Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-02-01

VOICE PROM THE SoUrH ON THE SILVER
QUESTION. On Thursday of last week Sena-
tor Lamar Of Mississippi delivered speech
which is conceded to be one of the most nota-
BILE contributions to the current financial dis
cussion in Congress- not so much from the
facts stated and the arguments used, as from
the premises upon which he based his conclu-
sions and the fact that it is the first utterance
of the kind from the South. Mr. Lamar is n
bi-metallist and on i-contractionist, and
was an opponent of the resumption resolution
when it was passed. His views, therefore,
are better calculated to arrest the attention of
men who have been carried away by the sill
yer craze, than those of one who has all along
fought initiation and silver, and favored re-
sumption Of specie payments. Mr.. Lamar is
alike opposed to Stanley NIatthews's resou-
ton, to the Bland silver bill and the Senate
finance committees substitute for it, and to
Mr. Edmunds's resolution declaring that the
bonds are payable in gold, the primary ground
of his opposition being that he is a b-metallist
and not mono-metallist He believes il pos
sible to romonotizc silver in n way which shall
make it n permanent factor in our currency
and prove IA benefit to the country but to do
tlut tnere must nc tO-ODelhllOu Win OlnRr
nations, aud fair and honest legal ratio be-
tween the two metals must be fixed. In brief,
he believes that both gold and silver have
their uses and their legitimate Office, and he
emphasizes the fact that the practical opera
ton of the Bland silver bill rs Il law, would be
to drive gold entirely out of circulation in this
country and invite hithcr the discarded silver
currency of Germany, England and other
European nations In short, it would consol-
idate all Europe upon n gold basis and oblge
the United States, in common with the Asiatie
and poorer European countries, to receive the
rejected coin of the great commercial nations.
Taking the silver men on their own ground of
the present financial distress of the country.
Mr. Lama comedies all that they claim in
this regard, but says that relief would not be
found in the Bland bill for the simple reason
that there is no relief from the bankruptcy of
people who are writing under the curse Of
an inconvertablc currency. To pass the Bland
bill now would simply lock and bar the door
which has so long kept gold out of our cur
rency, and that too at a time when that door,
80 long closed against gold, is opening wider
and wider every day. He appeals to the anti
contrnctionists TO oppose the proposed silver
legislation because the first effect would be
sharp contraction of the currency in that all
the gold would be driven ont of the country
at once while it would take time to coin and
put in circulation q silver currency. The mr.
gumcnt that reconciliation of silver would
cause higher prices and help the producing
and debt-paying classes is eiectually disposed
of by merely stating the general principal
that higher prices caused by a deprecated
currency do not benefit any class. The dem
ngogical argument that the interests Of labor
and capital are conflicting AID antngonstic, is
answered by calling attention to the fact that
in this country there is no sharply-defined
distinction between capitalists and the pro-
ducng classes, for they who belong to the one
class this year. may find themselves in the
other next, and legislation adverse to the cap
ital class is also adverse to those who are
struggling to be capitalists.