1. why was the coinage issue so controversial in the years leading to the 20th century

2. what were the milestones in the struggle b/wn american corporations and american workers before wwi

In 1837, Congress established a relationship between silver and gold at the ratio of 16 to 1 (meaning that 16 ounces of silver were to be equal in value to one ounce of gold). During the war years of the 1860s, little silver was mined and the open market price rose sharply. Miners stopped selling their silver to the government and instead found buyers from the ranks of jewelers and other users of the product.

In 1873, reacting to market realities, the Grant administration demonetized silver, leaving gold as the sole standard of the nation's currency