St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-07-04
READY FOR REPEAL.
Senator John Sherman Talks
on the Country's Finan-
cial Situation.
Claims the Famous Law Was
Passed as a Compromise
Measure.
Legal Tender Of the Present
Silver Dollars Must Be
Maintained.
World Must Know That We
Propose to Pay Our Debts
in Gold.

CHICAGO, July 3.-"There has never
been time since the law of 1890 known
as the Sherman act was passed that l
would not have voted for its repeal,''
said Senator John Sherman at the Lex
ingtOn hotel today. 1.-The Sherman act
was compromise measure, and it was
passed to save the country from free
coinage bill that had been passed by the
senate by an overwhelming majority.
The Democrats helped pass the Sher-
man bill, and now they abuse it and
blame it for all the financial woes of the
nation. have told Mr.. Cleveland AND
Mr.. Carlisle that l will stand with them
for sound, safe, stable cur
rency. Mr.. Cleveland, in opposing
silver, is fighting three-fourthS
of his party. OF course l have my own
ideas of what should be done, and when
the matter comes up in congress | will
have my say. think the Sherman law
will be repealed, but the danger is that
congress may 90 too far. Shonld the
clause providing for the purchase of
1@"OO.OOO OuhSOo VI ollNCl NC
stricken out it would be well. But if
congress should go OIL and repeal the
clause providing the United States shall
maintain parity between gold aid
silver coins, it would cause wide
spread distrust. There is in the treas
ury $50. 100000 of coined silver dollars
and S145,0O0,000 in uncoined bullion.
The legal tender of these coins must be
preserved, and their
Parity BE Maintained.
sit is we'll enough to stop the further
mintage of silver, but that in circula-
ton must be sustained. To stop max
ing silver dollars would not impair the
usefulness of those already made, SO
long as the government guaranty is
back of them.
1.-The present stringency is caused by
the apprehension of the mercantile and
financial world that we will not meet
our obligations in gold, but will pay in
cheap money. l believe we should
have sound, safe currency OH gold
basis. | do not think the cessation
of silver coinage will bring gold
more into circulation. l do not
think gold will ever again be so much in
reserve and basis on which the cIrcu-
lating medium will rest for security. l
think such currency feasible, and l
am of the opinion that il will be brought
about. The action of India with regard
to silver is not conclusive. 1t is in the
nature of an experiment. The law that
the silver rupee shall be worth 10 pence
is in the nature of fiat money legisla-
ton and has no effect here. Neither do
l think the India council acted
to aid Great Britain to force
the United States to a gold
basis. All the great commercial
nations have tried silver and have failed
at it. The United States is the last of
them TO realize that silver cannot be
made the basis and standard of the
worlds money. If the coinage of silver
dollars were stopped and the metal rel
egated to the position of subsidiary
coinage, as among the nations of the
Latin union, the world would know that
we proposed to pay our debts in the
worlds money-gOld-and confidence
would be restored"