Birmingham age-herald., 1894-09-15
The Minneapolis is fastest of warships Dr. Prices is best of baking powders.
SELF CURE FOR THE SILVER QUES-
 TON.

TION.
 SENATOR sHERMAN's COMPREHENSIVE RE-
 MARX IN CHICAGO.
 Murat Halstead in the New York Herald.
 A few days ago in Chicago, Senator Sher- man, on his way west-which keeps mov- ing west-was asked by reporter what he thought of the renewed interest in the sil- yer matter. and the evident purpose of the silver politicians to push the old ques. tious. The senator made a remarkable re- ply. which should be studied until under stccG1 for there Is in it the suggestion, perhaps the seed corn, of immense events, The reply of tue senator was that the silver problem woald "solve itself.' This was a way of saying in few words that dis. putes about silver would be and shopk be settled without further action by the2pv- ernment; that artificial official interference was not wanted, and if forced would be in- trusive and obstructive. Of course, the solution is a matter of the utmost interest and the widest range of importance. We hold the senator Is correct, and that an in. fallible solution is in sight, and will not call for an act of congress or the policy of an administration. All the statesmanshfp wanted is to let the whole matter alone. Give nature chance.
 It has for some time been clear to all sound and disposing minds that the greater trouble with silver is the same that lowers the price of wheat and corn. It is not the gold standard. It is overprod uction. The nations have acted in the battle of the standards between the white and yellow metals according to the best business judg- ment obtainable as to their interests. There is no gold king who rules and ruins, as some of our Rocky mountain politicians proclaim. The more civilized and enlight. ened portion of the world long ago ao. cepted gold as the true standard, and it Is the worlds standard, no matter for the Asiatics, the South Americans, Spain and Italy, and Mexico and Central America. The silver standard has not brought pros. perity to any country. It has found i'm. poverishment, and confirmed 1t.
 The charges for telegraph cables around the world ars In gold; the silver nations pay the interest on the capital they borrow from the golden nations in gold. It could not profit us to change our standard. If we had fallen upon silver as our money measure when we resumed specie pay. ments, after our war of sections, there would be wide open and very debatable question whether we should adopt the gold standard. As we have the gold standard established, we would lose thou sands of millions and gain nothing by it's disestablishment. As to the alleged de- monetization of silver, we have, since ''the crime of the century, as described in Rocky Mountain and southern litera- ture that is current and political, accumu- lated 15, coo tons of the white metal, and more than 13, 900 tons are in vaults repre- sented by paper. We have coined, since 'demonetization" twenty years ago, more than four times the amount of legal tender silver money that was turned out by our mints in the eighty years of 4 free silver,' and we count the smaller legal tender coins. We have, under the diabolical policy of decentralization" bought and converted into lawful money of the United States, without limit, more than 10 1000 tons of silver, not counting the silver pigs in store. There is the famous discrimina- ton against the precoue metal, and 1t is supplemented by the issue of more than five hundred millions of silver paper. And this, in the lingo" of silver states manship, is the deadly blight of 'contrac- tion.'
 The error on our part has been in unduly stimulating the silver producing industry. Of course there was no possibility of using the hints so as to elevate the market price of silver. any more than elevators could be employed to put up the value of wheat. Either may be cornered, meddled with, forced up or down temporarily, but the only sure and permanent cure for the asso- ciated evils Is to keep hands off and allow the cure of world wide influences.
 Those who have proposed and those who have opposed the gold standard have gen. erally believed in the dogma that gold was a metal that was substantially unchange- able in value; that it was so scarce aud that the whole earth had been so searched for it that 1t was wholly improbable such quauti- ties could be found as to disturb it's rela- I tions with other values. 1t was said with the confidence of repeating a religious or scientific axiom, that silver huctuated andi gold did not. This was to forget the gold developments of the third quarter of thej century, the greater of which were in Cali fornia and Australia. h the late ffLies and carly sixties silver was above the ratio 5 per cent dearer than gold in the market;l that Is, silver was worth 3 per cent more ati the mint than in the market. More thauj this, the influence of the increase of the gold supply was to stimulate the prosperi- ties of the world and to overcome the ad- versailles. Gold gave good times. It in- creased the volume of the best money. It was fair and therefore wholesome inf1a- tion. It reduced the pressure of the burdeul of debt on industry. It was relief of in- contract and did no injustice to any classes| of men or to individuals. The despotisn of money obligation was shade softened ., and that helped the human race.
 One of the first propositions in political economy IS that the supply follows the de- mand. Ever since the depreciation of sil- yer, owing to the growing favor of the sin- gle gold standard among those who make merchandise of money, and the excessive bonanza production of silver, the demand for gold has been one of the anxieties of mankind. There is a response to this de-E mand that the news from the ends of the earth daily declares. The explorations of the globe we inherit are more searching than ever. The appliances of discovery and the agencies of penetrating examina's ton enlarge the experiences of other days. | It has become a recreation to circuDnavi-s | gate the globe. There are rapid transit