Birmingham age-herald., 1895-04-21
SENATOR FUCHS DELUSION.
Persistence Is One Thing and Consistency Is Another-The Democratic Record on
 Economic Questions.

To the Age-Herald:
 The recent letter of Senator Pugh to his
 Alabama constituency has, as might
 have been expected, attracted a great
 deal of attention. That it is a notable
 utterance cannot be denied; nor can it
 be denied that it is quite as notable for
 what it fails to say as for what it says
 He says Each time I was elected my
 opinions upon finance had been declared
 and were well understood by each demo-
 cratic member of the legislature and in-
 dorsed by every democratic newspaper in
 the state, and if it had been charged and
 believed that I could not be trusted to
 cast my vote in the senate for the free
 and unlimited coinage of silver at the old ratio could not have received the sup port of a single democrat in the legisla- ture or a single newspaper in Alabama" He fails to say what light this throws upon the question which is now presented to the American people for solution. If 1t is true, it is interesting as matter of ancient history, but am at a loss to see how 1t can be used as an argument, either for or against the free and unlimited coinage of silver at any ratio. In fact I can hardly believe that the venerable senator meant it for argument. I strong ly suspect, remembering as 1 do some of
 his previous utterances of the same char
 acter, that he merely threw it in as sign, which would certify to the faithful
 
 really and truly spoken.
 I do not believe that under anything like the present conditions a majority of the democrats of Alabama have ever been in favor of the free and unlimited coinage of silver; but allow me to suggest that if they are or have been, larger constituencies have been mistaken upon less vital questions, and so long as Sen ator Pugh occupies an official position which makes him one of the leaders of
 the party in Alabama. it seems to me that equity and fair dealing would re- quire him to give his constituency some more persuasive and pertinent reason for the legislation which he proposes than the
 mere statement that the people want it. Senator Pugh proudly points to his record as an advocate of the free and un- | limited coinage of silver, and think no | one who has observed his career will deny that he has always and without swerving | stood with the faithful who worship at | the shrine of the sacred white metal and | to whom the paying out-and I had al- most said the receiving, but will refrain, | of a silver dollar is a hallowed sacra- ment; but is this apparent consistency a | fact or a mere form? When the market | price of sixteen ounces of silver bullion | Is exactly the same as the market price | of one ounce of gold and gives reasonable promise of remaining so, there can be no reasonable objection to the free and un- limited coinage of both. This was the
 condition when Senator Pugh formed his present opinions, but conditions have changed. Certain lewd persons. being instigated by the devil, and having not the fear of God before their eyes, have contumaciously rfused to give one ounce of gold which they owned for sixteen ounces of silver which some one else owned. and have even carried their pro- fane sacrilege so far as to demand thir- ty-two ounces of silver for one of gold;
 and strange to say, they have ben aided