The Portland daily press., 1893-07-28
THE GOLD SIDE

of which E Q. Leech, late director 81
the United States mint, is cashier, makes
the following statement:
"The struggle of the silver mine own
ers and those who are in various ways
interested in the product to compel the
government to keep in the market as
forced buyer of the white metal is self
ish struggle. 1t strongly resembles i'll
it's features the imperious demands OF
the old proslavery party. E1travagant
language is used, wild threats are made,
and there is general kickup that bodies
no good for speedy settlement OF the
important financial question now before
this country. Every time any interest
has to be disentangled from govern
mental favoritism the same fuss is made,
but in the long run the general welfare
of the people becomes the supreme law.
The Sherman law has now no friend to
do it honor.
"It has Matched so many evils in adj
0ition to the brood of the Bland bill
that every one has broom raised to hit
at it. Our silver friends jump on it with
vigor at the same time that they cry for
free coinage of silver. Now no one who
thinks about the matter much pretends
that the Sherman law is responsible for
all of the present ills, and while it might
be interesting it is perhaps not pertinent
to attempt by analysis to search out
other causes. Some of these are world
wide. They affect remote continents
and islands of the sea. They follow the
Anglo-Saxon race around the globe as
some diseases follow other peoples.
ssWe might have pulled through all OF
the adverse currents but for the distrust
of our financial policy. Europe began
to nav us in our own debts, and we have
lost it's custom for our securities. The
fear that we were going to pay back
their money in a deprecated currency
was controlling. Austria took advantage
of our exposed position to draw off
enough gold to help her get upon gold
basis. All of the time we were increas-
ing our own gold obligations under the
Sherman law, issued in payment for
silver bars. We received these bars at
one end of the treasury, paid legal ten
ders for them at the rate OF $3, $4,000
month, and these notes were at once
handed in at the other end of the treas
ury with demand for gold for export.
'sThe United States was caught in a
trap. Its gold was displaced by silver
so fast that the reserve of 800, 100000
around which "a circle of superstitious
reverence had been drawn in the public
mind was encroached upon, and then
the process Of contraction, of waning
confidence, of distrust of the future, be-
gan at home The early birds caught
the profits and got out of the markets.
Liquidation followed. A cold wave
went rapidly from New York to San
Francisco and left broken banks and
ruined firms to mark its course. The
treasury department. was as helpless as
Hindoo idol before pestilence. Its big
stock Of silver could not be sold. There
was no law for that. It was useless as
an asset. It could not be used to relieve
anything or anybody. Every day our
gold was being drained away. boarding
began and continued.
eve weathered the dangerous head
land created by the July interest pay
ments by help of the free use Of the de-
vice of clearing house certificates, and
we had one brief moment of hope in an
ticipation of the special session Of con-
gress, called to relieve an anxious and
distressed nation. The country had APP
parently repented It was ready SEEM
ingly to recant and to insist upon a re-
peal of law at once SO vicious and SO
treacherous.
''Now our silver friends, not at all
sorry for the ills that have come from a
compulsory purchase Of their product,
insist that if we cease to buy it we shall
coin it into dollars-make it legal tender
for all debts-force it, into the hands of
labor. No class of producers in the
world has the right to make such de-
mand of government. They say that
there has been conspiracy against sill
yer. Three times our country has asked
of the world to confer about making
some use of silver in the currency. We
have failed every time.
"India, our great ally, has Withdrawn
from the bootless effort to sustain silver,
dUu We dl0 lClG dlOaO LuL OIuS Ottl idOAs
Yet we are asked to keep up tho role OF
Bisyphus at tremendous cost to our pros
perity. Tt is foolish proposition. We
must take our position along with other
nations-ready to adopt bimetallism
when they are ready, but determined to
keep up our credit with them all and to
keep active the factors of prosperity
which we can rely upon to place us in
the front rank. There is no use of talk
ing compromise. That is a device al
ways full of mischief. We must use the
money that the world uses.
s'Just as soon as we get upon solid
ground in our finances and the rest Of
mankind understand that we are in ear
nest, we will flourish like we ought to do
in this great land. Until we do we will
be at disadvantage. We have suppl
Gated long enough in behalf of silver. 1t
has lost every other friend. Lie is too
short for us to try to make of it any
thing more than it has been voted to be-
a defeated candidate for position as a
Sandard of ya11le''