St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-01-02
SENATORIAL owLIsHNEss.

DEN "A OIGlAk ~ w bkoft4N F''''
Senator ALLISON has returned from
his session in the Berlin monetary con-
ference, and has given to the country
very long interview, chiefly reminls-
cent, in which he maintains the reputa-
ton he has earned in his long public
career OF carefully avoiding expressing
any positive opinions. WagerS nave
been made and won before now that
direct, unequivocal answer could not be
drawn from the senator on any topic
whatever. In this interview he tells
fully and we'll enough what other men
said and proposed. but when it comes
to what he himself would do, he is de-
liciously vague and elusive. He seems
to be occasionally just Oh the point OF
divulging bit of wisdom, but just as
your mind gets ready to take it, gets Its
mouth ready, as it were, for the morsel,
it vanishes into thin air, or turns TO
ashes like the apples Of the Dead sea.
Asked what he did there, he tells The
reporter that he strongly advocated"
the free coinage of both metals. Or
course the vital point in bimetalism is
the ratio of coinage. BLAND favorS
free coinage at the present ratio
Of 16 to !. The actual commercial
ratio is about "a to l. The whole
controversy is as 10 what this ra-
tic shall be, the legal, the actual
or some compromise point between.
When the Iowa senator, therefore, ap-
proaches the topic of ratios, and you
learn that he strongly advocated one,
you feel sure that you are going to get
his Judgment of what the ratio should
be. You experience sensation some
what akiu to that of sitting down on a
chair that is not there, when you read
that he strongly advocated "a certain"
ratio. Only certain ratio; "only
that and nothing more" You are not
any the wiser for the subsequent opin-
ion of the senator that he is confident
that this certain" ratio can be main
tanned by law, because we all know
that France has been trying to maln-
tain ratio of Isl to and we one of 10
to for good many years, and have not
done it; so the virtue must be in the
senator's ratio and not in the law.
Again in this interview the senator
comes dangerously near the ayowal of a
positive opinion, but deXterously shifts
mis- helm and avoids the imminent dam
ger. He tells the reporter, who seems
to know what he wants to get and asks
leading questions, that you have been
poisoned III your idea OH the silver
question by reading the textbooks of
our college professors. They are good
men, brilliant men, learned men, but,
however, that is another question"
This is positively provoking. That you
have been poisoned even sin your idea"
is startling enough, and that this has
been done by good, learned and brill
liant men only adds to your anxiety to
learn how you were poisoned and why
these good men did it. You feel that
the senator must go on now; that, at
last, he is really committed to the eX-
preston of his mature views OH poison
and professors. He probably meant to,
but lifelong habit was too strong for
intention, and all you can get is that
that is another question" You can
not help feeling that the senator must
have impressed those foreigners in the
Berlin conference with proper con-
ception of how wise he was, not so much
by what he said as by what he didn't
say.