Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-01-05
THE SILVER QUESTION.
Mr.. Cleveland Said to Advise the Restoration
Of the Bland Bill.

Mr.. Cleveland Said to Advise the Restoration
Of the Bland Bill.
Mr.. Cleveland has, it is said, informed sew
eral of those democrats in Congress Who come
nearest representing his views on financial
questions and who are anxious to have the
silver matter settled in some way as speedily as
possible, that he will be content to
have the Bland act restored as a COM
promise in consideration of the repeal
OF the Sherman act. How far he is
using his influence to bring this about is I'M
certain, but those men in Congress who are in
teresting themselves in the matter are now
very hopeful of being able to bring about a
compromise. The very radical snti-silver men
are insisting that the fight must be made for
the absolute suspension of silver purchases,
while the radicals the other
side of the question state that they
will not agree to the repeal Of the Sherman act
unless they can have free coinage of silver or
the coinage of at least four million month II
is known to be the opinion of Mr.. Cleveland
that nothing can be accomplished as long as the
two extremes are pitted against each other
and it Is claimed that he is not in
sympathy with those anti-silver men who ad-
vocate the characterization of silver and no
compromise. To those with whom he has
talked on the subject he is reported to have
said substantially that condition not a
theory" confronted them, and that it
was evident that if they insisted upon
having everything they desired the
result would be that nothing at all would be
done. He Is alleged to have expressed the
opinion that 1t would be much better to restore
the Bland act just as it was, with a minimum
coinage of two millions of silver. than to let the
present law stand, and that the chances were
that II the anti-silver men did not agree to this
they would not accomplish anything.
att of fl,a
conservative men in the House and Senate are
trying to work out compromise.
HOW TO GET THE QUESTION Up
The only way to get the silver question be-
fore the House is by special order from the
committee on rules, and then there would be no
guard against filibustering unless an hour for a
vote were fixed by special order.
Under the policy established in the House
when the silver men were trying to bring free
coinage silver bill to vote no order for
time at which a vote must be taken
will be reported from the committee
on rules unless pettioned for by a
majority Of the democrats of the House. This
policy prevented the passage of free coinage
bill last session, and now the silver men, hav-
ing been the victims of it once, will demand its
application for their protection.
1t will. therefore, be practically impossible
for anything to be done unless there is a very
general agreement on the subject among the
democrats. To bring about such an
agreement great efforts are being made.
and some of the anti-silver men
are much dissatisfied by the position taken by
some Of the radicals on their own side of the
question. whose Incorporate utterances made
1t more difficult to treat with the silver men.
Representatives Culberson and Bynrm have
each prepared bill providing for the repeal
of the Sherman act and the restoration of
the Bland law. The Cuberson bill pro-
vides, in addition, that all the silver
bullion purchased under the Sherman act
shall be coined and that the ''coin" certificates
outstanding shall be destroyed as soon as they
fall into the hands of the government Under
the Bland act the certificates issued were re-
deemable in "silver"