The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-31
A Good Point by Senator Gordon.

"A
Senator Gordon. in his speech In the
Senate on Tuesday. in favor Of repeating
promptly and Internationally the Sher
man silver law, made strong point
against the silverites. To is a point 20
which the MuRNING News has more than
once called attention during the last TWO
weeks. 10 is that if the silverites are
strong enough TO attach condition, pro
vidinr for the free coinage OF silver, 10
the bill % repeal the Sherman silver law,
they are strong enough to pass an indie
pendent free silver coinage bill He
argued therefore that it would not iniure
the chances for free silver coinage 10 pass
without further delay, the bill to repeal
the Sherman silver law.
The reasons he gave for the immediate
passage of the repeal bin are strong ones
reasons that cannot be answered and
which should be regarded even by the
extreme silveritcs as satisfactory. The
country is in the midst of a financial
panic II is with the utmost difficulty
that money can be obtained for the
transaction of any kind of business. The
scarcity of money has forced many facto-
ries to close their doors and has caused
banks and business firms to fail. Great
as the financial distress has been and is,
it will be still greater unless congress
provides the relief so earnestly demanded.
The scarcity of money has had most de-
pressing effect upon the prices of agricul-
tural and other products. Both wheat
and cotton are selling below the cost of
production. Consequently every day that
relief legislation is delayed the farmers
lose tens of thousands of dollars. And
farmers are not the only ones who are
losers. Merchants, bankers. manufacture
ers and all other business men are heavy
losers. Even working men and women
are suffering from the panic because a
large percentage of them have been
thrown out of employment and see star
walton staring them in the face. And
yet the silver senators, without reasons
to support them, threaten to prolong the
panic, and even make it worse than it is,
because they hope they can compel the
congress to give the country a debased
currency
Senator Gordon has been classed as
silyerite, and he is in favor Of bimetal-
ism, but he is not one of the rule-or-
ruin silverites. He sees that the coun-
try is in need of instant financial relief,
and he is willing to vote for such relief
at once He understands that free sill
yer coinage cannot be reached without
long discussion, if at all,
and discussion means delay,
and delay means heavy losses to
a large portion Of the people and absolute
ruin to another portion. And he is far
sighted enough to see that delay would
not benefit the cause Of bimetallism.
The struggle over the silver question
makes it clear that there are a good many
men in the Senate who should not be
there. They may be sincere in the course
they are pursuing, but Of what good to the
country is their sincerity if they are so
selfish and wrong-headed as to deliber-
ately bring ruin upon the country? Would
not the country be better off without
their serviceS2 AS mattero of fact, sena-
tors are too far removed from the
people to respond promptly to the
peoples will. Elected for six years by
the legislatures of their respective states,
too many Of them think they can with
safety ignore the people and do as they
please. They may find out their mistake
The people are, it is true, quick to forget,
but they will not forget the senator's who
are causing them anxiety and loss. When
those senator's seek a reelection the
people will remember how indifferent
the were to the interests of their con
stituents, and viii see to it that they are
not again given offices of power and in
fuence