The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1895-12-22
MOST SERIOUS; AND WHO Is RE-
sPONstBLE

| sPONS1BLE?
There can be no question that this
/ country is now confronted with the most
serious situation II has ever had to Crap
| pie with stree 1t established its indie
! pendence. There are less than seventy
millions OF dollars in the gold reserve,
| all Europe has justly taken fright lest
the talk of war should send us TO a sill
| yer basis. 1t is selling its oldngs OF
| American securities so as TO commute
| them into gold dollars before it will have
| TO take silver for them, and we arc
| faced with the alternative OF Keeping
our gold reserve up to meet all the de-
mands on it that foreign sales of our
securities will make or OF allowing our
selves to be protested and of going TO the
| silver basis That is the situation. re-
voting 10 us as It may be. and we had
| just as well look 1t in the face at 1t is.
That we will do our best to keep up
| the gold reserve and thereby maintain
| the Governments credit goes without
! saying. But can we do IL? Where viii
the gold come from? 1t is preposterous
| 10 think OF Europe letting us have any
under present conditions. so that we
| shall have to rely upon the domestic sup
| ply. The latest estimates of that put it
at about 500. 900. VIII that respond TO
our demands for it, and win it answer the
call Of Europe for gold in exchange for
| securities which she will so on making
while the war talk continues? If the
| whole of IL were in our Treasury ii would
not amount TO one-fourth OF the securi-
| ties which Europe can send here, of
which, too. a very large proportion will
| certainly come. But will all Of ii be given
10 the Government If it should ask for
| all? That is not probable, for as such
| excitement as is now in the country con-
| tinues, more men take alarm and more
| gold retires to it's secret hiding places.
We fear. therefore. that the Government
| will be less and less able TO draw on this
| stock as its necessities for it become
| greater. The situation is one Of the most
serious danger, and it becomes every pa
,riotic American to put his best thoughts
and efforts into play for the rescue Of
| his country from her perils.
Well might Mr.. Cleveland have sent his
almost despairing message TO Congress
Friday afternoon. The situation is just
as grave as he represented it TO be. and
he may well call out. Hep me, Cassius,
! or sink" But the time for him to have
| entertained his present alarm was when
! he was writing his absurd message to
| Congress, putting this country into the
fool position OF challenging England 10
war over a matter that has no concern
| for us and in which she is perfectly right.
| lie should have seen then that he was
| going to cause just exactly the state Of
affairs which he has brought upon the
| country, for any man OF ordinary sense
| who had sat down and calmly reflected
upon IL would have known that such a
message would cause Europeans to take
fright and send their securities here;
that the gold to send them in return
would have to come out OF the United
| States Treasury; that the Government
would have no resources for keeping up
| it's gold supply. and that in all probabili-
| ty Il must be protested and so to
| silver basis
| We have taken no part In the mutter-
| ings now breaking out into open and
general charges that Mr.. Cleveland has
| contrived this whole war business as a
| plot for making himself President again.
But we are compelled TO believe that
when he sent his message in TO Congress
| defying Great Britain he had not read
Lord Saisbury's dispatch setting out
| Great Britains claim TO the territory in
dispute between herself and Venezuela.
| 1t is 10 be remembered that he was in
the North Carolina sound duck shooting
| when that dispatch reached this country,
and that as soon as he could leave the
| Maple and drive TO the White House he
wrote his message and sent IL in TO
| Congress. There was no time between
mis- landing and his sending in the mes
sage for him to consider and duly weigh
a document as weighty and important as
| Lord Salisburys dispatch is. The case
has all the appearance, therefore. of one
| in which a message was prepared In ac-
| cordance with views entertained before
| he started on his duck hunt. instead Of
with views matured after he had COM
pared Lord Salisbury's paper with what
| he had previously known and considered.
| And we now say that II he did really
| read and understand Lord Salisbury's
dispatch before he prepared his message.
| that he either rejects Lord Salisbury's
statements of facts As false or he has
utterly failed to appreciate their true in
| fiuence on and relative TO the contro-
versy For. II II be true. as Lord Sails
bury states. that the States General OF
| Holland substantially demanded of Spain
| In 1863 that she recognize as the true
! boundaries OF Dutch Guiana the very
limits which Lord Salisbury is now claim
ing and that Spain substantially ac-
| quiesced In the demand. then England
| either has an undoubted title to the land
| in controversy or she at any rate has
| such colorado title TO Il as makes 1t alb