The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-09-19
AN EDITOR GETS 1T.
ATTORNEY GENERALS OFFICE,
Bismarck, N. D.


Bismarck, N. D.
To the Editor of the Steele
There is only one view to adopt regard
ing papers like yours who D 70 re-
duce us to a gold basis, that they are
either corrupt or ignorant, n there
fore 7 have said YOU are ignorant.
You call me to task for censurlng
Senator Sherman and then add: 1T
is or should be, we'll known that the
Sherman law was not passed in a dark
closet in a deserted building in a back
alley. It was discussed in Congress
and in the press until the reading pub
lie got tired of it, as they will be tired
of the present agitation before it is half
begun. The best speakers and writers
labored over this act, it had the Oppo-
sition of the entire ability OF the anti
Republicans and Democrats generally.
Yet Mr.. Standish pretends to discover
that it was done in secret and would
not have been done had anybody OF
ability been on deck"
There is not one word In my letter
that speaks of the Sherman law of 1890
being "done in a corner" or passed
secretly, and furthermore neither you
nor any other journalist ever heard
that claim made by any ne.
The action for which Mr.. Sherman is
most censured, and to which 1 re-
ferred, was his connection with the
passage of the law of February 18th,
1873, stopping the coinage of silver.
He knew this bill was to stop the coin
age of silver, and it being before his
committee it was his official duty to re-
port this fact to the Senate, which he
could have done in twenty words, and
he purposely failed to do this when he
was questioned about the bill in the
Senate. He. also held the bill back and
had it passed without being read, and
in that way prevented Congress, the
President or anyone else from learning
that the bill stopped silver coinage.
The bill had been planned by Mr..
Sherman at a conspiracy convention
held by the creditor classes of Europe
at Paris in May, 1867, and he knew this
mode of procedure to be necessary to
get the bill through an American Con
gress; for he knew the law was not
planned or being made in the interest
of the United States but in the inter
ests of the creditor classes Of Western
Europe, and a very small class of cred
itors in this country.
In order to show that this bill was
not fully discussed ''until the reading
public got tired Of it." and not even
read to Congress on it's final passage,
as you say, we refer you to the follow
ing, copied from an editorial in the
Chicago Tribune Of January 10, 1878,
a paper that is now lab0riDg to put us
on a gold basis:
The clause in the consolidated mint
bill stopping the coinage Of silver dol
lars was furtively inserted not one
member of Congress in fifty knew of
it."
On December2 81, 1877, Murat Halsted,
formerly editor Of the Cincinnati Com
merciaL. published in the New York
Nation over his W signature these
words:
Il have advertised in vain for a
member of Congress who can say that
he voted for the demonstration Of sill
yer knowing when he cast his vote
what it meant. I have appealed to the
press for an editorial article published
In the year 1878 or 1874 for or against
the change from the double to the sin,
gle standard, and the conclusion is
that M c17ah nrfio1n anna rod -, o1-
American newspaper"
On the 18th of September, 1877, Hon
W. S. Groesbeck made the following
statement before the American Bank
ers' Association then in session in New
York City:
SIN 1873 and 1874 l believe, without
a single recommendation from the
press, or from boards of trade, Of
chambers of commerce, or from any
other direction, and when for the frsi
time, our public debt had become
heavy and burdensOme, and private
indebtedness was larger than ever be
fore, and we were In a state of suspen,
sion upon the currency, amounting to
more than seven hundred millions: in
such an exigency and with the knoWl
edge that we were richer in mines of
silver than any nation on the globe. we
threw silver away and set up gold
alone"
Senator Voorhees, in his speech in the
Senate in 1878, pictured the Sherman
conspiracy against silver in these
words:
Throughout ell the financial panics
that have assaiIed this country n o man
has ever been bold enough to raise his
hand to strike it down; no man has
ever dared to whisper of q contem