The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-08-15
run PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
The GoIdbugs Win the Day, and Re
form ~ Means Ruin if Congress
Obeys the President.
WAsHINGTON, D. c., August 8.

t~raordinary business situation, lnVOlV-
ing the welfare and prosperity Of all
our people, has constrained me to call
together in extra session the peoples
representatives in Congress to the end
that through a wise and patriotic exer-
else of the legislative duty with which
they solely are charged, present evils
may be mitigated and dangers threaten
ing the future may be averted. Our
OUR SAD PLIGHT.
unfortunate financial plight is not the
result of untoward events o of condi
tions related to our natural res ources,
nor is it traceable to any of the af1;c-
tions which frequently check national
growth and prosperity. With plen-
teous crops, with abundant promise of
remunerative production and manufac-
ture, with unusual invitation to safe in
vestment and with satisfactory assur-
anCe to business enterprise, suddenly
financial distrust and fear have sprung
up on every side. Numerous moneyed
institutions have suspended because
abundant assets were not Immediately
available to meet the demands of
frightened depositors. Surviving COR
porations and individuals are content
to keep in hand the money they are
usually anxious to loan, and those en-
gagged in legitimate business are sur
pri8ed to find that the securities they
offer for loans, though heretofore salts
factory, are no longer accepted. Values
supposed to be fixed are fast becoming
copjectural and loss and failure have
invaded every branch of business. I
THE SHERMAN ACT.
belle We these things are principally
chargeable to Congressional legislation
touching the purchase and coinage of
silver by the general government.
This legislation is embodied in a
statute passed on the 14th day of July,
1890, which was the elimination Of
much agitation on the subject involved,
| and which may be considered a truce,
after a long struggle, between the ad-
vocates of free silver coinage and those
Intending to be more conservative. I'm
doubtedly the monthly purchase by the
government Of four million and five
hundred thousand ounces of silver, en-
forced under that statute, was re
garded by those interested in silver
production as certain guaranty of it's
insrease in price The result, however,
has been entirely different, for i'm
mediately following a spasmodic and
slight rise, the price of silver began to
fall after the passage Of the act and
has since reached the lowest point ever
known. The disappointing result has
led to renewed and persistent effort in
| the direction of free silver coinage.
Meanwhile, not only are the evil
effects of the operation of the present
law constantly accommodating, but the
result to which it's execution must in
| o-SEoAI- Io0l - hDa0-os-v ~n1~olIo -
all who give the least heed to financial
subject. This law provides that in
payment for the four million and five
hundred thousand ounces of silver bull
lion which the Secretary Of the Treas
ury iscommandedto purchase monthly
there shall be issued treasury notes
redeemable on demand in gold or silver
coin, at the discretion of the Secretary
of the Treasury, and that said notes
may be reissued. 1t is however, de
clared in the
NOTES MUST BE AID IN GOLD.
act to be 1.-The established policy Of the
| United States to maintain the two
metals on a parity with each other
upon the present legal ratio or such
ratio as may be provided by law
This declaration SO controls the action
of the Secretary as to prevent his exer-
cising the discretion nominally vested
in him, if by such action the parity
between gold and silver may be dis
turbed. Manifestly a refusal by the
Secretary to pay these treasury notes
in gold, if demanded, would necessarily
result in their discredit and deprecia-
ton as obligations payable only in sill,
yer, and would destroy the parity be.
tween the two metals by establishing a
discrimination in favor of gold.
THEY DRAIN THE TREASURY.
Up to the 18th day of July, 1898,
these notes had been issued in pay,
ment of silver bullion purchases, to
the amount of more than one hundred
and forty-seven millions of dollars.
While all but a very small quantity of
this bullion remains uncoined and
without usefulness in the Treasury,
many Of the notes given In it's purchase
have been paid in gold. This is illus
trated by the statement that between
the first day of May, 1892, and the 18th
day of July, 1898, the notes of this
kind issued in payment for silver bull
lion, amounted to a little more than
ffty-four millions of dollars, and that
during the same period about forty
nine millions of dollars were paid by
the Treasury in gold for the redemption
of such notes.
The policy necessarily adopted of
paying these notes in gold has not
spread the gold reserve of one hundred
millions of dollars, long ago set aside
by the government for the redemption
Of other notes, for this fund has already
been subject to the payment of obliga-
lions, amounting to about one hundred
and fifty millions of dollars on account
of silver purchases, and has as a conse-
quence for the first time since it's crea-