The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-06-30
SILVER IN TIRE SOUTH.
Dr. Depew Tells some stories In Dis
cussing-the situation.

disturbed over the situation as he formerly
was. He said:
hehtucky and Tennessee are supposed
10 be the pulsating centres Of the free
silver sentiment. walked into Nashville
with good deal of trepidation. and from
What had heard expected to see every
I man woman and child wearing a badge
| win the ngures 16 to 1 emblazoned upOn
| II. mere Is no use denying that the sem
tilnelit Is deep-seated in the south, but the
people are reasonable and they are trying
70 solve the problem honestly. Senator
| blackburn Is making some fine speeches,
from literary standpoint in the interest
| OF silver. A good story is going the rounds
uoWl mere concerning a speech that Sena-
TOT Blackburn made at a free-silver con-
| NeHuoh. senator Blackburn arose and in
a Few moments he had his audience under
| the witchery of his Oratory of which he is
master. He spoke for an hour, and his
audlence followed his flights of
ve 14ueii re. IN dreamy admiration.
| Nhen MS opponent rose even the advo-
Gates of sound money shook their heads
ana said that elOquence had won against
reason. The other fellow was a hard
headed, hard-fisted sort of an orator and
when he got up he said:
Nou have all heard Senator Blackburn
| and you all know what a great orator he
!
looks handsome flying through the air.
and 1t swims gracefully on top of the wat
| er-but, my friends, remember II only
draws about an inch and a half of water,
ana 1t has no thought for the depths be-
Meath
That was home thrust and showed
/ the audience that it was best to study the
question than 10 be led astray by Will-o'-
| the-wisp oratory
/ heard story recently, and II is true
/ narration, of a man whose wit and fore
| sight helped him out of one OF the most
awkward positions that ne ever got into,
and 1t is remarkably like the present silver
issue. 1t was back in the old days when
state bank bills fourished. The gentle
man in question was great importer. He
bought goods abroad for sale in the south
ana west. The season came on, and he had
orders placed from purchasers for a mil
lion dollars or more worth of goods He
made his purchases abroad accordingly
ana when the time came to deliver he
found himself with the goods purchased on
credit and expected to pay his foreign
notes with money received from those
who purchased of him. When it came to
collecting these amounts the merchants
| In the south and west offered him state
| bank currency. The new York banks re-
fused to take it, The dealers west and
! south refused to pay in anything else. and
| the New York banks refused to discount
his western paper. The foreign notes had
to be met in gold, and he was in an embar-
/ RAISING position. He sat down and thought
the matter all over. and then decided upon
line of action. He said to himself that
the only means of salvation for himself
was to convert the state bank notes into
/ something that would be the equivalent of
| gold. He telegraphed to his agents all over
the country that he would accept state
bank notes. Then he ordered these agents
. to buy all the wheat that the notes would
4 purchase in the neghborhood where these
| bankhotes were thought the best currency.
The local merchants in the various
| towns had no difficulty in getting accom-
modations at their banks, because the
banks thought that their notes, which had
! little or no security behind them 'Woth
go to New York and would not return for
4 redemption inside of a year. and so this
merchants customers all paid up. When
1 the panic of ~ came, in a few months
the local merchants failed, and that broke
/ the state banks. That made the state
bank currency worthless, and IL left the
confiding farmers with rotten bank notes
and no wheat, while the far-sighted mer-
! chant, who knew that currency must be
as good a commodity as is minted or
/ printed, or redeemable in that which is as
good, had the farmers wheat, which han
value. which he shipped to London and
! sold for gold and with this gold paid his
debts and sailed triumphantly through
panic in which nearly every other house
went under. 1t is needless to add that
he is to-day one of the most successful
/ as well one of the wealthiest men in
! the United States"
Mr.. Depew does not think that the Re-
/ publican party is going to feel the silver
/ element working against it next year, de-
! spite the assertions made by advocates Of
| the white metal He said:
I'm Ohio I learned that the republicans
are viewing the subject of bimetallism
/ from an international point of view. l be-
4 lieVe, however, that they are simply co.
/ quoting with the the idea of an internal
tional bimetallc agreement and that there
/ is no real sentiment in favor of free coin
/ age. Foraker seems to hold in his possCs-
! sion the republican machine in Ohio, ana
/ apparently can do with 1t as he wills The
situation among the Ohio democrats, as
/ l ascertained it, is that three months ago
j two-thirds of the democratic newspapers
/ in Ohio were hot for the free coinage OF
| silver al the ratio of 16 to !, while now
/ conditions have been exactly reversed.
Only one-third are advocating free coin
age of silver, and twO-thlrds are val
| iantly supporting President Cleveland's
! policy.
I'm Tennessee the people are as bitter
! over silver. l think they feel that their
|
| age In Nashville the two leading papers
! oppose the idea of free coinage AS l
! said, think the people want to be reason
! able but they have had this idea drummed
! into them with such persistence that they
I have come to look upon 1t as the greatest
/ question since the war of the rebellion.
1 They look upon it as another time when
! the north is debating to their loss, and
good deal of personal feeling is engen-
dered 1t is going to be long, hard
! fight. but l think that the question will be
| ultimately seen in a true light. The re-
! publican leaders in Tennessee believe that
| the silver question will split the democrat
ic party in the state, and that by practi-
| cally ignoring the question themselves
they can hold the republicans together
on the tariff question. and carry the state
| next year for the republican candidate for
president.
I'm Kentucky the silver fight seems to
he wholly within the democratic party,
and while l am politically opposed to Sec
retarv Carlisle / am free to confess that
without his speeches and arguments made
recently, Tennessee and Kentucky would
now be overwhelmingly for free silver.
II is a peculiar feature of the south that
their ideas are always swayed by the men
who represent them. With Blackburn for
silver and Carlisle opposed to it, they