Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1891-02-19
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent.
WAsHrSaroN- Feb. 18th, 1891.

WASHINGTON Il eD. 10tDs 4OoI-
Senator Stanford, who is credited
by many people with being willing to
become the Presidential candidate of
the Farmers Alliance, gave some of
his gold loving republican colleagues
a practical lesson in finance a day or
two since that nonplussed them and
amused him. He rendered in pay
ment for his lunch in the Senate res
taurant an English gold sovereign.
and the waiter after taking it to the
cashier brought it back and politely
informed the Senator that he could
not take it. But it's all right, said
AIr. Stanford; ''its good gold, what
more do you want?" Once more the
waiter took the coin to the cashier,
but he came back with the same story,
and the Senator paid his bill with
United States silver Going up to
the republican CLOAK room he CHANGED
upon a group of republican Senators
who believe that all currency must be
based upon gold. He smiled as he
told them his story. "You say that
gold is the only true standard; that it
will buy anything in any civilized
country. Why is it that here at the
capital of the nation-in the Capitol
ITSELF cannot pay for a sandwich
in good gold7"
"Your coin is not legal tender"
said one of the Senators.
"That's it exactly" retorted Mr..
Stanford. 'Its the stamp that makes
the money, and not the material of
which the money is composed"
It will be little short of miracle
if the free coinage bill gets through
the House, although it will be report
ed from the committee on Coinage
next week. But 1t is expected to be
reported in such a way as to make it
well nigh impossible for it to be call
ed up in the House. That is, it will
be accompanied by Recommendation
from a majority of that committee
against any further silver legislation,
which will prevent its going upon the
calender and will also prevent its be-
ing called up IN the House without
the consent of a majority of the COM
mittee. Several things have helped
to bring about this condition of things.
Mr.. Harrison greatly strengthened
the republican opponents of the bill
by giving it out unoficially that he
would not sign any sort of a silver
bill until the present silver law had
been gwen a fair trial, and Mr.. CleTe-
land did the same thing for the dem
ocratic opponents by his outspoken
letter on the subject, which was pub
lished here on Thursday.
Congress has got to do some very
lively hustling to avoid the necessity
of an extra session. The House will
pass the last of the appropriation bills
by the middle of next week, but as
every appropriation bill that has yet
been taken up by the Senate has had
numerous amendments attached they
will all have to go back to the House
again for its action upon the amend
ments.
The SENATE has amended to death
the international Copyright and eight
hour bills, and it is extremely doubt
full if either of them are heard of
again this session. The night sessions
of the Senate are a failure because of
the non-sttendance of quorum.
The State Department has sent GER
tilted copies of the new apportion-
ment law to the Governors of the
several States.
Hon. Henry Watterson would not
feel complimented if he could hear
some of the Congressional comments
upon his letter to Gov. Hill, made
public this week.
Secretary Blaine has scored anoth-
er hit by concluding the negotiation
of a reciprocity treaty with Venezuela
similar to the one recently made with
Brazil. He has also taken occasion
to positively deny having written a
letter to any person in Canada or
elsewhere concerning Canadian reci-
procity, except the one recently made
public by Representative Baker, OF
New York.