St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-14
BLAarE WRONGLY pLaoEp.

BLAME WRONGLY PLACED.
If mother should set cake before
her children, and then scold them for
asking for some, especially If she should
lose her temper, and call them ninnieS
and fools for persistently asking for 1t,
she would hardly be classed as wise,
reasonable or an intelligent mother.
Yet, in another way and another mat
ter than cake, this is precisely what
some of the Republican papers are
doing to Mr.. Bland and those Demo-
Gratis who wanted continuation of sill
yer purchases and now ask for the coin
age of the seigniorage.
1t Is trre that there is no seigniOrage,
but it isn't BANDS fault ii he thinks
there is. any more than it would be tho
fault of the child for thinking that there
was cake in the cupboard when the
mice had eaten 1t all. They have had
bad teaching, and are merely applying
lessons taught them by the very men
who now scold them for doing what
they have been taught to believe.
Like all the evils which have fallen on
us as the result>of Republican misman-
agement, the fallacY that there is
seigniorage is due to Republican fnan-
clering and finesse. Rebuke of Mr..
Bland and his followers comes with
poor grace from the Republicans, who
are only seeking to raise cloud of dust
behind which they may hide their own
folly.
They began the mischief when Re-
publican senate passed the Allison bill,
providing for the purchase of silver
bullion and the issue of certificates on
1t. in 1878. 1t was not the Bland bill,
and calling it such is only another un-
manly dodge. His bill was for the free
coinage, and Republican senate
amended it to provide for the purchase
at market values of the bullion, and
then passed it by two-thirds majority,
over President Hayes veto. 1t was
they who set the pace of buying bullion
by the ounce and Issuing certificates
calling for dollars at the ratio of Sixte ELI
to one.
The difference between the market
price paid for an Dunes of bullion and
its coin value was supposed to be gain,
a clear profit TO the government; and.
had silver risen in value. it would have
been actual seigniorage; but when the
price kept falling, it finally passed be-
low point where all the gains were
wiped out and were followed by posi-
tive losses. The silver in the treasury
today. it sold at what it is worth, would
not redeem at par the paper issued
against it by many million dollars.
Then came the Republican Sherman
act, passed to get votes for the Nc
Kinley bill and to save the president
candidate from possible loss of votes
in the silver states in his coming CAM
paign. Why not be frank, you fellows,
and admit these facts? Do you still
think you can fool all the people all the
time? You are pretty lot of hypo-
critics, to be scolding any one for finan-
cial incapacity. Sackcloth. plenteously
sprnkled with ashes, would much bet
ter become you.
The Sherman act doubled the ostensi-
bic seigniorage. 1t also proceeded on
the theory that sixty-odd cents worth
of silver could be called dollar, and
the thirty-odd cents would be an
actual gain instead of being
positive and actual loss. If Mr..
Bland and his set take you at your
word; if they continue to believe what
Senator Davis in 1890 boosted OF as
being one of the acts of which his party
could be proud, and for which they de-
served the continued confidence of the
voters, does il lie in your mouths to
blame or rebuke him? Are you in a
position to assume to be teachers now?
Of course. Bland is wrong, hopelessly
wrong; but he is not dishonest. He
isn't trif1ing with the money to win
votes for protection and president.
He is simply running along on the lines
Of Republican fuance. following exam
pies set him by Republican finan-
cers. If he is fool, what
are the fellows who blazed the
path he is travelling? If he is
as silly as were Sherman and the
others, and continues to think that the
government can make values by its
simple fiat; if he thinks that it is good
economy to take so cents worth of sill
yer to write governmental promises to
pay on, he has precedent for it in Re-
publican action that should shut the
mouths of members of that party.
But it won't. No sense of honor, no
sense of self-respect. no conception of
fairness or Of responsibility to their
readers will restrain such organs as the
Pioneer Press from endeayoring to
make people believe that the Democrats
are to blame for the panic, for the dis
tress that followed it; that no response
bility for these things rests OH the party
which set in motion the train OF causes
which produced it, or. in the case of
Bland, from denying that Bland is only
applying logically methods of finance
initiated and practiced by Republican
administrations. There are poor fools
who know no better; they are simply
fools; but the Pioneer Press knows bet
ter, so it is simply hypocritical.