The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1891-02-28

Memphis Commercial J

In ali address delivered on the 23d
of September last before the Thomas
jefferson Club, in Brooklyn, Gov. Hill
declared himself in favor of ~frce
coinage under proper international
ratir.s but as a choice of evils he con-
sidered tree coinage without foreign
cooperation superior TO the present
system, the system which is the result
of the law of 1890. In the address he
said:
The new monetary legislation of
Congress as exemplified in the recent
Silver act redOubles the latest, repeats
the earliest and perpetuates the worst
of those errors which for nearly thirty
years have made unsOund finance a
daily National Instruction and honey
combed the Constitution with Repub-
lican law. Instead of executing the
granted power to coin the peoples
gold and silver into money, instead Of
eflecting its circulation by gold aud
silver certificates strictly representative
of coin, dollar for dollar, this Republi-
can Congress has now managed, with
out the excuse of war or the pretense
of necessity, to add another new-
tangled legal tender to that promissory
debt currency which the United States
Supreme Court, before It was packed
to revise its own decision, rightly
sdjudged illegal. After twelve years
failure by compulsory silver purchases
to promote free bimetallic coinage at
home or abroad, the Republican party
is trying to deceive the people by the
claim of having settled what II calls
the silver question: The assumption
Is as unwarranted as ii is deceiving
The recent legislation of Congress is
merely temporary expedient. twill
give permanent satisfaction nowhere
1t puts heavier strain upon our
resources than free bi-metallic coinage
without foreign cooperation would
do, and obstructs our progress toward
that end which we all desire to reach
the free coinage of silver under q
proper international ratio
"In order to give Internationally tC
our ratio, sixteen, IL would be necessary
to obtain beforehand the concordanI
votes of all the States of the European
continent and the simultaneous re-
coinage of the gold francs, the gold
: marks, the gold ilorins, the gold
roubles, while the single vote Of Con
gress in favor OF the European ratio
fifteen and one-half, and the re-coinag,
of single piece, namely, our silver
dollar, would be sufficient for realizing
everywhere an identical bi-motalli,
ratio. Congress persists In making
sixteen gold dollars weigh Ms much al
one silver dollar, while fifteen and one
{ half is the monetary ratio between
, gold and all the enormous stocks o.
( silver coins existing in France, in Hol
land, in Spain, in Austria, In Germany
and In Russia.
| "Congress thus, with laundering in
competence, actually prepares either |
. future conflict Of mint ratios, such a
twice already swept the United State
r clean of its monetary metals, first o
gold and then of silver, or else II cast
away to foreign lands that large prof
: incident TO the rc-coinage, which
! either here or in Europe, must prcccd'
TO make possible free bl-metallic coin
J age at one ratio on both sides of tn
: Atlantic.
ain one act Republican Congress
| has thus usurped more than doubtful
+ power, which, If lawful, II has wors
: than unwiscly used; has repulsed
/ popular demand for restoration of on
a monetary unit, which, till 1878, was bi
metallic, with free coinage alike Il
! silver and to gold, and has inierpose'
new hindranee TO single and flxe'
, weight ratio of parity for the gold an'
; silver of the worlds commerce, whicl
A is a rational solution of the silve
+ question, If commerce remains inter
4 national and universal