver dollars compulsory to the extent of $2,000,000 a month, it placed a limit at $4,000,000. It was thought that this much circulation in silver dollars could be kept at par with gold, but it was soon found that the silver dollars would not circulate. Out of the 12,136 tons of silver purchased by the Government under the Act at a cost of $308,199,262, and out of the 378,166,793 silver dollars coined therefrom under the Act, at an expense of $5,000,000, not more than one out of eight found its way into circulation. For all the benefit to the circulation derived from the Act, the Government might as well have

saved itself the $5,000,000 expense of coinage, and bought and stored the silver in bullion shape. The bullion was always worth more than the coined dollars, and could have been more safely and cheaply cared for in the Treasury vaults than its equivalent in coins. There was no expansion of the currency, as the ardent advocates of the bill fondly hoped. Nor was there an increase in the price of silver bullion, for it declined from $1.12 an ounce in 1879, to 93% cents an ounce in 1889, or in other words it declined to a point where it stood to gold as 22 to 1 per ounce value, and the value of silver in a silver dollar was only 72 cents.

The silver certificate feature of the Act proved of little practical value, and in the main the Act negatived its own provisions and bred causes for its repeal.

COINAGE ACT OF 1890.

But the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 was not without its uses. It satisfied neither its advocates nor its opponents, and increased rather than decreased the silver agitation. It led directly to and perhaps hastened the passage of the Coinage Act of July 14, 1890.

The bill which became the basis of this Act was prepared on a plan which embraced the views of Secretary of the Treasury Windom. It was submitted to the House, and passed. Its provisions were that any owner of silver bullion, not foreign, could bring it to any mint and obtain for it legal tender treasury notes equal in value to the then market value of the silver, which notes were redeemable either in gold or silver bullion, at its then market value, at the option of the government, or in silver dollars at the holder's option.

This bill was amended in the Senate by inserting a clause providing for free and unlimited coinage. It then went to