St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-08-04
"a QUICK PoIsoNn

Congressman j. II. WALKER, of the
! Ninth Massachusetts district, whose
able paper before the financial congress
of the Columbian fair attracted wide at
tention, and who was a member of the
conference committee to which was sent
the free coinage amendment of the SEN
ate to the house silver purchase bill,
writes letter to the Boston Herald in
which he frankly avows the purpose of
the SHERMAN amendment as that pur-
| pose rested iii the minds of Senator
SHERMAN, Representative CONGER and
himself.
We have had several explanations of
! that purpose. One, which had the I'M
conscious Endorsement of eX-PreSident
| HARRISON, was that it was to prevent
the Democrats from putting HARRISON
in the hoIe' by presenting him free
coinage bill TO sign or veto, imperiling,
| ii he did the latter, the votes of the sill
yer states. Another, Senator SHER-
MANS faVorite one, is that it was in
| tended to prevent the passage of a free
coinage bill. Now comes Representa-
tive WALKER and frankly avowS that
1t was designed as ''quick poison" to
| cure the nation of the silver craze. and
that this purpose was we'll understood
by Senator SHERMAN, Representative
! CONGER and himself.
But let Mr.. WALKER tell the story in
his own words. The Herald having said
that the purpose OF the bill was TO raise
| the price of silver and that 1.-The fall of
| silver had no place in their calcula-
tions," Mr.. WALKER says that 1.-THE
very opposite is true. Mr.. SHERMAN
seemed to appreciate the situation more
keenly than any of the rest of US, and
his disgust of the whole performance
was too intense for talk" Senator
| JONES having told the conference com
mittee that the purchase of 4.50O, 900
ounces a month would carry the price
To S1.2914, Mr.. WALKER contended that
! its effect would be to bear the market
every moment. That it must inevitably
result in far more rapid decline in the
price of silver" MIR. SHERMAN made
a very great point of this in giving his
reluctant assent to the law requiring
the purchase of 100000 ounces a
month instead of 100000; that it
would soon be comparatively little
more in value than the short-value dol
lars we were then issuing, repeating it
| every time he met Mr.. CoNGER and
myself" 1--WE deliberately framed it
! (the SHERMAN acD to make the issue
| one of, repeating it instead of law
allowing the free coinage of silver or
the BLAND-ALLISON act, and the result
shows that it was intelligently devised,
and has secured the result we sought,
viz. to make the issue the repeal of that
law instead of its being today the repeal
of law allowing the free and unlimited
coinage of silver" LAS any wise physi-
clan who found himself powerless to
prevent his patient from taking an
overdose of arsenic would prescribe
enough to make him sick, to nausea,
! that he might throw off the whole dose
and thus save mis- life, so we, as you
| have well said, substituted a quick
poison that would antidote itself as it
is now doing, working exactly as it was
calmly stated it would work in The
| meetings of that trio"
If MIR. WALKER'S frank statement of
the object of the SHERMAN act is that
| above given, and, as he claims, it has pro-
duced the effect intended, by causing a
| financial state which makes nearly
every one anxious for the repeal of the
act, one thought that comes readily is
| that Mr.. WALKER administers a severe
| rebuke to those of his party vino are
| ascribing the financial condition TO the
| advent of Democratic administration,
by showing that it is only due to the
quick poison" he, with Senator SHEER
MAN and Representative CONGER, pur-
| poSely administered to our finances. 1t
was merely an accidental and unre-
lated matter that Democratic admin
| iStration came in while his poison
was working on the patient, making
| him sick unto nausea.
| This, too, relieves the Democratic
! party from that other favorite charge
that the trouble is wholly due to the
| fear of the tariff policy they are to in
augurate, and to which the Republicans
that is, some of them-so cheerfully
aScribe the closing down of mills in
various parts of the country. 1t shows
that the ''poson" administered as an
antidote is affecting all lines of industry
by disturbing the circulating medium
and causing timid people to hoard their
money instead of allowing it to circu-
late in trade and commerce.
Another thought that comes readily
is the comment Mr.. WALKERS state
| ment is on that speech which we have
| so often quoted, delivered to the farmer
audience at Crookston by our own Sen
ator DAVIS, who came home from his
participation in the passage of that act
TO tell his people what benefcent
measure it was, and how it raised the
price of their products. Did the senator
share in the condolences Of the trio, and
did he know that the act was intended
to make the nation sick? And if he
did not know it, but believed that it was
all he so giowingly said 1t was, what
will be the nature of his feelings toward
Mr.. SHERMAN, who 50 misled him? And
what degree of confidence can he again
place. not only i'll SHERMAN, but in his
own Judgment of the practical effect of
| legislation? Can he be so cock-sure
now that he was not equally imposed on
and mistaken in voting for the MeKIN-
LEY act? But the topic may be embar-
RAISING and painful, and we desist from
! pursuing it further than to thank Con-
| gresham WALKER for his frank state
ment of the purpose and effect of his
"Quick poison"
IN THE THEATERS.