People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1893-11-24

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21.-The indica
lions are that the free coinage fight
will be renewed at the opening Of the
regular session. The free coinage
men hold that the repeal of the silver
purchase law has not restored COM
mercial prosperity, that the position
of the silver men in urging free coin
age at the late session has been vindi-
Gated and that now the Democratic
party in congress should devote itself
to redeeming the remaining pledges
of the last Democratic national con-
vention on the subject of silver and
financial legislation.
With this object in view, Chairman
Bland of the committee on coinage,
weights and measures is preparing
bill, which he, as the leader OF the
free coinage men, will introduce at
the opening of the session. 1t is fur
ther declared by him to be his inten-
ton to afford no loophole of escape
for those Democratic congressman
who have talked for free coinage to
their constituents at home, but voted
against it on plausible pretexts, when
the matter came up for consideration
in the house. He holds that there is
a clear majority for free coinage in
the house, if the private declarations
of the members to him during the ex-
ira session are to be relied upon, and
he purposes now to bring these gen.
tlemen to the crucial test
The measure which Mr.. Bland will
introduce is substantially a re-enact-
ment of the law Of January IS, 1897.
1t is the belief of the silver men that
this will command greater strength
and afford less opportunity for evas-
ion than any other measure which
could possibly be presented. The act
of 1897 was simple and brief. 1t pro-
Vided for silver dollars of 412H grains
and declared that 'the dollars, half
dollars, quarter dollars, dimes and
half dimes shall be legal tenders ac-
cording to their nominal value for any
sums whatever"
In regard to his position and the
plans of the silver men, Mr.. Bland
said: 81 do not see that the repeal of
the Sherman law has changed the
situation for the better-indeed it ap-
pears to have changed it for the
worse. The truth is-and the people
now thoroughly realize 1.-THE silver
purchase law has had nothing to do
with the hard times. The hard times
came on and they are with us and we
have simply got to go through a pro-
cess OF liquidation before good times
can come again and that was neces-
sary whether we repealed the Sher-
man law or not This panic,
like all other panics; finally
reached point where the people got
afraid of the banks and afraid of
each other and there has got to be a
general liquidation and blotting out
and beginning anew. The repeal of
the Sherman law will only tend to
make liquidations harder for the
debtor class of people, because it con-
tracts the currency and leaves the
business interests of the country with
out sufficient volume of money to
supply a growing population and de-
velcpment of industries 1t was
thought that European capital would
be invested here more readily by the
repeal OF the silver purchase act than
by letting it stand. But it seems that
even in that they have been greatly
disappointed. There seems to be now
less confidence in Europe in our finan-
cial conditions than before. They
are sending no money here and con-
tlnue to draw away ours If the gold
basis which we have here now
tends to contract currency, it is MAX
ing the times harder everywhere. The
contraction of the currency and gold
basis will tend to make a sharp de-
mand for gold in Europe as we'll as
here and will injure our pro-
ducers by causing lower prices for
everything we send to Europe This
also makes lower prices here, and
hence since the passage of the repeal
act, wheat and cotton have gone down
in the market instead Of going up. II
we can reduce the tariff very largely
so as to make trade easier and freer,
the exchange of our commodities
abroad will tend somewhat to relieve
the farming interests of this country.
Hence | think we should Immediately
impose large income tax and great
ly reduce the duties on imports.
1--WE expect to undertake 20 pass a
free coinage bill before congress ad-
:ourns," continued Chairman Bland.
decisively. what success we will
have is verv uncertain NV position
is that we should repeal now all of the
Sherman laws on silver and have the
law of 1857 re-enacted and thus put
silver back to where it was before he
put his hand on it Since we have
repealed one of his laws, let us repeal
all of them. think that majority of
the committee on coinage, weights
and measures will favor such a bill as
l am preparing | think the late
election will stimulate some of them
to belief of the wisdom Of such a
policy. The last election seemed to
be a general want of confidence in
the Democratic party. The result of
the late election does not look, either,
as though the people had much conf
dence that the repeal of the Sherman
law would help them. Ny purpose
is 10 introduce such a bill, have it
promptly acted upon by the COM
mittee as have no doubt it will
be, and have it reported back to
the house am willing to wait then
reasonable time for the discussion
and passage of tariff bill before
pressing the free coinage measure.
We will not embarass them and will
give no one any excuse for evadins
the issue. | think our neonle oupht