St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-08-16

would be for the president of the United
States, who was fortunately untra M
meled and unembarrassed by any pre-
vious utterance on the subject. to frame
some election law which would perhaps
meet the views of the senators from
Massachusetts. and the reconciliation
would be complete. Laughter.l In Or
der, however. that the repeal of an eX-
istiDg law should bring relief. it would
be necessary to show that that law had
inflicted injury. He had yet to hear a
single Intelligent man state,
On kAis Conscience,
that he believed that the Sherman act
had wrought the injury under which the
country now suffered. He had yet TO
hear single man of experience In
financial matters or in public affairs
say that the unfortunate financial crisis
through which the country was passing
had anything to do with tine Sherman
act. Every one would admit that the
Sher.nan act was vicious in principles
and illogical. 1t was vicious in that it
made of silver a commodity. 1t was
illogical and vicious in that it left the
silver bullion in the treasury uncoined,
left it where it might be dumped on the
European markets at any time. These
were its disadvantages but it had some
advantages. Its quasi recognition
of silver had been Of inf
mite value in the hope which
it had inspired of bimetalism,
and in the fact that it had affo rded an
enlarged currency from month to month
for the past three years. Even in the
last few months the Sherman act had
saved the country from infinitely greater
disasters than it had undergone. 1t had
given the country currency las stated
by Senator Chandler) backed by the
credit of the government and by the
silver at its bullion value. That was
pretty good currency. 1t was perhaps
little better currency than the thirty
seven million of clearing house certifi-
Gates now in circulation in New York,
backed only by rediscounted paper,
and held by people who were now clam
oring for the repeal of the Sherman act.
The only tangible statement which me
NA4ls w OlSOlII SCG w lllO
Injury Wrought
by the Sherman act, was that there was
a lack of confidence in Europe. but that
he did not find that that statement was
borne out by the facts. American Sc
curities had been held enormously in
Great Britain, perhaps to the extent of
S2,000,000,00O. Great Britain had suf-
fered seriously in Argentine and in her
own colonies, and had been forced to
sell her securities, and the cheapest Sc
curities had come first. 1t was impos-
Sble to say what proportion of Amer
lean securities were held a6road-pay-
able, some in gold and some in lawful
money, but it was nevertheless true
and susceptible of proof that the
securities which came back came back
irrespective of the method of this
payment. No better illustration of
that could be given than the fact that
the New York & New Haven railroad
stock and the Pennsylvania railroad
stock, which had permanent value, had
not come back. Their dividends were
payable i'll lawful money and not in
gold. Those securities were still held
abroad. The cheapest and weakest
securities came back first; and they
came irrespective of the fact whether
they were payable in silver or gold. The
great liquidation had come. not because
there was i'll Great Britain a lack of
confidence in American finances, but
because the holders of American sccur-
tiles were compelled to sell. There had
been a little breathing spell, and then
again had come a healthy demand
abroad for
American Securities.
But that demand had been checked by
the Reading fiasco. He did not believe
that even Pennsylvania banker would
accuse the Sherman act of being re-
sDonsible for that Reading fiaSco. Then
the trouble with the whisky trust had
come on and the trust had gone to
pieces. Had the Sherman act been re-
sponsible for that? Then came the
breaking up of the cordage trust. or
ganized and managed by the leading
tinanciers of New York. Had the Sher-
man act been responsible for that? And
yet the New York newspapers figured
up daily the market quotations of a year
ago and the market quotatations of TO-
day, struck balance between them and
argued that silver and the Sherman act
were responsible for all those disasters.
If it was not responsible for the condi-
tiOn of affairs abroad, it was still less
responsible for the conditions of affairs
at home.
The senator from Massachusetts
Uodge) had said that after the repeal of
the Sherman act confidence would come
back to the country. How would it
come back, and from where? Would it
come from the laboring classes,
from the farmers, from the miners?
The repeal of the Sherman act would
not bring confidence to them. Would
it bring confidence to the banks? The
banks did not want confidence in the
money of the country, but they wanted
the money of other people. The banks
wanted some legislation that woald
induce poor people who had Withdrawn
their money from the banks to bring it
back. That brought him, he said, to
The Real Cause
Of the present existing financial panic.
1t had come partly because of European
losses in South America and Australia: ::
partly because Russia and Austria were
buying gold, and partly because the
United States had purchased more
goods abroad than it had sold abroad.
All these causes were utterly indie
pendent of and irrespective of silver
and the Shetman act. If there had not
been a dollars worth of silver in the
country, if there had never been line
of silver legislation, the blight would
have come exactly the same. Silver
was not responsible for it. Confidence
was of slow growth, and all the legisla-
ton that might be enacted would not
bring back confidence to the men who
/ had withdrawn their money from the
| banks. For his own part he intended to
| conduct himself not alone as citizen of
a section, but as citizen of great re-