The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1894-10-05

| ~ P'O"' w hiaNilhSi) III TIC manu-
lacture of useful products; he goes ou
to do something useful and to act foI
the benefit of others as well as himself
1t is this characteristic of self.helu
which makes us great beyond all other
people on the face of the earth and
our future promising and glorious
whenever the American people cease
TO depend upon their personal effort
their thrift and their enterprise, and to
look to the Government like the
Coxeyite-for support, then has begun
ior us period of degencracy and de.
cay.
But, ] return to my main thought,
from which this is a depression. What
has the Democratic party through its
President and Congress done with
reference to the hard times2 Let us
see. In the first place in order to re
store governmental credit, which was
deeply shaken, to restore confidence
which had almost ceased to exist. Con
gress was called together to repeal the
foolish and dangerous had almost
said, the absurd-Sherman Silver Pur
chasing Act. After months of effort
IN Congress that bad law was repealed.
In this our party fulfilled one of the
pledges of its platform, made when
Cleveland was nominated, and that
was that we would maintain the parity
of silver with gold. There should not
be two kinds of dollars in this country,
the one for the laboring man, worth
fifty or sixty cents, and another for the
rich man, worth one hundred cents.
Our government Fept the pledge which
our party had made by repeating that
act and restoring public credit and
confidence IN the money of the coun-
try ; not only its money, which means
gold and silver only, but its currency,
which means what is improperly called
paper money or securities. The lead
ing men of the Republican party in
both Houses of Congress were com
PEELED to vote with us on that measure
and did SO. Even John Sherman, the
author of the act which was struck at,
voted for its repeal.
What next? The gold reserve of
one hundred millions was impaired be
fore Mr.. Harrison had retired re-
serve which it was judged by Congress
necessary to keep on hand to support
the enormous mass Of paper currepcy
which the government issued and for
which it was responsible. That re-
serve was impaired to- the extent,
think, of eight or ten millions before
President Harrison retired. The pro-
cess of drainage upon that sacred re-
serve was kept up until it dropped
down to about seventy millions. Spec
ulation began and the gold was drain
ed out of the different treasury deposi-
tories. What was donep Mr.. Car
Isle, the Secretary of the Treasury,
boldly and honestly, but in strict con.
formity with existing law, made a gold
loan of fifty millions of dollars, nego.
tiating it at very favorable rate so
that 1t did not cost quite three per
cent. Thus was the gold in the treas
ury replenished and the solidity of our
credit carried forward until we could
emerge from the condition in which
we were.
/ pass by other matters Of economy
In the administration of the affairs of
government, in which Mr.. Cleveland
and bis secretaries have restricted gov
ernment outlay without impairing gov
ernmental efficiency, and l now come
to the main measure with which our
party has confronted the hard times
and by which they have kept their
pledge to the people substantially, if
not wholly, given when Mr.. Cleveland
was nominated, that we would reform
the tariff laws of the United States.
l hear men complain that the new
revenue measure was not acted upon
and passed in due time, and conse-
quently they blame those concerned
in its passage with delay. The Mills
bill, a similar measure, covering the |
whole field of duties upon imports,
was under consideration in the goth |
Congress until the FL day of October
following the December when Con.
sress met, and then was not even
voted upon in the Senate and failed of
enactment. The Mckinley bill was
not passed until the end of September,
1890, although the party which passed
It had both Houses of Congress by
decided majoritles, as well as the
President, and were not embarrassed
by close vote in either the Senate or
House IN its enactment. The present
aw was enacted by the present Con.
5ress early in August, nearly two
months earlier than the Mckinley bill
vas passed by the Republican Con-
yress four years ago. 1t therefore does
not lie in the mouth of the party op-
posed to us to complain of time lost.
Dur party through its representatives