Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-03-14
WINDOW A SILVER MAN.
His SpeecI. and Vote IN the Senate on the
Bland Allison Bill.

His Speech and Vote IN the Senate on the
Bland Allison Bill.
From the Congressional Record, Feb. Is, 1878. ]
At the close of this long and weary session,
l can presume to say but few words in ex-
PLANTATION of the vote l am about to give.
have voted for various amendments which
thought would greatly improve the pending
bill. Some of them have been agreed to, but in
the main they have been defeated We are now
brought face to-face with the question whether
we shall have the double or the single stand
ard. I favor the former. I believe in the
reconciliation of silver, but most deeply re-
gret that the Senate is unwilling to make
dollar of 420 grains, or at least to give the
country some assurance that if 412A grains
will not make dollar worth 100 cents, it shall
be made SO by future legislation. On this
point, however, think we may trust our sue
cessors or ourselves when it shall be demon
strated that 4121a grains is not enough to con-
stitute full equivalent to the gold dollar of
the commercial world.
Mr.. President, am thoroughly convinced
that this measure, as we are about to pass it,
will prove a disappointment to both friend
and foe. It is not freighted with a tithe of the
blessings anticipated by its advocates nor of
the evils propesied by it's enemies. It is in
my Judgment neither the panacea for all our
financial troubles, nor Pandora's box from
which should spring unnumbered and un-
measurable ills. l fear it will not give life and
vigor to our PROSTATE industries, nor employ
ment and food to the unemployed and hungry.
But am hopeful it will Deither tarnish our
national honor nor further paralyze our ma.
tional energies.
tion is how we can most speedily dispose of
the question in such way as will give the
country financial rest and quiet. 1 firmly be-
lieve that had this silver agitation never oc-
Cured our greenback and bank note currency
would have been at par with gold to-day, and
that the boarded gold in the country would
by this time have been unlocked and flowing
freely into the channels of business. But this
could not be-, The question has assumed
ican people that. in my judg-
ment, there can be but one result. The meas
ure must and will be tried. The people are
suffering from an almost unprecedented pros
tration of business. The unemployed and
suffering poor are counted by hundreds of
thousands, If not millions. To millions more
the past is full Of sorrow, and the future
by the characterization of silver one-half of
the metallic money of the country was stricken
down, and hence all their Noes; that this act
was done in the interest of capital for the pur
pose of enchancing its power and value by de.
pressing labor and all other property; that it
was accomplished by conspiracy of capital
lists, and clandestinely carried through Con.
gress. All of these charges have been most
triumphantly refuted, but they continue to be
repeated all the same.
From the causes just mentioned, and many
others, public sentiment has been created,
which will only be satisfied with the trial of
the thing it demands. 1t will continue to de-
mand this measure or something like it until
it has been fairly tested, and, as fear, 'found
wanting"
If this bill be defeated now, the question
will be carried into the fall elections, and for
another year more doubt and uncertainty will
hang over our financial affairs, causing even
wider distress and ruin than we have already
experienced. l can see no evils, even in the
House bill, at all comparable to those which
would follow from another year of agitation.
For myself, do not intend that any act of
mine shall contribute to such deplorable
results. It is evident that the bill
will pass the Senate by an over.
whelming majority. If it shall have two
thirds vote, the whole country will regard
the question as settled for the present at
least, and will at once begin to adjust its bust.
ness to the new order of things.
With no very sanguine expections as to the
measure itself in its present form, but hop.
ing that may contribute something towards
the settlement of the question, I shall vote
| for the bill.