St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-31
AN UNFRUITFUL DEBATE,

The Horr-Harvey debate has come
to close at last, to the great re-
lief of those who have attempted
to follow from day to day it's weari-
some length. 1t has not answered
even the reasonable expectations
that were formed of it by those who
thought it would contribute some
thing to the common stock of fnfor-
nation on the silver ques-
ton. 1t has been evident
that the principals were less
anxious to get at the meat of the
matter than they were to make a
readable discussion. They have not
at any time confined themselves to
facts vital to the issue. The greater
part of the eight days consumed
has been wasted in lively tits over
trivial details, which may have af-
forded amusement to the audience
but are merely tiresome to the man
honestly seeking for further infor-
nation. AS we have said from the
beginning, there was really but one
question involved: Ought the Unit
ed States alone to resume free coin
age of silver at the ratio of Is to 1?
The circumstances under which
the act Of 1873 was passed have moth
ing to do with the case more than
twenty years later 1t is a perfectly
valid argument to say that, even if
that act should not have been
passed, it does not prove that an at
tempt should be made to restore one
condition existing prior to its pas
sage, unless all conditions could be
restored in their entirety. No one
who has studied economic facts be-
lieves that the course of prices since
1873 has been determined by the
cessation of free coinage. To re-
store free coinage would not be to
put the world of industry, with all
its machinery for the production and
distribution Of commodities, back
where is was in that year. One might
as well argue that if we were to
wear again the cooked hat and knee
brooches of our revolutionary fore
fathers, it would infuse into the
people the patriotic spirit which an
mated them. What we, as practical
people, have to deal with are the
questions Of today. Those questions
formed the subject matter of only
small fraction of this debate. When
1t came down to the vital issue of
free coinage in this year, 1895, all
that Mr.. Harvey had to offer in the
affirmative was his personal asser-
ton that it would raise the price of
silver, enhance the value of all kinds
of produce, relieve the debtor and
conduce to general prosperity. All
that Mr.. Horn could say in reply was
to deny that any such effects would
follow. These two statements, stand
ing opposite each other, represent
the sum total of the eight days of
debate. Each man who reads the
proceedings, and who cares to study
the silver question for himself. must
determine which of the two is nearer
right. 1t certainly has to be said
that all the history Of the world.
all the convictions of those who have
made a study of finance and all the
indications of the times, contradict
Mr.. Harvey's position.
| But, after all, the general indiffer-
| ence with which the public has re-
ceived the reports of the financial
controversy in Chicago is due not
| so much to anything in the quality
| of the debate itself as to the over
whelming force of the argument fur
nished by the present revival of bust
| ness activity and the outlook for