The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-04-21
THE SILVER QUESTION.

Few more thoughtful analyses of the
financial questions which press home
upon this nation have ever been made
than the address of Mr.. Edward Atkin-
son before the Bank Clerks Mutual
Benefit Association, at its banquet at
the Trocadero last evening. Mr.. Atkin-
sons reasoning was enforced by the
aptness of his illustrations. The fact
that the country would be cursed by
no free coinage frenzy If it had
no silver mines is brought home
to every reasoning being when it is con-
sidered what would be the inevitable re-
suit if a sufficiently astute and eloquent
Southerner were to press upon the Ma
tional Legislature the wisdom and JUS
tice of protecting and defending the
great product of his section, now at its
lowest ebb in price, and sorely in need
of a rising tide of prosperity, by buying
$50, 600, 900 worth of cotton annually.
Is there planter in the South who
would not jump Mt the proposition. if
tho Treasury offered him ten qsffts a
pound, which is no more aboveIts sell
ling value than would correspond with
the ratio between that price of silver
and its present value when the United
States began its purchases of silver bul-
lion?
Suppose the cotton We're stored on
this basis as security for United States
notes. Cotton, if properly packed, does
not degenerate so very much more rap
idly than silver and can be kept in good
condition for many years. 1t is easy for
the man whose eyes are somewhat
blinded by the white metal to see that
in the strictly parallel case of cotton the
experiment could have no end
bat disastrous one. The ac-
cumulations of two years would
bear the market; the piled mp product
of ten years would growl the price down
to such figures that, except for "a guam
tity just sufficient to meet the Treasury
contract, it would be cheaper to let it
rot in the fields than to pay for picking.
Cotton BUYERS all over the world would
understand that the United States
storage warehouses were being stuffed
to fullness that could not endure indef-
initely, and must unload or burst in due
time. Until the purchase of cotton was
stopped the industry would have abso-
lutely no hope Of any return to healthy
condition.
There was certain, humorous COM
mon sense in Mr.. Atkinson's proposition
to substitute whiskey for silver
to be stored rs security for notes.
Whiskey appreciates in value with age,
and, however much our Prohibitionist
friends might object to the morale of such
an arrangement, as a business system it
would present many points Of advantage.
The Sherman law saved the country
from much more radical measures. IL
was the wisest thing, the most prudent
and judicious thing possible in the then
State of popular feeling. The Republi-
can party stood between the country and
financial wreck IL Is prepared to con-
tinue its good work just so fast and SO
far as its campaigns of education shall
enable IL 10 carry the peopla
with il. The Lodge bill and
the money plank of the Massa-
chusetts Republicans with it's firm
and open declaration that great as
were the benefits of the silver law of
1890, great for what il averted as well as
for what IL secured for the country, we