The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-27
A GRAPPLE OF THE GIANTS
Burke COChral'S MaSterly ElOquenCe
in The House.

for His Bill, But the Wires Failed Us
at the Hour of Going to Press.
Washington. D. c., Aug. 90
The climax of oratory in the House
was reached to-day. The attendance ex-
ceeded the capacity of the galleries, and
the corridors were thronged Mr.. Clark
of Alabama opened the debate, and al
though he made strong, logical speech,
he was listened to with impatience by the
great mass Of people who wanted to hear
from the leaders.
THE aLADIAToRs ON HAND.
They were soon gratifed, however, for
Mr.. Reed of Maine took the floor at l0:30
O'Clock and made one of the most mas
terly speeches which has been heard for
many day in the halls Of congress. Mr.
Dearmond of Missouri who followed in
silver speech, and humorous John Al
len of Mississippi, the next speaker, had
little attention bestowed upon them, so
eager were the members and spectators
to hear from Bourke Cochran the idol of
the New York democracy.
Mr.. Cochran did not disappoint them,
for when he concluded his speech the
House was overwhelmed in a wave of
thunderous applause.
MIR. Bland made good speech to empty
galleries, but they were filled again to
listen to a short but logical speech from
Mr.. Wilson of West Virginia, the father
OF the pending bill.
GALLERIES EARLY PACKED.
The galleries of the House were full of
spectators before the hour of the meet
ing, 10 o'clock a. M, attracted by the an
nouncement that the last day of the silver
debate was to be signalized by battle of
the oratorical giants. The chaplain in his
opening prayer asked Gods blessing on
the closing hours of this long debate.
''Thou hast already" he said, 'sent the
blessing; for it has been conducted with
a mild Christian-like spirit May moth
ing occur to mar that spirit as the debate
comes to its close. And we beseech thee,
whatever may be the result of it, that
that result may prove to be lasting ben
eft to the largest number of thy people"
The speaker announced the order of the
days proceedings. Under the hour rule,
he said, the time in favor of the bill
would close with the member from West
Virginia (Wilson) and the time in oppo-
sition to it by the member from Missouri
| (Bland).
OPENING FOR THE WILSON BILL
The first thirty minutes was assigned
| by Wilson to Clark, dem, of Alabama.
| He believed it the duty of congress to fix
! the ratio between silver and gold at 10
| to l. In his opinion, there was no differ
ence in the ability of the country to carry
! out silver coinage between a 16 and a 20
ratio. If the country could do it with a
ratio of 20 to /, 1t could do it with a ratio
of 16 to 1. Mr.. Clarks time was called
| at 10: 80 o'clock, and the floor was as
| signed to Mr.. Reed, of Maine.
The House came to most sudden and
| complete quiet as Mr.. Reed stood up in
! the most easterly aisle on the republican
side of the chamber and began TO address
the House in slow, strong, measured
tones, He said: MIR. Speaker l am not
| certain of the wisdom Of any member of
this House, and least of all of my own l
am quite conscious how difficult it is for
this body to know anything about cur
rency in general and how especially diff
cult it is to provide a remedy for a de-
rangement of currency at any particular
time.
Nevertheless, while have grave doubt
of the wisdom of each individual, includ-
ing myself, and no doubt whatever of the
difficulty Of the task, it is a comfort to
fall back upon a well-established belief
in the wisdom of all. 1t may not be
am absolutely righteous decision
which we shall reach nevertheless,
it is comforting assurance to believe that
the decision will be sufficient for the
emergency, especially since it is accom-
panied by the certainty that no other
wisdom is possible at the present time
Upon us and the people who are infuen-
cling our votes rests the decision of this
and other important questions.
AN EPOCH OF NATIONAL DECLINE.
''Crises like the present are not uncom-
mon in the history of the world; indeed,
they seem to be essential to human prog
ress and to arise out of the characteris-
tics of human nature itself We seem
now to be at the beginning of one of those
declines the like of which happens after
a long period. Unless all indications fail,
we are in a situation very much like that
which afflicted England in 1893 and 1925,
and which began to affiict us in the year
1873. If the period of prosperity could
be expressed in single word, that
word would be confidence
sity, as we call it, could be
expressed in single word, that word
would be 'distrust.'
SIN the year 1890 variety of circum-
stances which it is not necessary now to
discuss-for the country cares very little
to-day whether anybody was or was not
to blame for the passage of the Sherman
act-conspired to make the passage of
that act an absolute necessity. The
passage of that act pledged the United
States to purchase every month, and issue
its value in currency, 4,500,000 ounces of
silver. At the time when that act was
passed every patriot sincerely hoped
that the expectation of the
friends of silver that that purchase
would result in solving the problem of BIZ
metallism for this country and placing
silver on par with gold, would be real
lied. That the friends of silver enter
tanned that view, / cannot doubt, because
itwas expressed to me in terms of the ut
most confidence. At the time the passage
of the act caused very little fear on the
part even of the wisest, but a series of
events, which are so fresh in the memory
of every man who hears me that
need not recapitulate them, caused a
drain of gold from the United States TO
Europe. That drain of gold sounded the
alarm to the American people that the
period of prosperity through which they
had passed and which was then in exis-
tence, which was shown by the employ
ment of capital and the employment of
labor, had reached a period of suspension
period always reached in such forward
movements of the human race, and always
to be anticipated,
Mr.. Reed then sketehed the progress CT
the period of distrust, eliminating in the
enormous withdrawal of money from all
classes of banks until, as he said, we are
suffering to-day all the calamities of
restricted circulation in the midst of an
abundont supply of money.