BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The standard works, mentioned under Chapter V, by Dewey, Hepburn and Noyes continue valuable. The attitude of Hayes and of succeeding Presidents is found in J.D. Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents; F.W. Taussig, The Silver Situation in the United States (1892), is concise; Political Science Quarterly, III, 226, discusses the surplus revenue; Quarterly Journal of Economics, III, 436, on the direct tax; W.H. Glasson, Federal Military Pensions, has already been mentioned. W.J. Lauck, Causes of the Panic of 1893 (1907), lays the blame for the industrial distress of 1893 wholly on the silver law of 1890. On the gold reserve, consult Grover Cleveland, Presidential Problems; D.R. Dewey, National Problems (1907); Political Science Quarterly, X, 573; and Quarterly Journal of Economics, XIII, 204. "The Silver Debate of 1890," in Journal of Political Economy, I, 535, contains a detailed account of the discussion in Congress. W.J. Bryan, First Battle (1897), should be consulted.
* * * * *
[1] According to the principle known as Gresham's law, bad money tends to drive out good; or overvalued money to drive out undervalued money. If the face value of a coin is more than its worth as bullion, it is "overvalued." Thus, if coins of equal face value, but of different bullion value, circulate side by side, there will be a tendency for the possessors of the coins to pass on the currency with the smaller bullion value and to withdraw the others for sale as bullion and for use in the arts.
[2] Above, p. 164.
[3] Above, pp. 238-240.
[4] The law remained in force about three years. During that interval nearly $156,000,000 worth of silver bullion was purchased with the new treasury notes. The government began retiring these notes in 1900.
[5] The call for the extra session, together with news of the suspension of free-coinage in India, sent the bullion price of silver down twenty-one cents per ounce in two weeks. The President was seriously handicapped at this time by a cancerous growth in the jaw, necessitating an operation, news of which was withheld from the public for fear of its ill effect on the financial situation. Cf. Saturday Evening Post, 22 Sept., 1917.
[6] Above, p. 274.