The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1893-08-11
CLEYELANDs MESSAGE.

CLEVELANDS MESSAGE.
The message of President Cleveland |
was read in both houses of Congress
on Monday. 1t is the clearest and
most forcible statement of the case
that has yet been made. While re-
commencing the prompt repeal OF the
Sherman law he does not suggest any
substitute.
President Cleveland opens his mes
sage with graphic picture of the fl
says:
Our unfortunate financial plight is not the
result Of untoward events nor of conditions
related to our natural resources nor Is it
traceable to any of the Affections which fire.
quently check national growth and prosperity.
With pleDteous crops, with abundant promise
of remunerative production aud 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 moneyed institutions have sus
pended because abundant assets were not i'm
mediately available to meet the demands of
frightened depositors Surviving corpora
lions and individuals are content to keep in
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loan, and those engaged in legitimate business
are surprised to find that the securities they
offer for loans, though heretofore satisfactory,
are no longer accepted. Values supposed to
be fixed are fast becoming coniectural, and
loss and failure have involved every branch
of business.
He attributes this condition of af
fairs principally 10 the operation of
the so-called Sherman silver law, I'M
der which the government must pur-
chase 4, SOC, 900 ounces of silver every
month, paying for it i'm treasury notes,
redeemable in silver or gold coin, at
the discretion of the Secretary of the
Treasury. This might not be so much
of an evil if the Secretary could deem
these notes in silver. Unfortunately,
however, he is obliged to maintain an
equality between the gold and the sill
yer dollar, upon the ratio fixed there
for. Showing how this operates Pres;-
dent Cleveland says:
This declaration so controls the action of
the Secretary of the Treasury as to prevent
his exercising the discretion nominally vested
In him, when by such action the parity be-
Manifestly refusal by the Secretary to pay
these Treasury notes in gold. if demanded.
would necessarily result in their discredit and
depreciation as obligations payable only in
silver and would destroy the parity between
the two metals by establishing discrimina-
tion In favor of gold.
A very small quantity of the silver
bullion bought by the government I'M
der the Sherman law has been coined,
but many of the notes given for it
have been paid in gold. This policy,
the President shows, has not only
carried out of the Treasury all of the
free gold bn: has compelled the Secre
tary to encroach upon the $10G, 900, 900
reserved by law to redeem other notes.
Other nations have taken advantage
of the opportunity to deplete our
stock of gold, strengthening themselves
themselves at our expense. President
Cleveland adds:
Unless Government bonds are to be con-
stantly issued and sold to replenish our ex-
hausted gold. only to be again exhausted, it
is apparent that the operation of the silver
purchase law now in force, leads in the direc-
ton of the entire substitution of silver for
the gold in the Government Treasury, and
that this must be followed by the payment of
all Government obligations in deprecated
silver.
At this stage gold and silver must part COM
pany and the government must fail in its es-
tablished policy to maintain the two metals
on parity with each other. Given over to
the exclusive use of q currency greatly depre
ciated according to the standard of the com
mercial world, we could no longer claim a
place among nations of the first class, nor
could our government claim performance of
its obligation, so far as such an obligation has
been imposed upon 1t, to provide for the use
of the people the best and safest money.
The United States, the President
thinks, is unable single-handed to
compel the rest of the world to adopt
double standard of silver and gold,
while we are buying silver and paying
for it in gold He says:
The knowledge in business circles among
our own people that our Government cannot
make its fiat equivalent to intrinsic value,
nor keep inferior money on parity with SUI
perior money by its own independent efforts,
has resulted in such a lack Of confidence at
home in the stability Of currency values that
capital refuses its aid to new Enterprises while
millions are actually withdrawn from the
channels of trade and commerce to become
iulo anu uDpTOuuCLlF6 III JU0 HduuS Oh Lllllu
owners. Foreign investors equally alert not
only decline to purchase American securities,
but make haste to sacrifice those which they al
ready have.
1t does not meet the situation to say that
apprehension In regard to the future of our
finances is groundless and that there is no
reason for lack Of confidence in the purposes
or power of the government in the premises.
The very existence of this apprehension and
lack of confidence, however caused, is
meance which ought not for a moment to be
disregarded.
The people of the United States are entitled
to a sound and stable currency. and to money
recognized as such on every exchange and in
every market Of the world Their Govern
ment has no right to injure them by financial
experiments opposed to the policy and prac
tice of other civilized States, nor is it justified
in permitting an exaggerated and unreason-
able reliance on our national strength and
ability to jeopardize the soundness OF the peo-
pies money.
This matter rises above the plane of party
politics. 1t vitality concerns every business
and calling and enters every household in the
land.
President Cleveland calls earnest at
tention to the fact that it is not the
capitalist only who is interested in
this matter, but the wage-earner as
we'll On this point he says:
At times like the present, when the evils of
unsound finance threaten us, the Spectator
may anticipate a harvest gathered from the
misfortunes of others, the capitalist may pro-
tect himself by boarding or may find profit in
the fuctuation Of values, but the wage Garner,
the first to be injured by deprecated cur
reney, and the last to receive the benefit of its
correction-is practically defenseless. He re-
lies for work upon the ventures of confident
and contented capital This failing him, his
condition is without alienation, for he can
neither prey on the misfortunes of others nor
hoard his labor. One of the greatest states
men our country has known, speaking more
than 80 years ago, when arrangement of the
currency had caused commercial distress said
THE very man of all Others who has the deep
est interest in sound currency and who suf-
fers most by nischievous legislation in money
matters is the man who earns his daily bread
by his daily toll"
These words are as pertinent now as on the
day they were uttered and ought to impress
sively remind us that failure in the discharge
OF our duty at this time must especially injure
those OF our countrymen who labor, and who,
because OF their number and condition, are
entitled to the most watchful care of their
Government.
The President urges prompt action
on the part of Congress. Every days
delay, he says, cnlarges the mischief