The Republican journal., 1896-10-08
4 Question Of Occult Possibilities.

| A good deal OF ingenuity is being vast
ed IN specializing on what would be the
| probable effect of the free and unlimited
coinage of silver on the volume of the cir
culating medium and on the banking sys-
| tenn of the country. The Maine and Yer
mont elections portend defeat to that in
iquitous PROJECT Even Id the fortunately
improbable event of Mr.. Bryau's election
the United States minis might not be
/ opened to the free coinage of silver at the
ratio OF Is to l. The broad path Of ruin
that would be traced ACROSS the country
between the election of Bryan and his in
auguration would give to the most heed
less of the people 50 rude an awakening
that even Populist Congress would
shrink from completing the havoc by APP
pIopriate legislation. The utter collapse
OF confidence and credit that would attend
the election OF Bryan would plecpitate 4
crisis beside which ,he outbreak OF the
civil war would be an event of minor i'm
portance. But this would not be strug-
gle in which there could be no step back
ward. The voice of the country would
call a halt to further advance in the road
to disaster with an emphasis which even
the politicians of Texas would, one might
hope, be likely to heed.
A competent authority has pointed out
that the universal European distrust OF
the possibility of any one nation restoring
the parity Of silver has a vital bearing on
the feasibility of the silver programme
With an external Indebtedness of between
81, 500, GOO, 900 to 81, 900, 600, 600, the
foreign creditors of the country would, in
the event of Bryans election, lose no
time in realizing on these obligations in
our own markets 1t would be in the
line of ordinary prudence to try to get
their dollars back before they sank to the
market value of 81 II grains of silver
bullion. With the triumph of the free
silver cause the return of foreign held
securities would set in like flood. The
country would be drained of gold to pro
vide remittances against their realizations,
and gold payments would probably be
suspended very early in the game. There
would be as little possibility of liquida-
ting the entire foreign Indebtedness of the
country all at once as there would be of
restraining the foreign creditor from keep
ing up continuous effort to collect what
he could of his debt. As has been re-
marked, there would be point at which
the return of securities must cease, but
! only to be renewed the moment there
was any recovery in our ability to pay for
them, and these obligations would in
terminabiy press like milestone upon
our finance and prevent the recovery of
our Frustrated credit
But it seems useless to consider ''what
would be the logical outcome Of the sys-
TEN if it We're allowed to 90 into full OPP
Grafton, when, from the nature of the
monstrosity, it would be strangled at its
birth. The ruin that would attend the
first open preparations to carry the silver
programme into execution is at least one
protection to the country against the full
| measure of the consequences to be appre-
hended from it. But this protection
would be obtained by the experience of
national disaster on scale so colossal that
there would be small satisfaction in the
| reflection that the logical results of the
system would not be fully realized.
Though the calamities caused by an at
tempt to execute the silverite policy
might settle the question forever, IL is
vastly to be preferred that the policy
| should not attain even the prospect of ex-
ecution. boston Herald
Look at that Old Centipede with his
hundred legs-how proud he isn' said the
Beetle
eyes; and how absurdly So" returned
the Katydd. ''With all hundred of EN-
he couldn't ride bcyle" [Harper's
Round Table.