The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1893-08-10
PRESIDENTS IDEA
Mr.. Cleveland Sends to Congress His
Message on the Financial
Question.
The Tariff Can Wait, But the Sher.
man law Should Be Re-
pealed,
And the Sooner 1t Is Done, In His
Opinion, the Sooner We Will
Prosper.

And the Sooner 1t Is Done, In His
Opinion, the Sooner We Will
Prosper.
WASHINGTON, Aug. S.-The presi-
dents message was delivered to con-
gress shortly after noon. Its reading
was proceeded with. It is as follows:
To the Congress of the United States:
The existence of an alarming and extra
ordinary business situation, involving 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 wise
and patriotic exercise of the legislative
duty with which they solely are charged,
present evils may be mitigated and dam
gers threatening the future may be
| averted.
Our 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 check national
| growth and prosperity. With plenteous
crops, with abundant promise of re-
1 anu
| with unusual invitation to safe investment
| and with satisfactory assurance to bust
! ness enterprise, suddenly financial distrust
and fear have sprung up on every
side Numerous moneSsd institutions
, have suspended because Ebundant assets
were not Immediately available to meet
the demands of the frightened depositors.
The surviving corporations and individ-
uals are content to keep in hand the
| money they are usually anxious to loan,
and those engaged in legitimate business
| are surprised to find that the securities
they offer for loans, though heretofore sat
| isfactory, are no longer accepted. Values
supposed to be fixed are fast becoming
conjectural, and loss and failure have in
vaded every branch of business.
Chargeable to Legislation.
I believe these things are principally
chargeable to congressional legislation
touching the purchase and coinage of sill
yer 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 truce, after long struggle,
between the advocates of free silver coin
age and those intending to be more con-
servative.
Undoubtedly the monthly purchases by
the government of 1850, 900 ounces of sill
yer, enforced under that statute, were re-
garded by those interested in silver pro-
| duction as certain guaranty of its in
crease in price. The result, however, has
been entirely different, for Immediately
| following a spasmodic and slight rise, the
Dfty foil ho nm
sage of the act and has since reached the
lowest point ever known This disappoint-
ing result has led to renewed and per
sistent effort in the direction of free silver
coinage.
Evil Effects Accommodating.
Meanwhile, not only are the evil effects
of the operation of the present law con-
stantly accommodating, but the result to
which its execution must inevitably lead
is becoming palpable to all who give the
least heed to financial subjects
This law provides that in payment for
the 4,500, 600 ounces of silver bullion which
the secretary of the treasury is commanded
to 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
uOUeS HAY NC T6-lSSucu. IL uOWtNcI,
declared in the act to be '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"
Prevents Discretion.
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.
Manifestly refusal by the secretary to
pay these treasury notes in gold, if
demanded, would necessarily result in
their discredit and depreciation as obliga-
tions payable only in silver, and would
destroy the parity between the two metals
by establishing discrimination in favor
of gold
Up to the 18th day of July, 1898, these
| notes had been issued in payment of silver
bullion purchases, to the amount of more
| than s147, 100000 While all but very
small quantity of this bullion remains I'M
| coined, and without usefulness in the
| treasury, many of the notes given in its
purchaae have been paid in gold. This is
| illustrated by the statement between the
first day of May, 1892, and the 18th day of
July, 1898, the notes of this kind issued in
payment for silver bullion amounted to.
q little more than s54,000,000, and that
| during the same period about $49, 6O0,0
were paid by the treasury in gold for the
redemption of such notes.
Made Depletion Easy.
The policy necessarily adopted of paying
these notes in gold has not spared the gold
reserve of S100, 0OQ, 900 long ago set aside by
| the government for the redemption of
| other notes, for this fund has already been
subjected to the payment of new obliga-
| lions amounting to about $150,000, 900 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 helped other and more
appreciative nations to add it to their
stock. That the opportunity we have of
| fered has not been neglected, is shown by
| the large amounts of gold which have been
recently drawn from our treasury and ex-
| ported to increase the financial strength of
foreign nations. The excess of exports of
| gold over its imports for the year ending
June 80, 1893, amounted to more than
| sS7, 500 000 Between the 1st day of July,
| 1890, and the 18th day of July, 1898, the
] gold coin and bullion in our treasury de-
creased more than $132, 600, 900, while dur
| ing the same period the silver coin and
| bullion in the treasury increased more than
| $147, 600, 600. Unless government bonds are
to be constantly issued and sold to replen-
| ish our exhausted gold, only to be again
exhausted, it is apparent that the opera
| ton 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
| Je followed by the payment of all govern
ment obligations in deprecated silver.
Must Part Company.
AT this stage gold and silver must part
company and the government must fail in
| its established policy to maintain the two
metals ON parity with each other. Given
4 over to the exclusive use of currency
| greatly deprecated according to the
| standard of the commercial world, we
could no longer claim o place among ma
| tiens OF the first class, nor could our gov