The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1896-06-05

The blaz ing up of silver sentiment
seems sudden. because few months
ago political students felt convinced
that the cause was on the wane. but il
ought not to be surprising. The long
continued pressure of the hard times
has naturally tended to this result. and
The repeated emissions of bonds, in
creasing the nationalldebt TO maintain
{ he gold standard, have intensified it
in the view of men who Go not look
deep for causes. Besides, the South
a nd West have real grievance in an
artificial money scarcity. When mon
ey commands 10 or y per cent interest
| there, and is almost understandable on
my security even at that figure, at;the
very time it is glut in New York at
3 or per cent, it is natural for those
people to feel that something is wrong.
The true remady is in banking sys-
tenn, something after the pattern of
that in Canada with additional guards
such as are suggested by the Scottish
system, which while perfectly secure
shall meet their local needs. Cleveland
and Carlilse did the duty of far sight
ed craftsmanship, in calling the atten-
ton Of Congress to this need But
this wretched apology for Congress,
inste ad of attempting the work which
craftsmanship must yet Ito, instead of
remedying the defects of the Carlisle
scheme and constructing |, safe and
practicable measure, simply howed
the whole subject out of doors, gand
many of the financial leaders of the
East, even after the ban kers conven-
ton at Baltimore had declared the |
need of some new banking system,
joined in egging on the bowling. They |
have themselves to thank for raising a |
storm, whose allaying is not going to /
be easy
Moreover, as Il world question:, as
ii arrison described it, the siver...men
are right. As the Reformer said two
years ago, the gold standard men are
guilty Of great folly that to so large an
'xtent they refuse to view the question
n It's larger aspects. Whatever bank.
ng syste ms may be. they need the
argest possible basis of sound money
IS the money of redemption. The silver
men are right in insisting that crime
gainst civil cation was committed in
he decentralization of silver by the !,
reat nations: they are wrong IN sup
losing that the remedy can be reached
y this country undertaking free coin
&c alone. They complain of the Egold ,
tandard that it is not bimetalism, =
nd they propose instead what must {
nevitvably reduce itself to Il silver s
or silver monometallism in !,
tead of the bimetalism they profess 10 {
esire, and in so doing they play the p
anne of,the gold bugs ofEurope who are >
Gliding off from bimetalism simply be- y
ause they hope for this action Where. o
The evil of he gold standard is that +,
old is not sufficient as money basis u
-as even those must admit who think !,
old and silver together would be re- q
undant-and that being so, it: makes fc
he whole world gold grabbers. :as Ithe ~
'ry experience of this country h
r the past three yearsl has proved. ii
nd the silver men think the cure is er
aiding Europe TO grab the rest Of =, ~
If gold ~
1t is not TO be believed that the o'
nerican people will be guilty ofiany 81 81
oh short sighted folly. Complicated on
the question is, deplarable AS the tn
ape in which the ISSUE is apparently We
be Joined, we have faith Ia believe luz ~.
at the ultimate outcome will be ~
hit. The need is for clearer. more in
ndid argument than has gener ally TO
nvailed heretofore. and the danger to ="
avoided is any more puttering and
bling such rs that Of the Sherman
!. l..