The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1893-08-09
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
To the Extra Session of the
Fifty-Third Congress.
He Says the Present Financial
Trouble is Chargeable to Con-
gresSiOnaI Legislation
Touching the Purchase and Coinage of
Silver by the General Government
The People Entitled to Sound
and Stable Currency.
The Prompt Repeal of the Sherman Act
of 1890 Earnestly Recommended-It
Has Been Condemned by Three
Years of Disastrous Experi-
ence-A Word About
Tariff Reform.
the Congress of the United States:

To the Congress of the United States:
The existence Of an alarming and extraord1n.
ary business situation, involving the welfare
and prosperity of all our people, has constrained
me to call together in extra session the peoples
representatives tn'congress, to the end that they
through wise and patriotic exercise Of the
legislative duty with which they solely are
charged, present evils may be m1tigated and
dangers threatening the future may be averted-
Our unfortunate financial plight is1not the re-
suit of untoward events nor Of conditions re-
lated to our natural resources; nor is it trace
able to any of the Affections which frequently
check national growth and prosperity. With
plenteouS crops, with abundant promise OF re-
munerative production and manufacture, with
unusual invitation to safe investment and
with satisfactory assurance to business
enterprise, suddenly financial distrust and fear
have sprung up on every side Numerous mon
eyed institutions have suspended because
abundant assets were not Immediately availa-
BILE to meet the demands Of frightened deposit
ors. Surviving corporations and individuals
are content to keep in hand the money they are
usually anxious to loan. and those engaged in
legitimate business are surprised to find that
the securities they offer for loans though here
tofore satisfactory, are no longer accepted
Values supposed to be axed are fast becoming
conjectural, and loss and failure have invaded
every branch of business
able to congressional legislation touching the
purchase and coinage OF silver by the general
government
This oleigslation is embodied In a statute
passed on the 14th day of July, 1890, which was
the elimination of much agitation on the SUBJ
ject involved, and which may be considered a
truce, after a long struggle, between the advo-
Gates of free silver coinage and those intending
to be more conservative
Undoubtedly the monthly purchases by tho
government of 100000 ounces of silver, en-
forced under that statute, were regarded by
those interested in silver production as Ger
tain guaranty of its increase in price. The re-
suit, however, has been entirely different, for
Immediately following spasmodic and slight
rise, the price of silver began to fall after the
passage of the act and has since reached the
lowest point ever known. This disappoin ting
result has led to renewed and persistent effort
in the direction of free silver coinage
Meanwhile, not only are the evil effects of'the
operation of the present law constantly &C
cumulating, but the result to which it's execu-
tion must inevitably lead is becoming palpable
TO all who give the least heed to financial sub
jects. This law provides that in payment for
the four million and five hundred thousand
ounces of silver bullion which the secretary OF
the treasury is commanded to purchase monthly,
there shall be issued treasury notes redeema-
BILE on demand in gold or silver coin.
at the discretion Of the secretary of the
treasury, and that said notes may be reissued.
It is, however, declared in the act to be
'the established policy of the United States to
maintain the two metals on a parity with each
other upon the present legal ratio or such ratio
as may be provided by law" This declaration
so controls the action of the secretary Of the
treasury to prevent him exercising the dis
cretion nominally vested in him, if by such &C
tion the PARITY between gold and silver may be
disturbed Manifestly refusal by the secre
tary to pay these treasury notes in gold, If de-
manded, could necessarily result in their dis
credit and depreciation as obligations payable
only in silver, and would destroy the parity be-
| tween the two metals by establishing discrinS
| ination in favor of gold.
Up to the fifteenth day of July, 1893, these
notes had been issued in payment OF silver
| bullion purchases, to the amount of more thar
| one hundred and forty-seven millions of dollars
| While all but very small quantity of this
bullion remains uncoined and without useful
ness in the treasury, many of the notes given il
| its purchase have been paid in gold This il
| illustrated by the statement that between the
| first day of May, 1892, and the fifteenth day O.
| July, 1898, the notes Of this kind issued in pay
| ment for silver bullion amounted to a little
more than f1fty-four millions of dollars, ant
| that during the same period about forty-nint
millions of dollars were paid by the treasury in
| gold for the redemption of such notes
| The policy necessarily adopted of paying
| these notes in gold has not spared the gold re
| serve of one hundred millions of dollars Ions
| ago set aside by the government for the re
| demption of other notes, for this fund has al
ready been subjected to the payment of new oh
| legations amounting to about one hundred ant
/ fifty millions of dollars account of silve
| purchases, and has, as consequence, for the frs
| time since its creation, been encroached upon
We have thus made the depletion of our goli
| easy, and have tempted other and more appre
| ciative nations to add it to their stock Tha
| the opportunity we have offered has not bee
neglected is shown by the large amounts of gol
Huhi oh haUo m lyy 6raJV frOO on
| treasury and exported to increase the financia
| strength of foreign nations The excess of e1
| ports of gold over its imports for the year enc
ing June 80, 1898, amounted to more than eighty
! seven and a half millions of dollars.
Between the first day of July, $780, and tn
fifteenth day of July, 1893 the gold coin an
bullion in our treasury decreased more than on
hundred and thirty-two millions of dollars
| while during the same period the silver col
| and bullion in the treasury increased more tina
one hundred and forty-seven millions of do
| lars. Unless government bonds are to be cor
| stantly issued and sold to replenish our el
| haus ted go1d only to be again exhaus ted, it
| apparent that the operation of the silver pul
| chase law now in force, LEADS in the direction
the entire substitution of silver for the gold i
the government treasury and that this must
followed by the payment of all government obi
cations in deprecated silver.
| At this stage gold and silver must part con
| pany and the government must fail in its e
| parity with each other. Given over to the e.
elusive use of currency greatly depreciate
according to the standard of the commerci
world, we could no longer claim place amor
| nations of the first class, nor could our cover
rnent claim performance of its obligations,
far as such an obligation has been imposed upC
1t, to provide for the use of the people the be
and safest money.
If, as many of it's friends claim, silver ougl
to occupy larger place in our currency and Il
currency Of the world through general intern
tional cooperation and agreement, it is obviol
that the United States will not be in a poSitiC
to gain hearing in favor of such arrang
ment so long as we are willing to continue Of
attempt to accomplish the result single-hande
The knowledge in business circles among OF
own people that our government cannot NAL
its fat equivalent to intrinsic value, nor ket
inferior money on a parity with superior mont
by it's own independent efforts, has resulted
such lack of confidence at home in the st
bility of currency values that capital refuses
aid to new enterprises while millions are act
ally withdrawn from the channels Of trade al
commerce to become idle and unproductive
the hands of timid owners. Foreign investo
equally alert not only decline to purcha
American securities, but make haste to sacr
fee those which they already have
1t does not meet the situation to say that a
prehension in regard to the future of OIL
finances is groundless and that there is no reasc
for lack Of confidence in the purposes pow'
OF the government in the premises The vel
existence of this apprehension and lack of CO
fdence, however caused, is a menace whiC
ought not for a moment to be disregarde
Possibly if the undertaking we have in hal
we're the maintenance of specific known qua
tity of silver at parity with gold, our ability
do so might be estimated and gagged, and pc
haps, in view of our unparalleled growth al
resources, might be favorably passed upo
But when our aYowed endeaVor is to mainta