The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-08-25
-THE FINANCIAL QUESTION.

Monday was Vermont day at Washing
ton. Senator Morrill, in the Senate, and
Representative Powers in the House,
made notable speeches on the situation.
Both gentlemen agree. 1t may be said
of Senator MorrilPs effort, that several
Democrats expressed themselves salts
fed that he had turned the current in
favor of honest money in that body.
Welhope so. We quote from the con-
densed telegraphic report. Senator Nor
rill said that he did not yet abandon all
hope of bimetallism, and that, therefore.
he should gladly vote for the repeal of
so much of the act of 1890 as required
theipurchase of silver. 1t had not origi-
nally received any favor from him, and
the wide distrust which it excited should
be speedily removed. After its repeal
the country would not be dependent up
on gold alone for currency, as there
would be much more of silver than of
gold, and more of paper currency than
ever before, and as the silver dollar
would not be demonetized, whenever
more silver could be coined and utilized
without crowding gold to premium it
would be done by universal consent; but
the treasury should be relieved from its
embarrassment of furnishing gold to pay
for silver.
To maintain silver with the existing
standard ON parity with gold while in
creaslng the public debt by the daily
purchase of over five tons of silver bull
lion, the treasury notes for the payment
of which were practically redeemable in
gold was too heavy task; and the ad-
ministration had acted wisely in appeal
ing to Congress. AS to the declaration
of the silver mine owners that they
would not consent to the repeal of the
act of 1890 without satisfactory sub
stitute, he said that the only satisfactory
substitute indicated by them-free coin
age-was the very measure most feared
by the country, as it would hiring with it
the single silver standard. The coin
would then be legal tender, but would
be, by no means, measure of value.
No man outside of an insane asylum
would receive the silver coins of Mexico,
India or Peru for more than their weight
value in bullion.
There has been, he said, from 1878 to
1898 some 420,000.000 silver dollars
coined, with difference between their
face value and their present market
value of $l76, 200, ,000-a depreciation ol
over 40 per cent. The stock of bullion
and silver dollars now on hand, if placed
in the hands of receiver, would exhibit
a melancholy loss. The delusive efforts
made by all the power and prestige OF
the National government to enhance the
value of silver showed that universal law
of supply and demand was still invinci
BILE, and could not be set aside even by
the dynamics of legal tender laws.
Foreign nations would not be per
suaded to adopt any measure of reaction
in favor of silver by the fact that i
might afford some relief to the United
States, but they would do much fo
their own relief. America could be ;
competitor with the great powers o
Europe for gold, and by far one of tn
strongest competitors, as it was pro
ducer of gold as we'll as of silver, an,
would use both only for all the beati
tudes of peace and for prosperous com
merce BY the great cost of large armie
and greater loss of labor in domestic in
dustries, European nations were reall
crippling their financial resources, Will
our small army and our peace-lovin
habits relieved our people from such e1
cessive burdens, and would surely in tn
end give us the primacy in financis
power. ..
The repeal of the silver-purchasin
clause in the act of 1890 would give us