The Progress., 1893-08-26
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
Notes Of Interest Gathered from About
the National CAPITAL.
w,smscros. D. t., August. q. 1898
ccial Correspondence to The Progress:

ocratic silver Senator, talks silver,
but hc votes gold" That i'm nut shell
expresses the general opinion Of the
Voorhees, bill which has boon reported
to the senate. Tho pili provides for
the unconditional repeal Of the pur-
chasing clause Of the sherman law. and
then in foot note, a. il were. attempts
io consol" the silver men 10y stating
that it i. the policy of thi, government
10 use both silver and cold a. money
and 10 maintain the parity OF one with
tho other. Although this bill has been
reported to the Senate il will not b.
taken up except when called mp by some
member who wants 10 make a speech
thereon. for ,om"say-, probably not un-
til after the Hou,, has voted on the
silver question.
The senate seem, disposed 90 utilize
the bill FOR Tho increase Of National
bank circulation a, Il lay figure upon
which to try ON all sorts OF financial
amendments \ number have already
been voted down, aud the FIRST of those
| 20 come up this week viii be that Of
| lcrcd by Mr.. Butler, of ). G., providing
for the repeal of the tcn-porccut tax on
State bank currency. This bill has been
three times passed by the > mate, at a.
many sessions of Congress. uuamcndcd
and without division. The Populists
Senators are solidly against the origi-
nal bill. 1t is said that tn, Democratic
Senators who favor the free coinage of
silver hare agreed to get a test vote by
oiicringan amendment to this bill, pro
viding for the free coinage Of silver at
a ratio of 20 to !, and that II the amend
ment be defeated they viii not allow
the bill for the unconditional repeal of
the purchasing clause Of tIc Sherman
law To come to avotc, being determined
to join with the silver Republicans and
Populists and prevent any actiou, unless
some concessions be made to silver
The silver Senators have abandoned
the idea OF making a sight for free
coinage at the present ratio and will
unite upon the bill reported by the sill
YER minority of tho finance committee
as a substitute 70. the Voorhees, uncon-
ditional repeal bill. Thi, substitute,
which will necessarily have 60 bc voted !
upon before the Norhces bill, provides
for the free coinage of silver AZ a ratio /
OF 20 to and rcpcals the purchasing
clause Of the sherman law.
The silycrdebato in the House, which /.
winds up thi, week. has been disap- |
pointing to the public, and, think, /
also to the members of the House. /
There have been few really good and /
carefully prepared speeches. notable /
among which was that OF Representa- /
tive Sibley, of Pennsylvania, the East /
ern man who has so far spoken against |
unconditional repeal, and that of Rep.
rcsentative McCreary, of Kentucky, |
who, although a friend Of silver aud /
representing a silver State. spoke in
favor of unconditional repeal. Mr.. Nc
Creary declared himself willing at any
time after the repeal of the purchasing
clause to support bill extending the
use Of silver as money. His strongest
argument for repeal was that it would
aid in bringing about an international
agreement for the free coinage Of sill
yer. 1t looks now as though the silver
amendments will all be defeated and /
the repeal bill passed unless the Rspub-
licans, who control the situation, shall.
as reports have said they would, vote
with the silver men for The Amendment
providing for free coinage at a 20 to /
ratio. But the probabilities point to
their voting almost solidly against all
of the amendments and for the repeal
bill.
Representative Jerry Simpson made
a short and very sarcastic speech on the
silver question. Jerry is somewhat dis
gusted and he jumped into both of the
old parties; the Republicans for past
financial legislation, and the Democrats
for neglecting their present oppOrtu-
nifty He said there was 40 longer a
Democratic party, it having become a
Cleveland party. President Cleveland's
friends in Congress would be very glad
If Jerry's charge was literally true, but
il isn't.
There has been lots Of calk-- probably
more on the outside than among those I
directly Observation-Disclosures a bargain be- 5
tween the free silver men and the Re G
Dublicans in the Senate, for the purpose c
IF passing a free coinage bill, at an in :
,reased ratio, and preventing any tariff
egislation during the life of this Con-
yress; but persistent hunt failed to
discover any real foundation for the .
ak althoug hseveral Senators admitted
4 L