Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1895-02-26
HOW WILLITAL END
!, LEGISLATIVE PROPHETS At WASH
lNGTON BADLY RATIFIED.

ffhe Financial Situation Worse n1uddled
Than overflow the Populists Stand In
the Senate-Coneressman Harris and the
Reilly Bill.
Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, Feb. HE would be
rash man indeed who should at this
time make predictions based OH the opin-
ions or even the solemn promises of our
national lawmakers. Opinion is in a
whirlpool. The changes are so sudden
and radical that when man of promi-
nance positively contradicts today what
be as positively asserted yesterday it is
looked upon as quite the regular thing.
Indeed it seems but yesterday that l
was assured by several men supposed to
be in the confidence Of the president
that en- extra session would be called for
a date not later than the middle Of
April, as lie was suro of the majority il,
the next senate, 'regardless of present
senatorial buster, aud today am as
positively assured that the silverites
have 81 reliable men in that senate. OF
course this is Imitation We know
there are always some who will desert
at the crisis, but count it as you may
they certainly have 81. Therefore to-
days prevailing opinion is, mo extra
,3sion.
Senator Sherman compares the situa-
ton to that Of the winter of 1861,
" hen the events moved faster than con
gress could change it's opinion and ap-
POINT committees to suit. A very instruc-
two feature of the situation is the way
the monopolist parties have changed
front Oh the extra session. At first all the
Republicans were eager for it and taunt-
CT! the goldbug Democrats with the inca.
pAcity Of their party associates. Cleve-
land s henchmen tried to scare tho silver
Democrats with the prospect that the
Republicans would come in, settle every
thing and get the glory Of it, but the
silverites didn't scare worth cent.
When the new western senators were
chosen, the fact that nearly all of them
were silverites put new face on the
situation, and then the Democrats be-
gan to want All extra session and the Re-
publicans to dread it, for unless this
senate contains 4 l of the biggest liars in
the country the next senate will consent
to nothing that does not include the
restoration of silver. Today leading Re.
publicans say all extra session would be
calamity, and that the president has
too much sense to call one Just the
same the two parties may change ground
again by the time the reader gets
through this paragraph.
The bankers were wiser They knew
from the start that their hope was in
this congress. Several congressman
frankly confess their changes Of opinion
as to what is best and among them Sen
ator VOORHEES,, who thinks the currents
Of the worlds exchanges are now f1uC.
tuating SO wildly that it is impossibl to
determine even the near future, and
that congress could not legislate in time
to fit any particular situation, as it
may be reversed before the law can op-
crate. Representative Coolnbs of Brook
Ign, hopelessly consistent go]dbug and
man Of great experience ia interna~
tional trade, goes much farther and says
that the commercial world appears to
HIM to be in dead eddy, all waiting
on something, they know not what.
Representative McGann and others on
the labor committee think that ma
chinery has been introduced very much
faster than labor could accommodate
itself to the change, while the ma
chinery of distribution is still anti
quated. So we have the old paradox
that overproduction has produced want
presented in a new form. Populist Hud-
son Of Kansas adds All array OF figures
proving that during the period of run
ming i'll debt prices were high, while in
the period Of paying debts, or trying to,
they have been made SO low that the
creditors can swipe the world. The
latest official figures certainly do indi-
cate that if the present tendency con-
tinues IS months longer there will
be nothing LETT for debtors to fight for
in 1896. Here are a few instructive
gems from the official reports for Janu-
ary:
The average of prices was the lowest
ever known, and the month closed with
the heaviest tendency ever known Oh a
low market. The Withdrawals Of gold
from the treasury were the heaviest ever
known in a month. Nearly all stocks
have declined, and east bound freight
from Chicago was not quite half that of
last year and but little more than half
that Of 1898. On 100 commodities the
lowest average was reached Jan. 26.
Last years crop of corn is demonstrated
to have been at least one-thira below
average, and yet the price is declining.
Cotton lacks but a minute fraction of
the lowest point ever reached and has
declining tendency. 1t is added for
our encouragement that the product Of
silver has declined 10 per cent for the
year, while that of gold has increased
IS per cent, and for further comfort we
are assured that free silver would not
help the debtor anyhow, as three-fourths
Of the farm mortgages are specifically
made payable in gold. 1t is almost re-
lief to close with compliment to the
brutal honesty of our officials, who say
that prices will 60 lower yet before the
turn comes and add that there is no
truth in the popular notion that Eng
land is drawing our gold by sending
home securities for sale. The real trou-
bic is they are not making any new in.
vestments and are drawing their $780,,
900, 600 per year interest in gold and
will continue to do so until our farmers
sell their surplus cheaper than the
"pauper laborers'' Of other lands do