The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1888-04-14
A BATTLE FOR SILVER.
In which tho Friends OF the White
Metal scored a Partial Success.

art figures 10 high advantage before MS con-
etituents and the whole country. The ques-
ton before the Senate was Beck's amendment
tn the Bond Bill, which reads as follows:
THAT whenever the circulation, or any por-
fiOn thereof Of any national bank not In liq-
nidation phall be surrendered, and the same
is not taken by other banks IN thirty DAYS. the
Secretary of the Treasury lie hereby authorized
and directed to purchase, at the Mint price
thereof an equal amount OF silver bullion, IN
excess oil the minimum per month for coinage
purposes, ~ provided In the Act approved
February ~, 1873
The Beck amendment was adopted by a
vote of37 To Is.
IL was known last week that the Beck
amendment would be adopted, but 1t was not
then supposed that the victory would be so
complete After the Finance Committee,
which had stood for many years as the bull
wark of Wall-street contraction and the gold
standard, was defeated on the first vote, their
adherents left them like sheep. 1t had been
supposed that their power was omnipotent
and that any one who opposed them would be
estracised in the Senate and elsewhere. Their
frantic exertions to make Senator Stewart
yield and submit the matter to the decision of
the Finance Committee was not without rea-
son. Their anxiety, buzzlng and maneuyer.
ing under the name of harmony deceived
many. but not the Senator from Nevada. He
declar ed their whole scheme Of finance was
sham: that they never had suggested means
whereby reliable supply of m0ney cores
ponding with the growth of the population
could be furnished by the Government; that
thsir scheme to avert panics by manipulations
between the Treasury and Wall street were
nakeshiits, and that the Finance Committee,
either knowingly or unknowinEly, were the
Instruments Of combination Of stock jobbers,
and that no appeal to him under any circum-
stances could induce him to sacrifice the In
terests of his constituents and the people gen.
orally to u few men who were unable to giyea
reason Tor their absurd policy of single gold
rtand ard and contraction.
lie devoted himself to arguing with the
Democrats and any other frieuds Of silver he
csuld hnd. This earnest independence secur-
ed followers, and finally, when the vote was
taken which beat the scheme of Wall street
and broke the power Of the oligarchy In the
Senate, strength came from every quarter, I'M
til the whole power of the Finance Committee
could rally only thirteen votes against the
declaration to coin more silver and nse silver
hereafter TO supply the place of national bank
notes as they were retired.
The amount OF silver that will be required
TO oil the gap will not be large at first, but II
the Government carries out the law and ex
psnds the surplus in paying of the bonds, 1t
will increase rapidly, national bank notes will
he retired a. fast a. the bonds are paid and
aflvaP rart;Geaf aa xvilI oacuuv tha ul.co ~ ~
tl0nal bank currency.
After the vote was taken Senator Sherman
made long harangue, in which he contradict.
ed himself In almost every sentence. His
speech was more of a howl than an argument,
protesting in one breath that he was the best
silver man In the United States, and in the
next declaring that the country will be ruined
II mere silver lie coined. He com plained that
the national banks could not be treated fairly
and that the present bill was a cruel assault
upon them. His excitement and inesherent
harangue excited smiles all over the Senate
chamber, and especially among these who had
been recently emancipated from the tyranny of
the Finance Committee, which he had made
intelerable.
Allissn. who is admitted on all hands to DO
the sharpest politician now living, and who
had watched the game from the beginning,
ready to light on either side as his presidential
aspirations might direct him, jumped on to
Sherman. his former colleague, and exposed
In most merciless manner the absnrdity Of
Sherman's alarm. The Iowa Senator 10 the
bravest man in the world when he 10 on the
popular side, and the way he hammered Sher
man. who 10 now the under deg, was very in.
teresting t. the insiders who knew how the
position ofthe late Senators had been devel-
oped, not by convictions but by circumstances
The only way Sherman can get even with Al
ison now is to become q more radical silver
man than his Iowa antagonist. II Sherman
can do this and retain his moneyed backing
In New York be Is all right, but whether they
win alisw him TO make the Jump and tempt
him afterward remains to be seen.
Sherman declared that the policy of the
Government was changed by this amendment
butthis did not appear to scare anybody, for
the policy that had reduced prices 231S per
cent. In the last thirteen years was not entire
ly satisfactory, and IL reversing 1t wsud send
prices mp, il was thought by the friends of sill
yer that the country could endure it 1t Is be-
iieved that the farmers Of the Mississippi val
ley with one hundred millions of mortgages
on their farms, will endure change of policy
that will send up the price Of wheat and cot
ton with good deal Of fortitude. 1t is whis-
psred about that Wall street Doodle does not
amount to as much as II used to, and they have
not funds enough new to spend about Con-
gEess In grand dinners and the like as they