The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-09-25

States. The great party which could
unfinchingly face the slave power
does not dare attack the money power.
After the fatal error of 1873 the Re-
publican party, by the passage of the
act of 1878, took a step In the direction
of reparation for the wrong it had COM
mitted against the producing masses
of the country. In 1890 it took another
step in the same direction-a step
which, owing to the defective execution
of the act of 1873, was an advance upon
that law. But by the passage of the
act of 1898 all the hopes born of the
two former acts have been scattered to
the winds.
Having always deemed the demone-
tizating law of 1873 to have been en-
acted in ignorance of the baleful effects
which it would have upon the prosper
ity of the country, 1 have been disposed
rather to award to the Republican
party all proper credit for the two sue
cessive attempts made in the direction
of undoing that wrong than to mete
out censure for committing it. I can,
not secure the approval of my con
science for a similar degree of lenity
with regard to the enactment of the
law of 1898.
On the demand of a Democratic
president the Republican party repealed
the most important-in fact, the only
important feature of an act passed by
their own votes exclusively and OF
proved by a president of their own
election. At the dictation of an ad
ministration adverse to them we see
them deliberately abandon their silver
record, undo and implicitly condemn
and repudiate all that they have them
selves done in this regard for many
years in the past, and at bound set
the country back to the point at which
it was left by the act of 1878. So far
as concerns the interests of the Ameri-
can people, the repeating act of 1898
was, in my opinion, less justifiable and
involved a greater degree of moral and
political turpitude than that of 1873.
In 1870 we had a population of but SO,
900, 900. We have now 20, 900, 900,
nearly double.
THE FALSE CRY BEHIND THE SPECIAL
SESSION OF CONGRESS.
When, as in the emergency of last
year, the prices of commodities and
wages of labor were falling in every
direction and workingmen were being
discharged from employment by hun
dreds. of thousands, it seems extraordi-
nary that lawmakers could deliberate
ly cut off from the people of the United
States all supplies Of new money. That
the emergency which called for the
extra session of Congress was not
caused by too great an issue of silver
money under the law of 1890 musthave
been palpable to every impartial mind
when it was universally known that
the crisis was not confined to the United
States, and that in other countries no
silver law existed to become. the n
venient scapegoat for the cupidity of
money lenders and their numerous and
influential agents.
That the difficulty could not have
been due to the want of confidence of
u own people in the silver money of
the country must have been equally /
clear when it was observed that during
the very fiercest days of the panic sill
yer dollars were selling and were eager
~ bought up, even in Wall street, at a
premium of 3 per cent.-that is to say,
they were paid for at the rate of $1O3
in gold for 800 in silver. These facts
were we'll known to Republicans and
Democrats alike, in Congress and out,
during the extraordinary session of
1898.
There are some silver Republicans
who still hope and perhaps believe that
the Republican party will take up the
silver cause in good faith and advocate
the unrestricted coinage of that metal
at the relation of 16 to 1. I am sorry
to differ with those who entertain that
opinion. In my judgment, there is not
the slightest foundation for it. Actions
speak louder than words. Among the
entire Republican Congressional repre-
.sentation in both houses of Congress
from States east of the Mississippi, on
the passage of the repeal bill in October
last, there were but six votes in the
House and one in the Senate cast in
favor of silver.
OF course conventions Of both parties
are still presenting to the country reso-
lutions demanding a larger use of silver
in the currency, it's restoration to it's