The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-02-06

ury would have been amply sufficient
to meet all emergencies. The cry O
danger raised by the banks and the
press alarmed the depositors and ex
cited a fear that the banks would be
unable to pay. The reserves in the
banks were only about one-tenth Of
their obligations. Many of them were
unable correspond on account of scarcity
of money. The panic followed.
On the SOth of June you called an
extra session of Congress to repeal the
purchasing clause of the Sherman act
to restore confidence and rehabilitate
the banks.
The failure of your attempt to relieve
the stringency of t-e money market
which gold contraction had produced
by the repeal of the only law which
recognized silver as money and made
any addition to the circulating medium
ought to have been anticipated. II
seems impossible that you could have
supposed that the volume of money
could be increased by cutting off the
supply. But your faith in that plan
was so strong that you wrote to Gov.
Northern that you were "astonlshed
by the opposition in the Senate to such
prompt action (the repeal of the pur-
chasing clause of the Sherman act as
would relieve the present unfortunate
situation"
Your efforts we're crowned with sue
cess. Your measure of relief was passed
but the distress which gold contraction
had created, your victory over the
legislative department intensified. The
result of the policy which the gold
combination induced you to adopt has
filled the land with poverty and want.
The contrast between the haste with
which you reduced the country to the
gold standard and your delay in pro
noting legislation looking to a supply
of money for the revival of business
has attracted attention and needs ex-
PLANTATION.
You now ask the country to wait
until confidence is restored Confidence
rests on an assurance of safety and the
absence of apprehension of danger.
What foundation can there be for con
fidence when the people know that
there is not gold enough for use as
money, and that there car be no relief
your term of object
In your message of December 5, 1898,
you suggested that after the restora-
ton of confidence "a survey of the
situation will probably disclose a safe
path leading to a permanently sound
currency, abundantly sufficient to
meet every requirement of our increas-
ing population and business"
How long will it require to make
survey7 How long must the dis
5ressed condition of the country be
vic wed before the path of safety can
be fOund7 You must bear in mind that
the standpoint of observation of the mil
ions who are poor is very differentfr from
hat of yourself and your London and
New York friends whose counsels YOU
and who gather fortunes from
he wrecks of bankrupt estates and
rom coupons cut from gilt edged
securities. Both you and they may
survey the disasters of the country
which follow in the wake of gold con
racUion with elaboration and COM
'Osure, but the people are becoming
inpatient of further delay to find a
oath of safety and are clamorous for
elief. Besides their confidence in YOU
8 d pathfinder has been shaken by |
be ease with which you are diverted
y the gold combination into ways |
eating to new dangers while you are
to follow the broad bimetaIlic
Dad which your predecessors travelled
18th safety until the serpent beguiled
ne chairman of the Committee on
nance of the Senate of the United
tates, some twenty years ago, into
he monometalllc by-way leading to
0]ntraction and ruin.
When the people elected you they
elieved that you were sufficiently
ersed in monetary science to have a
Olicy in harmony with the needs of a
reat country, and that you would be
by concentrated capital.
hey did not suppose that you could
, deluded or entrapped INFO any radi-
i OF revolutionary financial scheme.
ney are surprised to find you expert
in pursuit of financial wis
IN, and they are alarmed at the ex
3nsive methods you have adopted to
'tain information leading to a sound
stem of finance. They fear YOUR