The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1895-03-21
MONETARY QUESTION
Mr., Mcclure Gives His Views at q ReCep.
ton in Jacksonville, Fla.
He Points Out the Dangers to the
South Which Lurk in the Agi-
tation ofthe Silver Men.


reception committee from the Jack
sonville Board of Trade met A. X. Nc.
Ciure, of the Philadelphia Times, at
the Union Passenger Station this
morning, and escorted him to the s..
James Hotel, where an informal ere.
ception breakfast" was served in his
honor TO a party of about a dozen
prominent citizens, including Mayor
Fletcher and President Baldwin, of
the Board of Trade. There we're no
tossts nor speeches, but the editor of
the Times was led into an interesting
presentation Of his views upon finan-
cial question, and especially upon the
Importance to the South OF an honest
money policy. To a correspondent
he also expressed his views briefly:
"Upon this trip through the South"
ne eaid, Il have been more than ever
impressed with the spirit OF progress
which animates the people here and
with the evidences of steady deve
opment and growing prosperity.
But in spite of all this the South is
suffering temporarily from a great
financial and business paralysis. She
feels it more keenly than the North
does, because she lacks the reserve
power and the reserve resources of the
longer settled sections. "No two pol.
iticians agree as to the causes OF this
depression. The banks and the COM
mercial exchanges might explain it
correctly and easily enough, too, but
one tronble in this country is that the
great majority of the people take the
word OF the politicians as law and gos-
pei. This fact easily accounts for so
many people and 81 many States 60
ing wrong on the financial question.
hope the South will not go wrong on
it, although there are the gravest
fears that some OF her public men
have already been inoculated with the
cheap money poison. Florida, espec,
tally, of all the States in the South has
every reason for keeping herself close
ly in line with the soundest financial
policy which can possibly be devised
for this country.
"The present situation in the South
is one OF peculiar and more than ordi-
nary peril, and il the threatened evil
should come on you, you must
endure it for years and years to come.
refer to the threatened evil OF
cheap money, which the political
demagogues tell you will be remedy
for all your ills.
WORSE THAN THE CIVIL WAR.
81 am profoundly grieved at the
situation, but am not yet prepared to
believe that the representative citizens
of the South will request the politi
y clans to bring harm and perhaps
: ruin uoon her industries through the
adoption Of false policy in finance
The curse would be greater than thai
of your civil war from which you rost
80 heroically. This nation can easily
overthrow an armed foe from wthou
: but an assault from within upon it
own credit and its honesty by its owl
people can end only in destruction.
"Why should Florida ask for silver
at Il ratio of 16 to l? She doesn't pro
) duce pound OF that metal, and thi
' government has no right to max
e pensioners aud panpers out of the fey
g States which do produce silver ant
: nothing else II we make every dol
, lar an honest dollar, nobody can bt
!. hurt except the man who owned tn
II silver. We must have bimetalisn
h f 4ch dollar must be intrinsicalty c
Y equal value. | am not a monometalis
$ nor gold.bug, il you please. | ar
K heartily in favor of bimeialism in a
:. honest form, l am in favor of max
d ing a silver dollar worth hundre'
- cents by putting silver bullion of tina
, value in the coined dollar. If fifty
70 three cents worth of silver can b
Is stamped one dollar and pass curreu
% for that amount, why not use piec
. OF silver worth only ten cents for tn
e. same purpose? The coin would ce
a taiuly be more convenient to handl
and the act equally as logical as tht
=. Of putting fifty three cents worth
ID silYer in = dollar piece and insistin
?. that it is worth one hundred cents.
=, DIsTRUsT OF AMERICAN CREDIT.
Of 'I can tell you the chief cuase
rs our depression. We have sufTert
- - from it more than from all the 9th
q. causes combined. 1t is the distru
er, abroad of American credit. II
n States of the South are today sufferil
from distrust of their credit; suft
ing more than all the othes Stat
IA combined. l desire right here
CONTINUED ON PAGE Q.