Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-07-03
THE SILVER CRISIS.

There can be no doubt about the
fact that the country is facing crisis
on the silver matter to- day if in moth
ing more. So great has been the prod
uct of the silver mines for the last ten
years the commodity has outgrown it's
demand, either as money or as COM
modify in the uses to which it has
been put. In this country, where mill
lions and millions of ounces of this
metal have been mined, the surplus
has accumulated until it is a great
question what can be done with it.
Those who lave hoped to keep it's
value up to it's former price, as COM
), pared with gold, had power enough in
Congress to produce legislation which
has sustained the pride of silver to
some extent, first by making the sill
yer dollar legal tender, and, second
by compelling the United States
treasurer to purchase so much silver
each month, to be coined or boarded
in the treasury. This measure, known
as the Sherman Act, was never fav-
ored in principle by many who voted
| for it in Congress, but it was adopted
as the less of two evils, to avoid the
free silver legislation which threat
ened the country at the time. The
free silver act in itself would have
compelled government, without pay
for doing the work even, to have
coined into standard legal tender sill
yer dollars all the silver that the great
| mines of the whole country could have
produced and all that the world could
have shipped in here. This evil has
been averted, although one political
party in Congress has by large ma
jority favored it, while the republi
cans have had some advocates for
silver. 1t has come to that now when
all sound money men feel that the
Sherman law must be repealed, and
that government cannot longer stand
under the load of accommodating silver
To add to the peril of the condition,
the government of India, where silver
has been used as a legal-tender mon
ey, has gone back on the white metal
and adopts the gold standard. This is
money interest of anything that has
occurred in long time. So grave Is
the matter that President Cleveland,
Secretary Carlisle and the Cabinet |
have had long consultations over the
condition of affairs. The President
threatens to call Congress together to
effect the repeal of the Sherman law,
but he has no assurance that major
ity of his own party will be with him
if he attempts it. Mr.. Cleveland will
find many more friends among repub-
hcans than democrats in this move.
To his credit be it said that he is sound
of the silver question. The present
real value of the silver legal tender
dollar is only So cents. 1t takes con-
siderable grit on the part of the peo-
pie to sustain, either in fact or senti-
ment, the value Of the big silver dollar.
The following from the New York
Tribune gives facts and figures:
The truth of history is not to be ig-
nored. The Silver Purchase act of
1890 was passed as the result of con-
ference between the Finance Com
mittees of both houses after the SEN
ate had passed a free coinage bill by
the votes of 81 Democrats and Is Re-
publicans, against % Republicans and
3 Democrats, and after the House had
defeated the Senate bill by the votes
of 100 Republicans and u Democrats,
against 112 Democrats and % Repub-
~
cratic party in both houses was sub
stantially unit in favor of free coin
age, and in each house there was
minority of Republicans-very small
in numbers, but large enough to be
dangerous ready to unite with the
Democrats in passing such measure
Some sort of legislation tending to the
freer use of silver was the inevitable
issue of such condition. The Senate
Free Coinage bill could not have been
beaten in the House, except upon the
understanding that something would
come from the conference which
would continue the experiment of sill
yer purchases. The present act was
indeed passed by Republicans and
the aid of any Democrat, but
the Democratic opposition was that
which had expressed itself in the vote
for free coinage when, in the Senate
in the proportion of 81 to 3 and in the
House in the proportirn of 112 to %,
the Democratic party had voted to
open the minis to the silver of the I
world and to nav good American GOLD
for it at the rate of one third more