St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-11-21
| RENEW THE SILVER FIGHT,
REPEAL HIS NOT kMPR5FED TIE
FINANCIAL CONDITION.
SO THE SILVER MEN THINK,

l.
Bland Ready With His Bill, and
He Declares That There Is4a
Clear Majority for Free Coin
age in the House-Plans of the
Silverites for the Coming Con-
test Discussed. &f41
WASHINGTON, Nov. 20.-The indiea-+
lions are that the free coinage fight will
he renewed with rather increased vigor
at the opening of the regular session7of
congress. The men who waged such q
stubborn warfare for silver in the two
houses during the extra session appear
have gathered confidence by the
events which have followed the repeal
OF the silver purchase act, and all Or
ganiZatlon of their forces is now being
perfected. For the past. two or three
weeks the silver men have been Singh
larry quiet. The reason for this has
now become apparent. The silver men
were waiting for a sufficient period
to elapse after the repeal of the Sher-
man act, IN order to demonstrate to the
people that the silver purchase law was
not the cause of the great financial de-
preston, and its repeal would not prove
panacea for all the commercial evils
which accompanied the times. They
contend the demonstration of this fact
is apparent to the American people
now, so the silver men are preparing 10
say to the two houses of congress next
month that the legislation demanded
by the administration has been a fail
ure in restoring commercial prosperity:
that the position of the silver men in
urging free coinage at the late session
has been vindicated, and that now the
DEMOCRATIC PARTY
in congress should devote itself to re-
deeming the remaining pledges of the
last Democratic national convention on
the subject of silver and financial legis-
latlon. With this object in view Chair
man Bland, of the committee on coin
age, weights and measures, is preparing
a bill which he. as the leader OF the
free coinage men, will introduce at the
opening or the next session. 1t is fur
ther declared by Mr. Bland to be his
Intention to afford no loOphole of escape
for those Democratic congressman who
have talked for free coinage to their
it Oh plausible preteXtswhen the matter
came up for consideration in the house.
Scores OF congressman, he SAYS, de-
clared themselves devotedly attached
10 the free coinage cause during the
recent session. but explained that they
thought the wiser course at that time
was torepeal the silver purchase act and
then to take up the free coinage ques-
ton, pure and simple, and consider it at
the regular session. BY reference to a
carefully prepared list, Mr.. Bland de-
clareS that there is clear majority for
free coinage in the house Of represent
atlveS-if their private declarations to
him during the extra session are to be
relied upon-and he purposes now to
bring these gentlemen to the crucial
test.
The measure which Chairman Bland
wiilintIoduce at the opening of the SeS-
sion is practically re-enaclment OF the
law of January Is, 1887. 1t is the belief Of
the silver men that bill re-enactiEg this
law will command greater strength, and
afford less opportunity for evasion than
any other measure which could possibly
be presented. The act of 1887 was
simple and brief. 1t provides for the
silver dollars of 4121s grains, and de-
clareS that the dollars, haif-dollars, !
quaIter-doliarS, dimes and half-dimeS'
shall be legal tenders according to
their nominal value for any sums what
ever"
In regard to his position and the plans
of the silver men,
CHAIRMAN BLAND SAYS:
Il do not see that the repeal of the
Sherman law has changed the situation
for the better-indeed, it appears rather
to have changed it for the worse. The /
truth Island the people now thoroughly
realize 1.-THE silver purchase law has
had nothing to do with the hard times.
The hard times came.on and they are
with US, and they cannot be waved
away by the wand of any magician,
however potent his charms or however
essential his personality. We have
simply got to go through a process OF
liquidation before good times can come
again. and that was necessary whether
we repealed the Sherman law or not.
This panic, like all other panics, finally
reached a point where the people got
afraid of the banks and afraid of each
other, and there has now got to be a
general liquidation and blotting out and
beginning anew, The repeal of the
Sherman law will only tend to make
liz uidations harder for the debtor class
of people, because it contracts the cur
of the country without sufficient vol
ume of money to supply a growing pop
ulation and development OF industries.
One of the great mistakes those people
seem to have made about repeal is that
their plan was 10 promote schemes in
Wall street, bonds and mortgages and |
things of that kind. 1t was supposed
that repe al would do this, because 1t
was thought that the
EUROPEAN CAPITAL
would be invested here more readily bv |
the repeal of the silver purchase act |
than by letting it stand. But it seems !
that even in that they have been greatly |
There seems to be now
less confidence in our financial condi- |
tons than before. They are sending no
money here, and continue to draw
away ours. If the gold basis which we |
have here now tends to contract cur
rency. it is making the times harder |
everywhere. The contraction of the |
currency and gold basis will tend to
make sharp demand for gold in Europe |
as we'll as here, and will injure our pro- |
ducers by causing lower prices for ev- |
erything we send to Europe. This also |
makes lower prices here, and hence, |
since the, passage of the repeal act,
wheat and cotton have gone down in |
the market instead of going up. If we
can reduce the tariff very largely so as |
to make trade easier and freer, the ex-
change of our commodities for COM |
modities abroad will tend somewhat to |
relieve the farming interests of this |
country. Hence, l think we should at |
least impose large income tax. and |
greatly reduce the duties OH imports"
1--WE expect to undertake to pass a |
free coinage bill before congress ad- |
JournS," continued Chairman Bland |
decisively. ''What success we will have |
is very uncertain. l shall introduce a
bill reviving the act of 1887, and thus! |
providing again for the free coinage Of |
standard silver dollars. My position is |
that we should repeal now all of the ; |
SHERMAN LAWS =
on silver, and have the law of 1887 re-
enacted. and thus put silver back to- |
where it was before he put his hand on |
It. Since we have repealed one of his |
laws. let US repeal ali Of them. l think Il
fll.N II