The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1893-08-15
FREE COINAGE OF SILVER.
Democrats and Populists Hold a eau.
cus--Agreement as to the Repeal OF
the Sherman Acr.


The friends of free silver in tn
. House OF Representatives held a eau
Gus on the 9th inst, for the purpose O
agreeing upon q line of action to sc
cure free and unlimited coinage Of sill
yer. At the close of the meeting i
was officially announced that the fol
lowing resolution offered by Boatper
OF Louisiana, had been adopted by
majority vote:
Resolved, That we will support
bill repeating the purchasing clause o
the Sherman act and q concurren
measure providing for the free and un
limited coinage of silver with full le
gal tender on such a ratio as will pro
vide and maintain the parity between
gold and Silver.
" Be it further resolved that com
mittee of seven be appointed by the
and submit such bill and take proper
steps to secure the free and full discus.
sion and consideration thereof and q
vote OF the house upon the bill and
all pending amendments"
The committee provided for in the
conference resolutions was composed
as follows: Bland, Sibley, Boatner,
| Lane, Bankhead, Bryan and Bailey.
BY vote OF the caucus Judge Culbert-
son was added to the committee.
| When the conference met it was es-
timated that there were about forty
members of the House in the hall of
the 234. Because the House was in
| session about fifteen members were alb
sent of the number IN attendance.
Culbertson, of Texas, was elected
chairman of the caucus and Sibley, of
Pennsylvania, the only Democrat pres
ent from the eastern States, secretary.
The only Republican present was Bow
ers, of California. The Populists were
represented by Jerry Simpson and
Kerr, of Nebraska. The attendance
upon the caucus can hardly be regard
ed as test of the strength of the sill
YER forces in the House for the reason
given by Enloe, of Tennessee, which
was that the Democratic party was
charged by the people with the duty
OF legislating so as to remedy the pres
ent depression in all branches of busi-
ness. A Democratic caucus and not
mixed conference should have been
called to talk over the situation and to
formulate a plan of relief. Ofthe entire
Tennessee delegation, many members
OF which are in favor of free coinage,
but one, Cox was present at the con-
ference. This same thing was true of
a number of free silver men from
other States who did not desire to seem
to separate themselves from their re-
spective party organizations even on
this question.
Reports from members after the eau
Gus adjourned agreed that no differ
ences of opinion were developed in
the progress of the discussion. The
question of the ratio for the coinage of
silver was not discussed except Incl
dentally and, as will be noticed, no
special figure was named in the resolu-
tion. Besides the action reported a
motion by Mr.. Bland was adopted au-
thoring tho appointment of commit
tee of "whippers in," one from each
State, whose duty shall be to canvass
the House, discover each members
standing upon the proposed bill and
see that every friend of the measure is
in his seat and ready to vote when the
times comes.
"We will require ample time" re-
marked Bland, "to carry out the terms
of the resolution, and do not see how
it will be possible to come to vote un-
der month or probably six weeks. 1
cannot tell when the committee will
have its bill ready to present to the
House. The question of theratio to be
inserted in the bill was not discussed,
but it is apparent that some of the free
silver men are satisfied that the pres
| ent ratio of 16 to should be changed.
We shall probably vote upon the pres
ent ratio 16 to /, and if that is defeated
then IL to and so on up to 20 to il
necessary"