The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1894-04-06
THE PRESIDENTS VETO.

demonstrated that his hnanclal
policy is sound, although his veto
message was longer than necessa
ry. There was no good reason for
criticising the language OF the
measure, as it was plain enough.
The bill proposed to coin the $780,,
100000 ounces of bullion then in
the treasury. and at present prices
worth about $S0,0O0.O00, into
nearly 0S,00O.0O0, and also to
issue certificates against $55,OOO,-
900 oft before it was coined. With
the balance it proposes to redeem
the treasury notes, by retiring them
as they come into the possession of
the government, and silver certli-
Gates are to be issued in lieu
thereof. BY the terms of the act
of 1890 these treasury notes are
redeemable either in GOLD or sill
yer. $55,00O.00O in notes are to
be put out without any means for
redeeming them and $15S, 100000
OF complete money is to be re-
placed by warehouse certificates
redeemable only in silver.
The president could see the
mistakes in this bill. Protests
against its passage had been sent
him from all commercial and fl
nancial bodies throughout the
country. Yet he kept the public
in doubt as to his determination
by writing long winded mes
sage i'll which he takes to task the
language of the bill. This was
probably done for the purpose OF
making it appear to his party who
had sought to foist it upon the
country that it was a matter of
grave consideration. He had en-
deavored TO find some reason for
vetoing the measure other than its
total lack of redeeming qualities
which is the only good reason for
the veto. Two motives can be
assigned for his hesitation. the
first was, could silver legislation
be stopped by allowing this
measure to become law, and he
knew full well that it would be
impossible to pass it over his veto.
The other motive is supposed to
have been his anxiety to get the
Wilson bill passed. Men had
tried to bully him into approval
OF it by threats. Its friends had
even gone so far as to declare that
a free coinage amendment would
be added to the tariff bill by dem
ocratic votes if the Bland bill was
vetoed, and that he would be
forced to sign and approve the
measure with Il free coinage section
or else veto tariff reform. But
thanks to the presidents fearless
ness he was unintluenced by these
threats.
The situation is '"pretty we'll
summed up in one of the last
paragraphs Of the message which
says:
"In regard this section of the
bill as embodying a plan by which
the government would be obliged
to pay out its scanty store Of gold
for no other purpose than to force
an unnatural addition of silver
money into the hands of the
people. This is an exact reversal
of the policy which safe finance
dictates, if we are to preserve the
parity between gold and silver and
maintain sensible bimetalism."
Here is the real fault of the bill.
The disparity between gold and
silver would thus be increased in
our circulation, first, by substitut-
ing silver certificates to the amount
of $153, 100000 for notes redeem
able in gold or silver, besides the
$50, 100000 in certificates issued
against the bullion before coinage.
That is, $153,0OO,OO0 of notes re-
deemable in either gold or silver
was to be substituted by $20S,O00,,
600 redeemabie only in silver.
This proceeding would endanger
the parity Of the two metals and
menace US with a silver basis.
The government is now carrying
all the silver it can until the gold
reserve is increased. Mr.. Cleve-
land points this out by saying:
when it is proposed to initiate
our silver currency it is the time for
strengthening our gold reserve in
stead of depicting it. l cannot
conceive of longer step toward
silver monometalism thau we
take when we spend, our gold to
buy silver certificates for dircula-
ton, especially in view of the
practical difficulties surrounding
the replenishment OF our gold" |
The bullion in the treasury
must be coined sometime. This
the president knows as we'll as
anyone else and he does not indi-
rate that ho ic onpoco6 70 cubet;