Chapter 94

HISTORY OF THE "SHERMAN SILVER LAW." President Harrison's First Annual Message--His Recommendations Regarding the Coinage of Silver and Tariff Revisions--Bill Authorizing the Purchase of $4,500,000 Worth of Silver Bullion Each Month-- Senator Plumb's "Free Silver" Amendment to the House Bill--Substitute Finally Agreed Upon in Conference--Since Known as the "Sherman Silver Law"--How It Came to Be so Called--Chief Merit of the Law-- Steady Decline of Silver After the Passage of the Act--Bill Against Trusts and Combinations--Amendments in Committee--The Bill as Passed --Evils of Unlawful Combinations--Death of Representative Wm. D. Kelley and Ex-Member S. S. Cox--Sketch of the Latter--My Views Regarding Immigration and Alien Contract Labor--McKinley Tariff Law--What a Tariff Is--Death of George H. Pendleton--Republican Success in Ohio--Second Session of the 51st Congress--Failure of Senator Stewart's "Free Coinage Bill."