The First Battle

ON. RICHARD P. BLAND of Missouri, Gen. James B. Weaver of Iowa, and Hon. Henry M. Teller of Colorado, may, without injustice to others, be considered the foremost champions of bimetallism in their respective parties.

Mr. Bland, Democrat.

Mr. Bland was first elected to the National House of Representativ in 1872, and served for twenty-two years. In the Forty-fourth Congress, as Chairman of the Committee on Mines and Mining, he secured the passage through the House of a bill providing for the free and unlimited coinage of gold and silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. During the same Congress he was appointed a member of the commission which prepared the "Silver Commission Report." In the Forty-fifth Congress he introduced and secured the passage through the House of a bill similar to the one advocated in the preceding Congress, but the bill was amended in the Senate and was afterwards known as the Bland-Allison act, becoming a law over the President's veto. Some three hundred and eighty millions of standard silver dollars were coined under this act. Mr. Bland, during Mr. Cleveland's first administration, opposed the suspension of the Bland-Allison act and also endeavored to secure the passage of a free coinage bill. In the Fifty-first Congress he joined with the silver men in the Senate in an effort to secure a free coinage measure instead of the act of 1890, known as the Sherman act. In the Fifty-third Congress he led the fight against unconditional repeal and against the retirement of the greenbacks and Treasury notes with an issue of gold bonds. He was one of the Democrats who joined in the address, issued March 4, 1895, calling upon the silver Democrats to organize and take control of the Democratic party, and was largely instrumental also in securing a strong declaration in favor of free coinage at 16 to 1 in the Missouri State Convention, held at

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Books

The First Battle: A Story of the Campaign of 1896