St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1893-08-10
THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE,


deals almost wholly with the
financial necessity Of the hour-only
a brief paragraph being devoted to
the question of tariff reform, which
the president says is a secondary
matter so far as immediate action IS
concerned, but must be taken up IN
the course of time and dealt with
according to the pledges under
which the present administration
was elected.
The message, on the whole, deals
with the monetary problem rather
stronghold least as regards the
necessity for the repeal of the silver
purchasing clause of the Sherman
act and the establishment OF
reliable standard. The president
has called congress together IN extra
session because he believes that
Through a wise and patriotic exer'
ercise of the legislative duty with
which they solely are charged,
present evils may be mitigated and
dangers threatening the future may
he averted." He maintains that our
present financial plight is due not to
any untoward events or conditions
connected with our national re-
sources; he refers to the uneaslness
which prevails so generally among
banking institutions and in indus
trial circles, and believes these things
are principally chargeable to con-
gressional legislation touching the
purchase and coinage of silver by
the general government-such legls-
lation being embodied in an act
passed July IA, 1890, which may be
looked upon as truce between the
free coinage men and the advocates
of a more conservative policy. The
monthly purchase of 100000
ounces of silver by the government,
he says, was undoubtedly consider
ed by silver producers as certain to
create an increase in the price OF that
commodity, but the result has been
tosend the price ofsilver down to the
lowest point ever known.
The message sets forth the evil
effects of the continued purchase OF
silver and the attempt at the same
time to maintain silver and gold on
a parity with each other upon the
present legal ratio. Such a policy
leads inevitably to the depletion OF
our gold reserve. "Unless govern
ment bonds are to be constantly
issued and sold to replenish our ex-
hausted gold, only to be again ex-
hausted, it is apparent that the
operation of the silver purchase law
now in force leads in the direction Of
the entire substitution of silver for
the gold in the government treasury,
and that this must be followed by
the payment of all government OBJ
legations in deprecated silver"
Reference is made to the claim that
silver ought to have a larger place in
the currency of this country and OF
the world, but the president sees no
prospect of such thing so long as
the United States tries to accomplish
it single-handed. He says "the
knowledge in business circles among
our own people that ourgovernment
cannot make its fiat equivalent to
intrinsic value, nor keepinferior mon
ey on parity with superior money
by its own independent efforts, has
resulted in such lack of confidence
at home in the stability of currency
values that capital refuses its aid tC
new enterprises, while millions ar,
actually withdrawn from the chan
ncIs of trade and commerce to becom,
idle and unproductive in the hands
OF timid owners. Foreign investors
equally alert, not only decline t.
purchase American securities, bu
make haste to sacrifice those whicl
they already have" Thevery exist
ence OF this lack of confidence is
menace which he says ought not t,
be for a moment disregarded. He re
allies and insists that "the peopl
of the United States are entitled to
sound and stable currency and t
money recognized as such on ever
exchange and in every market of II
world. Their government has n
right to injure them by financial e,
periments opposed to the policy an
practice of other civilized states, ne
is it justified in permitting an exappe