The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-10-17
A FLOP
: EXTRAORDINARY.
A Republican Leader Comes Out
For FreesSilver.

A Republican Leader Comes Out
For FreeSilver.
Tom Reed, Of kAlaine. shares with
Mckinley, the possibility of a presi-
Dental nomination on the Republican
ticket in 1896. Tom is sharp; and he
perceives that thedAmerican people
| want silver remOnetized, and the Nc
Kinley tariff bill; charges cut down.
And Tom formnlates scheme,-a
cunning Yankee ltrick-to appear to
lead up to both these results and yet
to give the people neither. Here it is:
| LONDON, May 31.-The Fortnightly
Review published to-day an interview
with ex.Speaker Reed on silver, which
Will make sensation on both sides Of
the ocean. The great Republican
| leader sounds a keynote for future
campaigns by declaring that silver
and the tariff must be regarded mot
| as two issues, but as one," and that
| the depreciation of silver is vastly in
| creasing the exporting business of sill
yer nations representing 700
| millions OF people. In the interview
Mr.. Reed says:
Ou III LuSlduu-WduU UIlC CulUOO
States to lower the duties. What will
| open your minis to silver by agree
ment? One thing at least you may
rely upon-you will not find the Re-
publican party offering the other
| cheek as these Democratic gentlemen
do. For years past they have been
posturing as the friends of silver, and
because you in England close the In
| dian minis, and put a duty on silver
! bullion, these friends of free silver
are now preparing to reward your gen
| er6sity by lowering duties all around.
| One thing at least I have learned
| since the cessation Of silver purchases
| last year-that cheap silver is an effec-
| tive stimulus to Asiatic exports, and
| this being the case, we have got to
! consider silver and the tariff, not as
two issues, but as one.
| cit is evidently no time to lower our
| tariffs when the currency Of zoe, COZ, 900
| of OrientalS is depreciating and the
| is thereby increasing. NotwlthStand-
| ing the fall in silver, it's value to pay
wages and buy products in India and
! China is as great as ever. This it Is
| that makes the silver question an is
sue that we are forced to face. You
| recognize, of course, that the position
| has entirely changed in the past six
| months. The previous enormous
compulsory monthly purchase Of sill
| yer, a most vicious proceeding, went
| far to confuse mems minds and to dis
| guise the fact that there really is in
| that background serious currency
| problem to be solved. 1t is evidently
| important for debtor nations. on
which list we stand first, to raise the
| price of silver and thereby reduce that
| bounty on exports which Asia now en-
| joys. This can be done best by agree
ment with other nations favorable to
| silver, and by such a scale of high
tariffs against those nations which re-
| ject monetary agreement as will in
| sure us a favorable balance of trade.
| In short, high price for silver by re-
| ducing Asiatic exports to Europe will
| increase ours; add to this high tariff
| and we can keep our gold at home, or
at least If sold, it will quick come back
again.
This comedies a great deal. 1t
comedies that the demonetiza-
ton of silver has broken down
values in America, while large
ly increasing the agricultural ex-
ports from China and India; which, in
turn, have still farther reduced the
price of our productions. And Tom
says, Il am in favor of giving you free
silver and lower tariff rates. l am
willing to sacrifice New England's
manufacturers to help the western
farmers" And then, when our farmers
begin to cheer him, he sticks his
tongue in his check and winks at the
alarmed mill owners, and says, under
his breath:
Don't be scared. John Bull has
got the dead-wood on debtor world;
and he will never consent to water
| the currency in which his interest is
| to be paid. And, if he did consent, it
| would take three or four years to legis-
| late upon such fundamental change
as would be necessary to make our
tariff satisfactory to the manufacture
ers of England, and to establish rate
of parity between gold and silver, sat-
istactory to the Money-Power of Lon
don and Europe. And in the mean
time we will carry the elections of
1894 and 1896 by humbugging the fools
once more; and | will be elected Presi-
| dent on the strength of this cunning
device; and then if the scheme all falls
through, why England, of course, will
be to blame; and by that time the
Peoples Party will be dead; and the
western farmers reduced to such pow
erty that they will have lost all cour-
| age to resist; and the United States
will have become helpless tributary
| provinces to New England. See?"
Think of it! The corpulent Falstaff
of Maine, standing on the shores of
| the Atlantic, proposes to swap jack
| knives with Johnny Bull. GIVE us,
he says, "free-silver and we will give
| you free-trade." And he points over
his shoulder, with his fat thumb, at
his ragged regiment of republican
| farmers in the NorthweSt-"but a
shirt and a half in the whole company.
and the shirt, forsoOth. stolen from
mine host of St. Albans." And John
and he wink at each other and grin.
When-oE when before, i'm the his
| tory of America, since the surrender
of the British at Yorktown, has an
American statesman asked leave of
John Bull to legislate for America?
And this man Reed knows perfectly
we'll that all the United States have
to do to make the silver dollar worth
| Z