The Mineral argus. [volume] (Maiden, Mont.) 1883-1886, 1886-01-21

HC SuNSt iuCStio1 Has Utohc1 Out
in both houses Of Congress, and the
discussion promises to be lengthy and
interesting. A peculiar feature of the
situation is the hostility of demo-
cratic senators to the administration on
this question. There is not one man
Of commanding ability on the demo
cratic side to champion the cause Of
tine 'Gold Bugs" The president must
look to Eastern republican senators
for his supporters, and not all Of them
are antagonistic to silver. Senator
Vance, Of North Carolina, makes the
yellow insects crawl into their holes
with the following characteristic re-
marks:
have heard many cases argued in school
boy clubs and ia cross roads debating soci-
cites; have heard pleas made from the
tail end of ginger bread carts, and have read
endless plalitudes in the Congressional
Record, but ] have never met or seen q
worse abuse of logic or feebler attempts to
outrage common sense than the arguments
used by our bankers. bondholders and gold
men generally in the discussion of this
silver question. Rapacity of averice was
so repugnant to the moral sense of man
kind that it always sought to disguise its
ugliness by assuming a ga,b of virtue. So
the bondholders and bankers told us they
wanted silver coinage stopped; not for their
own advantage, oh. no but for the sake of
the poor working men, whom they pre-
ferred to their own chiefest joy.
Vance ridiculed this prctension, and said
the war on silver was in the interest hot Of
those who labor, but of those who speculate
in money. In reply to the statement that
the people would not take the silver dollar.
and that when issued it had always come
back to the treasury, Vance contended that
the law required our officers to pay it out
and ii it came back again to pay it out. II
the officers OF the government had done
their duty and complied with the laws,
there would have been no difficulty with
he silver dollar. They had refused to pay
J out. There never had been another in
stance in our history in which our officers
had boldly taken on themselves absolute
discretion as r. neither they would exc
cute or would no, execute the Jaw.
The money lords Of the times were con-
trOllers Of our monetary affairs. These
were the SUCCESSORS of the feudal lords of
the middle ages, but they did not have the
same class of people to deal with. Zone
thing, ] can assure you." Vance said in
conclusion, sis that in this country, where
the people rule. silver is not going to be
demonetizcd."
Senator Pugh, of Alabama, IN a
lengthy speech on the same question,
said:
Congress was confronted with an official
announcement that our business had
reached "a crisis in which we must suspend
the coinage of silver il we would secure AN
International ratio between gold and silver
The real point involved Pugh believed to
be, not the suspension, but the total stop
page Of silver coin, and if silver coinage
were suspended now, it would be blow
that would directly and. speedily tend to
the contamination of an organized con-
spiracy of the capitalists to secure absolute
control of all our currency. and the rcgula-
tiOn of the volume and consequent pur-
chasing power. The petitions that came to
Congress favoring suspension were all on
.;. L.
ers. Pugh criticised the argument Of the
Secretary of the Treasury and of the Presi-
dent. lie inquired whether We were to take
the mere dictuEl of the President on this
matter and insisted that the executive Oil
GERS were under obligation to enforce the
laws of Congress. Why had those laws
been hourly violated: Had Congress ab,li-
Gated its powers to the executive? The
National Banks, which were the fiscal
agents of the government, should not, he
thought, have been allowed To become
members of clearing house that dis
credited the silver certificates of the GOV
ernment. The National Banks had evaded
a law of Congress by agreeing that they
would not oiler silver certificates to the
clearing house, and therefore none had
been actually refused by the clearing house
Why was silver opposed by the National
Banks? Because silver was the only me
dunn of our currency which they could
not control. Stop the coinage of silver,
said Pugh, and those banks aill become
absolute monarchs of all the money.