The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1893-07-07
Fer County Surveyor,
WILLIAM T. CLARK.
CONGRESS TO MEET IN AUGUST

President Cleveland last week
yielded to the general pressure from
all parts of the country and issued
a proclamation calling Congress to
meet on the 18th of next August. In
his proclamation he refers to the fact
that 1.-The distrust and apprehension
concerning the financial situation
which pervade all business circles
have already caused great loss and
damage to our people, and threaten
to cripple our merchants, stop the
wheels Of manufacture, bring distress
and privation to our farmers and with
hold from our workingmen the wage
of labor"
President Cleveland attributes this
condition of affairs to ''the result of
a financial policy which the executive
branch Of the government finds EN-
bodied in unwise laws and which
must be executed until repealed by
Congress- ..'
The House, it is said, will promptly
pass a bill repeating the Sherman
silver law, but it is probable there will
be sharp contest over it in the SEN
ate, unless some concessions are made
to the silver men. The latter recog-
nize the fact that present conditions
exist no longer; that the government
can not go on buying silver at price
SO much above its market value, but
they will doubtless be ready with
some scheme to compel the govern
ment AID the people of the United
States to guarantee them profit on
their output. The value of the silver
bought by the government under the
Sherman law is $50, 600, 900 less than
it cost, and this $50, 600, 900, of course,
must be made up by taxing the peo-
pie. The silver mine owners are the
only persons benefited.
There has never been, probably,
SO great and sudden a revolution in
public sentiment as has taken place
within the last few weeks upon the
silver question. People who vainly
imagined that the free coinage of sill
yer would make money plentiful have
changed their minds and very few
still cling to that idea. Even Senator
Sherman himself has modified his
opinion and declares that he will vote
at least for a suspension of the month
ly silver purchases by the govern
ment.
While all are likely to agree that
Congress should at once authorize
the President to suspend the purchase
of silver it is by no means certain
that a speedy agreement can be made
upon law to take its place. The
silver men are not willing to make
any concessions by which their pri-
vate interests would suffer. 1t is
therefore suggested that Congress
should meet, repeal the Sherman law
or at least deprive it of its more harm
ful features and then adjourn until
September. In the meantime cam
paign of education could 60 on and
by the time Congress meets again some
plan could be devised by which silver
need not be absolutely denonetized
but made to take a subordinate and
useful place in our currency system.
The repeal of the Sherman law, it is
believed, as indicating the deterIni-
nation of the government to main
tain gold standard, would restore
confidence to the financial world,
bring out boarded money for invest
ment and add 10 the general prosper
ity. The low rate of interest in Eng
land, which is from three-fourths to
one per cent. per annum, would bring
millions Of dollars in gold or its equiva-
lent to this country, where interest is
now and is likely to be higher than it is
abroad, and the effect of this would
be Immediately felt upon every in
dustrial and financial enterprise in
the country.
Under any circumstances the coun
try will breathe freer when it feels
that President Cleveland has taken a
firm grasp Of the matter. Great con-
fidence is felt in his wisdom and pa
triotism, and the people will hold up
his hands on the silver question as
we'll as ON the reform of the tariff.