The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1893-09-01
Defeat of the milne Owners.

Defeat of the milne Owners"
The House came 10 vote on Monday on
the repeal of the silver purchase law and
the free coinage amendments attached to it,
by agreement. The first votes taken were
on the amendments, which were defeated in
succession by majorities ranging from lol to
140. The first was a vote on the present
ratio of 16 to l and was lost by 102 majority.
After the free coinage amendments had
been disposed of the main bill, repeating the
Sherman act, was voted upon, resulting in
the repeal of the act by a majority of 100.
The bill was then sent to the Senate, where
it will be in contest for month or more.
The ''silyer Senators" threaten to prolong
the struggle by filibusterng. Our advice
would lie to say what they have to say in as
brief and pointed manner as possible and
take the vote. Let the case be carried up to
the people, where there can be no demo-
cratic party lodging the next time as there
was the last, in order to slip in and have
chance to sell out at Washington.
This entire silver legislation, from the
Bland act of 1878 to the Sherman act of
1890, had the seeds of dissolution fostering
in it which had been implanted at its birth,
and it was inevitable that it would work its
ruin sooner or later. The main feature Of
all of this silver legislation was the effort by
the mine owners to sell silver. Had there
been from the first an effoat with the single
purpose to restore free coinage of silver
after the Sherman conspiracy act of 1873, as
financial measure purely, all this silver
legislation tumult, with the train of evils
which ii permitted the gold ring to iIfiict
on the country, would have been avoided
The Sherman act which the friends of free
coinage commended should not be repealed
without some effort being made to restore
free coinage. was held on to as mere string
to prevent an entire cut loose from silver
coinage and silver as money metal. The
fatal defect of the acts of 1878 and 1890 was
provision allowing the silver purchased
by the government TO be paid for IN paper
CeTtiuCdleS, anu MI. DldHu, Hue ~ tne oiu
spirit of dicker, had the same provision
inserted in his amendment measures, which
if on no other grounds were deservedly
defeated. The mine owners haye been their
own worst enemies. No System" of finance
which provides for rolling out sheets of
silver or gold, or both, stamping them into
coins, tossing the coin into heaps like broken
rock piles, and issuing TO the original owner
of the metal, paper notes which are to be
used in place of the metal money left in the
"rock pile," can never haye more than a
temporary existence. This practice which
has been in vogue since 1878, has resulted
in piling up thousands of tons of silver in
government warehouses, iron lined, bolted
and barred, built for the purpose.
Had free coinage, and nothing short Of
free coinage, pure and simple, been accept
ed, all the miserable financial mix we are in
could never have occurred, and the advan-
tage the gold ring has secured could meyer
have existed. The truth of the matter is
the miners never honestly wanted free
coinage. They wanted governement 10 take
their pig silver and issue to them bills
TO the value of 1919 cents per ounce, the
government TO take charge of the metal.
1t was so much handler for them to take
the notes than the solid dollars and pass
them in the course of business. This is the
cuccoo in the doves nest that defeated free
coinage through all these years. Had the
silver been honestly coined and gradually
spread over The country-less than eighty
millions year-the silver dollars would
have remained among the people, they
would not have floated to the great centers
of population as the paper has done, Eng land
could not have secured for song all the
silver she wanted to boost her improve
ments in India and bear American products
in European markets, and the panic we are
suffering and the money famine which has
afflicted the people of this country for years
could not have happened. We had every
thing in our own hands which enabled US to
'defy the world, the flesh and the devil"
and the short-sighted greed of the silver
mine owners is largely censurable for our
present calamity.