New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-03-19
TILE POINT OF OANGER.

The danger seems to be that certain private
jobs may bring TO bear upon the President such
influence that he will let the Scigniorage Dill
become law These jobs depend upon the
passage of the Revenue bill Some Of his most
influential friends who have usually been adj
vocates of honest money, are said to be urging
him to allow the Vacuum bill to become law
Amusement at their course Is diminished when
it is found that they have large interests In
sugar or in whiskey or lead. and the trusts
which hold the monopoly Of these products
have secured favors worth many millions In
the pending Revenue bill, and they therefore
want it passed without delay. Other influential
friends of the President have great interests
in foreign coal mines, or in importations or GER
tain foreign products. and those interests nave
been favored in the pending bill. TO all thcsc
friends the threat Of the Populists and silver
men TO defeat the Revenue bill, unless they are
ncrmitted TO coin a vacuum, is terrible. be-
cause it cndangcrs their prospective plumber
1t would be exactly in line with the habltlal
conduct Of the Democratic party If it should
sell out the United States Treasury for shares
in a Nova Scotia coal mine or in the Sugar or
Whiskcy Trust. Nobody would have right TO
expect anything better. Intelligent Democrats
by the thousand. whose disgust ut the behavior
of their party since it came into power mas
already become too deep for words. do not 1ccl
much confidence that the President can resist
the pecuniary and political influences which
surround him. 1t would delightfully."- disappolnt
them if he should tell the jobbcrs and the
monopolsts that his election did not give them
any right to bankrupt the Treasury for Their
private gain, or to push the business OF 'he
country over the precipice Of silver payments.
The claim that more circulation Is necessary
in order to advance prices has become I'M
speakably absurd In spite Of the exchange or
Government bonds for gold held by banks,
which reduced the circulation about S1oooo"o
in February, the amount of all KINDS OF money
outside the Treasury March l was SoloooOoo
larger than a year ago, and the amount Tor
each inhabitant was $24 90, against S24 % n
wear ago Yet this addition Of S01,0OOOO TO
the circulation has not prevented the most re-
markablc fall in prices which has been ex-
pericnccd for many years. When President
Cleveland was inaugurated the same COM
modites. about 200 in number, would have
cost S94 S21b which now cost SS3 &C. decline
of about II per cent. 1t Is known to all that
this decline has been mainly due to the stop
page of thousands Of mills and mines. In ey-
pcctaton of change Of tariff. and TO a gen
eral reduction of wages in preparation for the
same threatened change. The purchasing
power Of the people was thus diminished more
than Il per cent and in spite Of the increase
in the circulation the prices Of commodities
have declined.
The silver men imagine that the fall in silver
caused the fall in wheat. But wheat has de-
clined since n year ago from - cents to Gl14
cents or 1873 per cent. and for that fall there
are abundant and obvious reasons in the Off
cial report Just made Of the enormous guam
titles vet in farmers hands. Meanwhile silver
has fallen from 1910 pence per ounce year
ago TO 21OG pence, or 201 per cent and the
decline is not only out Of all proportion TO the
fall in wheat or other commodities. but IT has
also its obvious and sufficient cause-in the clos
ing Of minis and imposition of an import duty
by India and the cessation Of purchases by the
United States. The average price of wheat this
month thus far is indeed the lowest ever
kn0wn-62Oj cents, against 1jSS in March,
1S93-but the decline in silver has been much
greater for il averaged at NcwYOrk last year
1874 cents, and has averaged only J9G6 thus
far in March. The plain truth Is that Demo
cratic tinkcring with finances and the tariff
has made trouble. and the only remedy is TO
stop that tnkcring, and to leave in force the
laws under which unprecedented prosperity
was realized