The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1893-08-17
TALKING OF SILVER.
Congressman Delay In Getting to
Work.

In SPITE of President Cleveland's urgent ap
peal for prompt action on the part of Congress
the members Of that body did not seem i'm
pressed with the necessity of dispatching the
public business, and spent several days in bick
| ering and unimportant talk before plan o.
| action was decided upon.
A caucus of Democratic Senators, free silver
and anti-silver men, was held "Wednesday
morning of last week. 1t was brought about
by the question of silver being brought mp in
the Senate by Mr.. Hale, and placed the Sena
tors in q position where it was thought con
ference was necessary. Several meeting:
| took place without result, and finally the
caucus fell back on the oft-tried expedient Of
delegating to committee the task OF endeavor
ing to arrange plan of business in the Senate
that should be satisfactory TO both sides Sc
| Mr.. German, as Chairman of the caucus, set
| about the appointments of committee. Ths
committee has not yet finished its work.
Meanwhile, in the hall of the House. a cancu:
the advocates of free silver was held, and at
the close it was officially announced that reso-
lutions had been agreed upon to the effect
| that the silver men would support bill
| repeating the purch asing clause of the Sher-
man act, and concurrently providing for the
| free and unlimited coinage of silver, with full
| legal-tender quality, on such ratio as will
provide aud maintain the parity between gold
| and silver"
troduce such a bill, and take proper steps to
secure the full and free discussion and consid-
Grafton thereof, and a vote of the House upon
| the bill and all proper amendments.
The committee provided for was Messrs.
| Bland, Sibley Boatner Lane Bankhead,
Bryan and Culberson.
The position now of the two parties in the
| House was this:
The anti-silver men, led by Bourke Cochran,
| proposed that bill shall be introduced to re-
| peal the purchasing clause of the Sherman law
| and that vote shall be taken upon that propo-
| sition first. If it was defeated amendments
| might be offered providing for the free coinage
of silver, and vote be taken on them. The
| free coinage men offered q counter proposition,
that the bill outlined by the free-silver caucus
be introduced by the committee authorized to
prepare it, providing for a repeal coupled with
free coinage; that any amendments desired be
offered, and that vote be taken at the end of
three weeks debate.
As the silver men understood IL the reason
the anti-silver men wanted to put in repeal
bill as the first propositi on before the House
was that such bill would not be amendable so
as to add proposition for coinage of silver. A
bill providing for the repeal of the law and the
coinage of silver would be amendable by strik-
ing out the provision for coinage but to SIM
pie repeal bill an amendment providing for
coinage would not be germane and could not be
voted on.
A conference was held between chosen free
silver men and anti-silver men, at which the
free-silver people submitted their measure and
discussion followed. No conclusion was
reached after two meetings. Another day thus
was spent in argument aud one of the great
obstacles in the way of agreement was the petty
jealousies of the would-be anti.silver leaders
who wanted the credit of the repeal of the
Sherman law.
Some unseen influence ended the squabble,
however, for the matter was taken out Of the
hands of would-be leaders, and it was decided
that Mr.. Wilson, of West Virginia, should be
given the honor Of introducing the repeal bill,
and that there should be fair vote on both
sides of the question; the silver men being
given an opportunity to vote on amendments
for tho various propositions for the coinage of
silver This restored harmony among the
anti-slverites.
So the con ferees now came to an agreement,
which was in the form of special order from
the Committee on Rules, providing for the i'm
mediate consideration of the question in the
following order:
The bill to be taken up to be one for repeal
of the Sherman law, subject to amendments,
which will come in the form of propositions for
free coinage of silver at various ratios up to 90
to /, and for the substitution of the Bland law,
the debate on the whole proposition to last for
IA days.
Ahico was 5onlo apprehension VI tIouOie over
the matter when it should reach the House, and
it was decided if there was any difficulty by
way of obstruction in the House to the carry
ing out this plan and the adoption of the order
of business reported to the Committee on Rules,
proposition should be brought in at once for
the adoption of the rules of the last House, in
Guiding closure SO that the order of business
could be enforced.
The House is no longer confronted with any
danger of fibustering, but in the Senate the
radical silver men may prolong debate for an in
definite time. There are three elements among
the Democrats in the Finance Committee
those who radical silver men, those who are
radical gold men, and those who are conserva-
tive and favor middle course What Senator
Germans committee will recommend is mat
rer of much speculation. While the House
may repeal the Sherman law, this Senate COM
mittee can favor uncompromisingly the uncon-
ditionsl repeal of the Sherman law, thereby
following the lead of President Cleveland or it
can attempt to effect a compromise by which
the United States will be placed against the en-
tire world in maintaining a parity between
gold aud silver.