St. Paul daily globe., 1893-08-26

and by my voice, pen and influence,
contributed my humble share toward
the creation of that public sentiment in
regard TO it which is so well nigh unan-
imous III my own state. My distin-
guished colleague and myself will cheer
fully vote for this bill, 'unawed by
power and uncoFrupted by federal
patronage"
This past illusion brought forth evil
dences of approval and merriment. and
before the vice president could check
it, laughter and applause broke out, ana
was only represed by the Wig oroUs rap
| ping of the president and the threat TO
clear the galleries
There were those, Mr.. Hill said. who
| do not wholly agree with the president
| in his diagnosis of the malady now
affecting the body polite. and who did
/ not hastily join him In the rosy con-
| clusiou that the financial millennium is
to come the moment the Sherman law IS
| removed. There were some who had
given the subject attention VINO be-
lieved the cause of the present de-
| preston was deeper and beyond the
| Sherman bill, and that the foundations
were laid i'll the evil hours of 1873, when
/ financial policy that had been its guide
since the formation of the government.
The existing financial disturbance"
said Senator Hill, may be attributed
| to three causes:
| First-It is natur al or inevitable re-
! suit or incident of many years of really
! fictitious prosperity. The student of
history knows that financial panics oc-
cur about every twenty years, and our
country has not been an exception to
| the general rule. The panicS OF 1913.
| 1887, 1857 and 1878 should have led us to
anticipate one in about 1898.
SecOnd-Some portion of the present
panic may be traced to concerted ef-
| fort on the part of numerous mono
| metalliSts to produce it in order to
further discredlt silver as part of the
/ standard money of the country.
with GouIish GIee
they welcomed every bank failure, os
| pecialiy in the silver states. Eneour
! aging the boarding of money, they inau
| gurated the policy of refusing loans to
| the people even upon the best of Sc
curity; they circulated false petitions
passed absurd and alarming resolutions,
predicted the direSt disaster, attacked
| the credit of the government, sought to
| exact premium upon currency, and
| plCQ III CfCL4 way W opISdQ
| trust broadcast throughout the land.
These disturbers-these promoters of
the public peril-represent largely the
| creditor class, the men who desire to
| appreciate the gold dollar in order to
| Subserve their own selfish interests.
Third-The Sherman silver-purchas
| ing law has been, at least i'll part, and
possibly the most largely instrumental
in producing the existing complications.
No one now defends. few apologize
for it. The political party that enacted
| II seems now the most anxious Tor its
| repeal. 1t was a violation of every cor
rect principle of monetary science. 1t
was not even an honorable compromise.
1t was makeshift, a Subterfuge, a
| mere temporary eXpedient. The presi-
dent i'll his message, not desiring at this
| time, Tor obvious reasons. to offend the
senSibiIities of those vino had voted for
! it. politely called it truce" 1t has
been asserted that the president him
self
In His Hostility
TO independent free coinage, was dis
posed at one time to regard with favor.
or acquiesce in the provisions of the
the Sherman law. which had been the
| instrument or means by which such free
| coinage had been defeated. Whether
this be so or not, the fact remains, and
has not escaped observation, that while
the Democratic national platform de-
nounced the Sherman law and de-
manded its. repeal-denounced it, not
as result ot. truce" but as Cow
ardly makoshift"-yet Mr.. Cleveland
| neither In his speech delivered at Afadi-
| son Square Garden, New York, in an
swer to the notification of his nomina-
ton, nor in his subsequent letter of ac
ceptance. nor in his inaugural address
| In March last, criticised tine Sherman
law, nor made any allusi0n to it what
ever, although it was already threaten
| ing the prosperity of the country with
the dangerous results of its operations; :;
which we're apparent to every one who
had given the subject any careful atten-
| ton.
My own personal record is of the
| slightest consequence, but the senate
will pardon me Tor alludiug to the fact
that my views of the dangerous char
acter of that act are not new, but have
been entertained and repeatedly ex-
pressed ever since its passage. Within
three months thereafter-oI Sept. 233,
1890, at Brooklyn; thsn at Coopar Insti-
tute OH Dec. 4. 1891, ana twice soon
thereafter in Albany, l sought-in
speeches which lave been widely pub
lished-tO arouse the people to the i'm
|
My Own Efforts
then were misconStrued, and it was in
sisted in some quarters that was seek
ing to divert The peoples attention
away from that great issue in endeav-
oring to arouse them TO the dangerous
possibilities of the Sherman law.
| AIN DimetalliSt. L do not believe
in a single gold standard or a single
silver standard, but | do believe in use
of both gold and silver as the standard
money of the country, and in their free
coinage in our mintS at proper ratio.
without any discrimination in favor of
one against the other. Anu, as such bi-
metaIiist. | favor the repeal of the Sher-
man law because it is undemocratic,
illogical, dangerous in its tendencies, an
impeachment to free coinage and a dis
grace TO the silver cause. The true
friends of silver make a mistake, a
serious mistake, when they defend this
law and allow it to be cOnIounded with
free bimetallic coinage.
The Sherman law is Objectionable be-
cause it directs the purchase of silver,
instead of providing for the free coin
age of silver. Purchase means price,
price means commodity, and the treat
-ment of silver as d commodity means its
derogation from its Intrinsic rank as a
money metal. Gold has free coinage,
and hence it has 10 price in the United
States, but silver has price.
Silver Purchases
are simply government consent to
prolong its derogation. Such purchases
can never promote their proposed OBJ
ject, to wit. the preservation OF a parity
between the Two metals. no
My own conviction is unalterable, that
had the last congress, or the present
congress if convened in extra session
on the 5tlI of March, not delayed to re-
peal the Sherman law, the United
States would have largely escaped the
panic long TO be remembered as tAe
monetary panic of 1898, and would have
precluded the closure of Indian mintS
to the free coinage of silve, which, be-
SIDES increasing panic here, scatters the
seed of monetary disorder over the
whole earth, as Germany did twenty
years ago. III
Great Britain defeated the renewal of
the parity of gold and silver at the men-