Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1895-02-21
THE NEW REPUTATION.
President Cleveland the Bulwark
of National Credit.

|
pailng Danger From Which President
Cleveland Has Saved the Country.
New York Evening Post, Feb 18th.
The vote in the House yesterday on the
| gold bond resolution was primarily and
essentially q heavy blow to the public
credit; yet 1t Is treated as il 1t were merely
| q rebuff for President Cleveland. Beaten
| again J" cries the exultant Tribune dane
| ing with the other wreckers on the shore
where they hone to see the national credit
dashed to pieces. No matter If we turn out
a nation OF defaulters, provided Cleveland
is not allowed to have his way. Reduced
to its simplest terms, that seems to have
been the main motive in the minds of the
members who voted to throw away
| SIG 900. 0c0 and further shock and estrange
the confidence of the financial world. IL
| the President urged thom to be sane and
honest, that made plain their duty to play
the harlequin and the cheat. This is really
| about the greatest compliment that could
be paid Mr.. Cleveland. Scarce another
President has had the good fourtune so TO
| identity his own personality with national
| honor and financial stability rs to make
all enemies Of the public credit ipso facto
his enemies. Nor has he any reason what.
ever to care for their raging, He is master
| of the situation, and all the how ling of the
jackals cannot alter the fact that he is both
able and determined to maintain the gov.
ernment's pighted faith. While his per-
| sonal enemies and the bat-eyed partisans
are shrieking out Beaten again. the
country is thanking its stars that he is not
beaten, and that its honor and stability are
safe in his hands.
| Politically, yesterdays vote Is chiefly
significant as revealing an alarming di-
vision in the Republican party. Even
under Mr.. Reeds urging but 81 Republic
can votes were secured for the bill, while
63 were cast against it. With 50 Demo-
Gratis voting in the affirmative and 10l
against, little is left to choose between
parties. When the Duke of Kent visited
the Dey Of Algiers in 1918, the latter
potentate in an effort to be compliment.
tary, said: "Your father is the greatest
| pirate in the world. but | am the next"
| The Western Republicans in like manner
admit that the Democrats have gone fur
ther than they have for cheap money and
broken credit, but they are doing their
best to come in u close secoud, But. says
presidential candidate Reed, the Repub.
llcans Of the East and West have
always found some way to get along
together, and they will now. Not
| until some way of making 80
cents equal dollar shall be discovered.
There is now every sign of an irrepressible
conflict in the Republican party on the
money question. The bold talk and votes
of the Western Republicans yesterday are
the first move in an aggressive campaign
| to nominate, ii not an outright free silver
| Republican candidate for the Presidency,
At least Il tlabby and wabbling candidate,
Mr.. Reed will find himself consumed be.
| tween two fires. The Western men will
not have leader whom telegram from
Boston bankers can make turn u complete
sommersaut in two weeks. The Eastern
| men Will not have him it, as the next
| Speaker, he appoints shaky committee
| on coinage. There eau be no good Lord
gooddevil leadership in this currency
matter. There may be a realignment of
| parties, but there can be no getting to.
gether" of iifty-cent men and one.dollar
men on the same platform.
Some OF the criticisms made on the
Treasury's recent loan negotiation indi-
| cate that the critics are not as familiar as
they ought to be with the true nature of
last months currency crisis. II is very
necessary, before Intelligent criticism of
/ the loan is made, that the conditions
which forced IL be plainly understood.
| We shall therefore undertake to review
| here the real facts of the situation which
confronted the Treasury ut the close of
January. The gold reserve was shrinking
so rapidly under the heavy gold export
movement that it had sunk week later to
| 81, l93,2l2. This export movement had
reached $7,000.0O0 during the fourth week
of January. In January's closing week
| engagements for export exceeded SIC, UOO,-
600. Nor was this all. The sight OF the
| falling government reserve had led to the
boarding of gold, not alone by spectators.
| but by business men who feared that in
case of gold suspension by the government
they could not meet their own gold ell
gagements. In the last week of January the
total gold withdrawn from the Treasury on
| presentation of government notes reached
the enormous sum OF S2l $4,000. In other
words. with the gold reserve down to
Sal, 10000, and with nothing done to re-
store it, a single fortnight would have ex-
hausted every dollar OF Treasury gold, ex-
cept what was pledged against certificates
| OF deposit.
Surprising. then, no action to have been
taken by the President, we should to-day
have witnessed the Treasury refusing gold,
not merely for the Sherman notes of 1880,
but for the old United States notes to
| restore the credit of which all the resump-
| ton labors OF 10 years ago were under
taken. This would have been bad enough
collapse of credit and plghted faith, but
another worse breach must presently have
followed. No gold would have renamed
to provide for interest on the bonds to any
holder requiring it. Unless the govern
ment were prepared to buy gold then in
the open market, the humiiating spectacle
OF the United States paying its bonded
debt in other promises to pay-a spectacle
worthy of Turkey or Argentina-would by
the first of next month have disgraced this
nation in the eyes of the civilized world.
1t is certainly small wonder that hard
terms were driven for S62,0OO,Og0 new
bonds with the recurrence of such a situa-
ton possible. And yet, hard as the terms
of the Belmont-Morgan syndicate unques-
tionably are, they are better by 6 to s per
cent than Secretary Sherman was able to
secure in his sale Of AIS in 1877.
1t behoOves every citizen of intelligence
and public spirit to study these figures An
honest examination Of the facts will
demonstrate one essential fact--that the
politicians masquernding as silver men"
~ Washington are nothing else than the
old lnfiatiOnists and repudiationists of
the reconstruction period. II will show
also, to any reasonable man, that Presi-
dent Cleyelands service to his country
IN this emergency is exactly the service
Of the initiation bill, and by Secretary
Sherman in his resumption of specie
payments. No one stands more in need
Of such instruction that the newspapers
clamOring i'll dOuble-leaded columns for a
popular loan" How was gold to have
been secured by loan made personally
by thrifty private citizens? A loan made
TO accumulate government notes would,
nf course, have been an immediate ''suc,
cess" Few people with surplus are So
silly as to refuse to exchange non-interest-
bearing notes for bonds yielding4, or 3, or 9
per cent. But until Congress consents to
the cancellation Of the greenbacks, the
government needs no paper money. II
holds to-day surplus in notes and silver,
of more than Sl0O,000,000. A little appli.
cation OF common sense goes a long way
In the discussion OF monetary problems
.z SAVING THE PUBLIC CREDIT.
New York Evening Post, Feb. iitn.