The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1892-06-10
Friday. Dune 10, 1892.
Sherman's Speech Against Silver.

ring papers term telling argument
against free coinage of silver in the
U. S. Senate on May 31st. This
speech of Mr.. Sherman may be &C.
copied as the best that can be pro.
duced on that side, and amounts to
little but bare assertions, not one
of which the Senator from Ohio at.
tempts to sustain by statistics. No
impartial reader can fail to see the
utter weakness of the effort of the
great Ohioian to justify his unsavory
record on the silver business which
so besmirches his reputation. HIS
defense of the national bank law is
OF the same evasive kind of argument.
He claims the national banks are the
best banks in the world and the one
and only reason set up for this claim
is that no person has ever lost a
dollar of their note circulation. The
banks are entitled to no credit for
this. No person eyer lost a dollar
of the greenbscks by the issuer
refusing to pay or becoming insol
vent, and they have no connection
with the hanks, except to strengthen
the latter's credit. The government
endorses as we'll as issues both class
of bills, and takes ample security
from the banking company for the
return of the national bank circula.
ton before giving it to the banks to
loan to the public.
So the best Mr.. Sherman could
advance in support of national banks
was the safety of their notes, which
are no safer than greenbacks in the
hands of any State or private bank.
The State banks until the close of
the war handled the green backs in
the same way without loss of dol.
lar and could have done so to the
present hour without national bank
having ever been established.
Mr.. Sherman assumes to be very
fearful that free coinage would de
monetize gold What he and all the
gold ring class fear is that it would
bring the high price of gold down by
doubling the money of last resort of
the world, which it certainly would,
and with it the enormous rise that
has taken place in all debts of every
kind, which have been increased fifty
per cent since they were created by
the decentralization of silver. Mr..
Sherman's great speech against silver
20 uoru uaaE arnuuout
That portion of the speech which
strikes cold chill to the New York
national banking class, is the im-
piled suggestion that the national
bank system is doomed. Sherman
of course is close watcher of the
drift Of public opinion on the cur
rency question. and sees plainly that
American people do not intend to
submit to the slavery of a public
debt which they have endured a
quarter of a century, for the purpose
of supplying machine by which a
class have been enabled to control the
finances of the nation. and by that
means, dictate the policy of the gov
eminent which has become thor
oughly plutocratic in place of repub-
lican.
The repeal of the law taxing state
bank issues 10 per cent, is beginning
to be talked about by the national
banking class, but Sherman throws
cold water on this hope by express,
ing it as his opinion that the people
are determined to keep the issue of
the money of the country where it
now is, in control of government.
The New York correspondent of
the Philadelphia Press in narrating
his interviews with the bankers of
that city concludes with the follow
ing significant admissions:
"The opinion is that Mr.. Sherman
is probably right in his intimation
that if the Government continues to
monopolize the,issue of paper money,
such issue will appear in the form of
a Treasury note, backed partly by
gold and silver, and actually, though
perhaps not nominally, partly by the
faith of the Government. Yet one
banker, as he admitted this to-day.
added with whimsical smile and q
queer look in his eyes: Such cur
rency would suggest that our old
friends, the Greenbackers Of twenty
years ogo, had after all something Of
right on their side'
These speculations and comments
simply indicate how deep an interest
is taken here in the speech of Sher-
man, which is universally pronounc-
ed to be the most important, and
perhaps the ablest contribution to
financial discussion made in Con-
gress for decade"
1t would seem that Sherman's
speech struck this class something
like the hand writing on the wall
astounded Belshazzer. This com
motion among the monopoly money
class Is the unwilling confession that
the Peoples party movement though
spoken of by .hem only behind clos
ed doors and in whispers, is causing
them to tremble for the results which
face them in the very near future
This banking question will be solved
and solved by the people taking il
in their own hands through govern,
ment control as they control and
operate the post office business. Mr.
Sherman has given the banker class
of Wall street timely notice that they