The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1893-08-11
The Message.

liarities. First, it has the merit of being
short, and second, there is nothing in it.
The President asks Congress to repeal The
Sherman purchase act but he doesn't even
so much as offer faint suggestion of any
thing else. He complains of the deplorable
financial conditions prevailing but offers
nothing 10 improve the situation, throwing
the responsibility on Congress, and it would
appear by the tenor of the message that he
was ready to sign free coinage bill if one
should be enacted, after laying the entire
responsibility on congress to devise means
for keeping the two metals at parity, which
seems to be The aim of the gold bug 6nan-
ciers, The two metal coins are at "a
parity'' and always have been, and the only
way under the sun 10 place:the two metals"
there is free coinage.
The President thrashes the old straw
which the newspapers have gone over a
thousand times and as many times been
answered and their disingenuous mlsrepre-
sensations and shallow sophistries refuted.
In fact latterly the gold ring papers and
their principle oracles have ceased attrib-
slting the "panic" and export Of gold to the
Sherman act and have been searching for
other causes The present inflow Of gold
confirms this last view, and the Sherman
law has become an abandoned fad, but the
President comes in behind the procession
carrying this old chestnut, and offers it to
congress and the country.
We make few extracts from the message
which will show the Presidential muddle
that he has called congress to remedy:
"This law provides that in payment for
the 100000 ounces of silver bullion which
abe Secretary of the Treasury is commanded
to purchase monthly, there shall be issued
treasury notes redeemable on demand in gold
or silver coin, at the discretion of the Secre-
tary oftheTreasury, and that said notes may
be reissued. 1t is, however, declared in the
act to be 'the established policy of the
United States TO maintain the two metals on
parity with each other upou 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 as to prevent
his exercising the discretion nominaliy
vested in him, If by such action the parity
between gold and silver may be disturbed.
Manifestly refusal by the Secretary TO pay
these Treasury notes in gold, if demanded,
would necessarily result in their discredit
aud depreciation as obligations payable only
in silver and would destroy the parity be-
tween the two metals by establishing a
discrimination in favor of gold"
The parity between the two metals was
destroyed by the demonstration ac,s of
1884 but the parity between the two coins
has always been maintained because the law
of congress makes silver dollars legal
tender. In place of the Secretary helping
to maintain the parity between the Two
metals which has not existed since 1878,
by paying silver coin in exchange for
the notes issued on it, he has helped the
English Jew bankers to bear silver metal
by that refusal. And thus does our Presi-
dent, led astray by the sophistry of the gold
ring advocates, traverse common sense and
present the United. States aiaughing stock
to the world on finance.
And here follows more of the same
lugubrious gibberlsh, "still harping on my
daughter" parity of the two metals:
'iAt this stage gold and silver must part
company and the government must fail in
its established policy to maintain the two
metals on parity with each other. Given
over to the exclusive use of currency
greatly deprecated according to the stand
ard of the commercial world, we could nc
first class, nor could our government claim
a performance of its obligation, so far as
such an obligation has been imposed upon
it, to provide for the use of the people the
best and safest money!
''We could no longer claim place among
nations Of the first class ~ And what con-
stitutes nation of the first class? Its power
to produce wealth and maintain its inde-
pendence. The United States produces
more wealth than any other nation ON the
globe. And who doubts its power to main
tain our independence except Mr.. Cleve-
land? He declares IN the sentence quoted
he doubts it. All the people demand in
ihe way of money Is a legal tender money
issued by the act of congress, and plenty of it,
That is "the best and safest money and
not our present bank credit confidence
money. The latter is what Mr.. Cleveland
wants and what the people do not want
The President closes sop to the wage
earners with the following paragraph:
"One Of the greatest statesmen our country
has known, speaking. more than so years
ago when arrangement of The cure ncy
had caused commercial distress, said. The
very man of all others who has the deepest
interest in sound currency and who suffers
most by mischieVous legislation in money
matters, is the man who earns his daily
bread by his daily TOLL"