Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1895-08-23
\ \ ,TI,OIlWlI'NE,S SILVER b VIEWS.

made Y public, detailed statement
sof his present position on the
silver question. and he favors the
free coinage of silver ~ the
United States alone at aratio Of 16
toS IL tt was universally under
stood, until 4 few months ago,
that he was opposed to such q
policy, and his present expressions
are naturally a surprise to his
supporters in this part Of the dis.
trict. All Of his public express
sions previous to this year had
been in opposition to free coinage
at is to 1. During general dis.
.cussion which took place IN the
summer of 1893 1when congress
was called in extra session to re.
peal the Sherman law Mr.. Towne
was one of the leaders in his city
in expressions against free coinage.
In many Of the large cities public
associations, such as boards of
trade, chambers of CONNIE, ce, ETC.,
passed resolutions urging c ongress
to act on the silver question
some favoring the repeal Of the
Sherman law, and some asking for
free coinage of silver. A public
meeting was called at Duluth on
Aug. 2, 1898, for the purpose Of
passing resolutions asking for the
free coinage of silver. When the
meeting assembled those who op-
posed such resolutions took up the
fight, and succeeded in passing
resolutio asking for the repeal of
the Sherman law. Mr.. Towne
was really the leader Of the op'
position to free coinage, according
to the reports published at that
time in the Duluth papers. On
the following day the Duluth pa
pers published accounts of the
meeting. r
The "News. Tribune had this
to say of Towne:
''The popular address of the
evening was by G. A. Towne. His
remarks were frequently inter.
rupted by questions and at all
times the debate was free-for-all,
but in spite Of this fact Mr.. Towne
had through it all decidedly the
best of it. He reviewed very
briefly the history Of the financial
legislation in the United States
and stated clearly the Importance
Of the question and Of 9 wise dec.
.laration, if any were to- be made,
sby Duluth on the question. He
could not support Col. Gridley''s
resolutions, he said, for the reason
that lie did not believe the United
States could carry alone the bur.
den of sustaining free silver against
the world. He believed IN the use
of silver as money, but measured
by gold standard. -"
The "Herald's'' reporter saw it
this way:
cloud cries for Towne were then
heard, and he came forward. He
favored a simpl" ''~olut1oA I. com.
mending the repeal fifth. purchas'
ing clause OF the Sherman act.
He was not in favor Of adopting
the resolutions proposed by Mr..
Lovett (these were substitute
for Gridley's) at this time. The
proposition for the government to
sustain SILVER alone and unaided
against the world he declared to
be financial lunacy; double
standard an impossible thing. One
must be the real standard and the
other used upon the basis of its
convertibility into the first"
The mmOnWealth reported
Mr.. Towne in part as folio W
"This should have been a great
year for Duluth but for the inter
ruption of the hard times. And
if this thing is settled right the
bottled up forces will have effect.
It is important to our future to
commit ourselves to such a policy.
as the business world can indorse.
This meeting should first and per-
haps last call for the repeal of the
Sherman silver law. To advocate
our, governments going it alone
for free silver borders on lunacy.
And for free traders to ignore the
currency of other nations is incon-
sistency. Again, if we went on a
silver basis a silver dollar would be
a dollar but you couldn't export it
at that rate. A man couldn't buy
one of our. silver dollars for 60
cents and take 40 cents profit.
All his expressions up to short
tim {. 400 were IF the same tenor.