Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-01-16
A Con promise Probable.

A Con promise Probable
At Washington it appears to be thought
probable that tire discussion Of the silver
issue VIII result in compromise. AS
suming That there viii be a compromise. it
wil take the shape probably OF the
temporary suspension Of the coinage OF
the silver dollar. Suspension is about all
tnat the great majority Of those who APP
/ proncnd great financial difficulties from
/ The continued enforcement of the present
coinage law ask for. The desire is not to
put silver out OF circulation. The
aim is to prevent 1t from driving gold
out OF circulation. II the power is given
to the President, for instance, to suspend
the coinage OF the silver dollar whenever
be thinks that continued coinage would
cause silver and gold TO part company, all
apprehension Of disaster would be quiet
ed and about everybody would be salts
fed.
In all Of their talk the silver men per
sist in arguing that the purpose OF the
advocates of suspension is to dcmonetIze
silver. They are forced to take that posi-
tion IN order to make sentiment for their
side Of the case.
There IS another assertion that the sill
Yer men make which has for It's object the
creating OF sentiment in favor OF contu-
ued silver coinage. 1t is that the bond
holders paid for their bonds in greenbacks
which, at the time bonds were Issued,
we're not worth az much as silver
is now. That NAV be true, but it
ought not to be forgotten that COM
paratlvely few OF the bonds are
now ia the possession Of the original pur-
chasers. The great bulk OF them are held
by those who purchased them with gold,
or with currency tnat would have COM
manded gold. IL is the merest clap-trap
20 argue that because the original pur-
cha-ers paid Tor the bonds in deprecated
currency the present holders Of them
o.eut TO be punished tor having invested
lu taom by being paid in d deprecated
currency.
That silver coins deprecated cur
reucy was admitted 10y Senator Grown on
Thursday. when ne said that The bond
holders were all the time trying to make
their contract more valuable. II silver
has the same purchasing power as gold
the boudhOlders viii not better their
contracts any by getting gold instead Of
SILVER. When senator Brown admits that
p contract which calls tor gold is better
than one that calls for silver, he admits
that silver is a dep, eciated currency.
senator Brown does not seem to think
that silver and gold Will part company,
although the silver dollar is worth only
aIght-tenths as much as the gold dol
lar, even if 40o,0J000o silver dol
lars more are coined. The reason he
thinks so, apparently, is that the present
silver coinage act has been in operation
for eight years and silver still circulates
at its face value. According to this
argument the two metals will not part
however great the amount Of silver dol
lars coined may be and however low the
price OF silver bullion may fail.
The extreme silver men are indulging
in threats OF mild sort. They declare
that unless the attempts to secure a sus-
pension of silver coinage ceases legisla-
ton still more favorable TO silver will be
enacted. They pretend that if the agita-
ton continues they VIII be able to pass a
resolution, ordering the bonds to be paid
in silver, over the Presidents veto. They
know very well that they haven't the
strength to do anything of the kind, and
the fact that they have assumed threat
eniug attitude is a pretty good indication
that they are by no means confident of
preventing suspension Of the silver coin
a