Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1893-08-08
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
The President to-day sent the follow

Ing message 10 congress:
To the Congress Of the United STATES:
The existence Of an alarming and eS-
traordinary business situation, involy-
ing the welfare and prosperity OF all
our people, has constrained me TO CAL
together in extra session the people 5
representatives in Congress, to the end
that through wise and patriotic eXer-
else Of the legislative duty with which
they solely are charged, present evils
may be mitigated and dangers threat
ening the future may be averted.
Our unfortunate financial plight Is
not the result of untoward events nor
of conditions related to our natural re-
sources; nor is it traceable to any OF
the Affections which frequently cheek
national growth and prosperity. with
plenteous crops, with abundant prom.
Use of remunerative production ana
manufacture, with unusual invitation
to safe investment and with satlstacto-
ry assurance to business enterprise,
suddenly financial distrust and tear
have sprung up on every side. Nj
merous moneyed institutions have sus-
pended because abundant assets were
not Immediately available to meet the
demands of frightened depositors. Sur
viving corporations and individuals are
content to keep in hand the money they
are usually anxious to loan, and those
engaged in legitimate business are sur
prised 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
conjectural, and loss and failure have
invaded every branch of business.
l believe these things are principally
chargeable to Congressional legislation
touching the purchase and coinage of
silver by the general government.
This legislation is embodied in stat
ute passed on the 14th day of July,
1890, which was the elimination of
much agitation on the subject involved,
and which may be considered truce,
after long struggle, between the ad-
vocates of free silver coinage and those
intending to be more conservative.
Undoubtedly the monthly purchases
by the government of four million and
five hundred thousand ounces of silver,
enforced under that statute, were re-
garded by those interested in silver
production as certain guaranty of its
increase in price. The result, however,
has been entirely different, for immed-
lately following spasmodic and slight
rise, the price of silver began to fall af-
ter the passage Of the act and has
since reached the lowest point ever
known This disappointing result has
led to renewed and persistent effort in
the direction of free silver coinage.
Meanwhile, not only are the evil ef-
fects of the operation of the present
law constantly accommodating but the
result to which its execution must in
inevitably lead is becoming palpable
to all who give the least heed to IL
nancial subjects.
This law provides that in payment
for the four million and FIVE
hundred thousand ounces of silver
bullion which the Secretary of
the Treasury is commanded to pur-
chase monthly, there shall be issued
Treasury notes redecmuble on demand
in gold or silver coin, at the discretion
of the Secretary of the Treasury, and
however, declared in the act to be 1.-The
established policy of the United States
to maintain the two metals on 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 of the
Treasury as to prevent his exercising the
discretion nominally vested in him, if
by such action the parity between gold
and silver may be disturbed. Manifest
w refusal by the Secretary to pay
these Treasury notes in gold, if de-
manded, would necessarily result in
their discredit and depreciation as OBJ
legations payable only in silver, and
would destroy the parity between the
two metals by establishing a discrimi-
nation in favor Of gold.
Up to the fifteenth day of July, 1898,
these notes had been issued in payment
of silver bullion purchases, to the
amount of more than one hundred and
forty-seven millions Of dollars. While
all but very small quantity of this
bullion remains uncoined and without
usefulness in the Treasury, many of
the notes given in its purchase have
been paid in gold. This is illustrated
by the statement that between the first
day of May, 1899, and the fifteenth day
of July. 1898, the notes of this kind is
sued in payment for silver bullion,
amounted to n little more than fifty
four millions of dollars, and that dur
ing the same perio1 about forty-nine
millions of dollars were paid by the
Treasury in gold for the redemption of
such notes.
The policy necessarily adopted of
having these notes in gold has not
spared 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 al
ready been subjected to the payment of
new obligations amounting to about
one hundred and fifty millions of dol
lars on account of silver purchases, and
has as consequence, for the first time
since It's creation, been encroached
upon.
We have thus made the depletion of
our gold easy, and have tempted other
and more appreciative nations to add
it to their stock. That the opportunity
we have offered has not been neglected,
is shown by the large amounts OF gold
which have been recently drawn from
our Treasury and exported to increase
the financial strength of foreign ma
tons. The excess of exports of gold