St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-01-30
EVERY HAND TO THE WHEEL.

VanceO age, becoming sane Oilly d Lew
days before his death"
EVERY HAND TO THE WHEEL.
The career in experimental and
fallacious currency, which ended so
disastrously to every interest in the
country in 1898, and from whose eff
fects we are now suffering, and
which, unless congress unites in
remedial action, will be yet more
disastrous, began on Feb. %, 1878,
when the senate and the house
overruled the veto by President
Hayes of the Allison silver purchase
and coinage act and made it the
law by the concurrent two-thirds
vote of the two houses.
In the light OF our present eX-
perience, the language of the presi-
dent was prophetic. He said: 1.-THE
right to pay duties in silver or GER
tificates for silver deposits will,
when they are issued in sufficient
quantities, put an end to the re-
ceipt Of revenue in gold, and thus
compel the payment of silver for
both the interest and principal of
the public debt" They were not put
forth in sufficient quantities until
the dose was doubled by the Sher-
man act in 1890. When that act was
passed the payment Of duties in
the New York custom house was
made in gold or gold certificates to
the extent Of 95.S per cent Of the
whole amount received. The gold
receipts gradually dwindled before
the wave Of silver notes until Jan
uary, 1898, when gold had shrunk
to SO per cent of the receipts, sill
yer certificates, legal tenders and
Shermans having taken their place.
Following the panic there was a
temporary movement of gold coin
into the treasury, but by July, '94,
it had entirely disappeared, and the
Allison certificates, redeemable only
in standard dollars of silver, formed
59.4 per cent, legal tenders PA per
cent and Shermans III per cent.
This condition continues to the
present time. AS predicted by Pres
ident Hayes seventeen years ago,
the income Of gold has ceased, and
this administration, the unhappy
heir of this legacy of incompetency
and cowardice, borrows gold rather
than to pay the gold obligations of
the government in the silver pro-
vided under what the Pioneer Press
so complacently terms the ancient
and honorable financial policy Of the
Republican party"
Concluding the reasons for his
veto, the president said: GA cur
rency worth less than it purports to
be worth will in the end defraud not
only creditors, but all who are en-
gagged in legitimate business, and
none more surely than those who
are dependent on their daily labor
for their daily bread. By a vote OF
46 to 10 in the senate-among the
46 being the two Minnesota SEN
ators-and by vote of 1876 to 73 in
the house-two of the three Repub-
lican Representatives voting with
the 196-the bill was passed over the
veto.
Following that came the Fort bill
in the same session, stopping. the
retirement of the greenback wisely
begun by McCulloch, and riveted to-
gether that "endless chain" which,
when the volume of silver paper be-
came, as President Hayes foresaw,
sufficient, began its operation Of con-
veying the gold out of the treasury
and the greenbacl1s in, going out in
payment of expenses to return
again to the treasury and drain out
the gold. There would be no alarm
over shipments of gold now had that
bill not been enacted. There would
be no need of a reserve fund, and no
greenbackS to draw on it, deplete
it and compel the sale of bonds to re-
plenish it. The bill passed the house
by vote of 1T to So, all the Min
nesota representatives voting for it,
and the senate by a vote of Al to IS,
both Minnesota senators voting aye,
In view of these facts, in the face
of this demonstration of RESPONSE
bility for legislation to which all
admit our present situation is at
tributable, in view of the wide
spread disaster it has wrought and
is preserving, how can any Repub-
lican senator or representative deny
| responsibility or attempt to put it
wholly on the party which is their
unfortunate legatee and refuse to
give his aid in repairing the mis-
| chief done? That there are Demo-
| Gratis of the Bland and Bryan stripe
who wish not only to perpetuate but
aggravate the conditions, and that
there may be enough of these I'M
wholesome creatures to prevent the
majority from acting, is no more ex-
cuse for Republican inaction than is
! the other fact that there are Republic
| cans tarred with the same stick, re-
| fusing their aid. 1t is a common
| danger and a common duty with the
| pangs of remorse to spur the Re
| publicans.