Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1896-01-10

I'D to lCS OlO eAeelieho oo''A>
county paper.
THE BEGINNING OF THE STRAIGHT
ENED GOLD SUPPLY
Tt is a great pity that the pursuit OF
mower is SO much stronger than the pur-
suit of patriotism. Were the present
Republican congress not legislating on the
eve of a Presidential struggle one might
look to it for relief as it Is. the matter
seems hopeless. From the minor lights III
the party the country has some reason TO
expect this, but when Senator Sherman
Joins that element in his party on financial
matters, he creates both surprise and dis
anpointment. In financial matters his
past record as Secretary of the Treasury
gives his opinions unusual weight and MS
utterances always command respect. But
this cannot he said of his speech in the
Senate Friday, upon the reading OF which we
entered with hopeful feeling OF getting
new light. 1t is painfully partlzan ana
Its partizanry seems to have swallowed up
its patriotism.
The drift of all he said was that it was
mismanagement by the Democratic party
that brought the trouble on. He contend
I. ed that it was all due to the present tari1
bill which produced insufficient revenue
and forced the administration to use the
gold reserved for current expenses. Al
the Mckinley bill also failed to yield sniff
eient revenue and was stubborn fact to ex
plain away, he took the extraordinary
position that the reason it did not yield
it after 1891 was that its prospective re.
peal by the Democrats had made importers
timid and importations were postponed
till after the new tariff came in. He com
planned that greenbaeks and treasury notes
redeemed by Mr.. Carlisle were afterwards
reissued for current expenses, instead OF
being set apart as aspecial-fund, forgetting
that in his own annual report as Secretary
of the Treasury in 1877 he had said:
"a note redeemed with coin is in the Treas
ury and subject to the same law as if received
for taxes, or as bank note redeemed by the
corporation issuing it. The authority to re-
issue it does not depend upon the mode in
which it is returned to the Treasury"
He took the position that there had been
!saso shortage of gold under Mr.. Harrison s
when the fact is that Mr..
srrison in 1892 was as short of gold as
sssr. Cleveland is, and that the month before
his administration closed his Secretary OF
the Treasury ordered bonds to be
printed by the sale of which gold was to
be obtained to keep up the reserve, and
that the following order from that Secre
tary is on file in the Treasury Department:
TREASURY DEPARTMENT..
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY,
Washington, D. G., Feb. 20, 1898.
SIR: You are hereby authorized and d.
rected to prepare designs for the per cent.
bonds provided in Senate amendment to the
spndry civil bill now pending. The denomi-
eHOns which should first receive attention
are $1OO and 81 900 of the coupon bonds and
500, 81 900 and $4,000 of the registered
bonds.
This authority is given in advance of the
enactment, in view of pressing contingencies,
and you are directed to hasten the prepare
ton of the designs and plates in every posi-
BILE manner.
inclose q memorandum for your guidance
in preparing the script for the body of the
bond. Respectfully yours,
CHARLES FOSTER,
Secretary.
Mr.. Sherman also expressed the opinion
that Mr.. Cleveland in order to keen funds
in the Treasury, ought to have disregard
ed the appropriations made by congress
and put them off unpaid; in brief, to have
made an open declaration of bankruptcy
But of all the unstatesmanlike features of
s8i r. Sherman 3 speech the most fragrant
as his omission-in an address purporting
to give the history of our financial condi
lion for thirty years-all mention Of the
monetary panic all over the world which
began in 1892, paralyzed business and di
,'-,isaed our revenue from all sources,
CUIns as well as internal.
Mr.. Sherman, naturally enough, had moth
ing to say of contracts with syndicates for
taking the issues OF government bonds, for
he had, while Secretary of the Treasury,
made such contracts with free hand.
But his whole speech is disappointing to
an American who looks to him, the man 80
prominent in the management Of the
antry's financial affairs for many years,
the man to give higher and better
kht on those affairs now than should
ONE from political partizanry.
The plain truth of the matter is that
during Mr.. Harrison's administration un-
der the influence of the Mckinley tariff
and the panic the revenues had begun
falling off and the Treasury was preparing
to issue bonds. Under Mr.. Cleveland S
second term, which took up the thread
where Mr.. Harrison left off, times did
not mend and Mr.. Cleveland is max
ing the same effort Mr.. Harrison prepared
to make to keep up the public credit by
maintaining the gold reserve. If there were
good times'' once more, the present tariff
bill would yield all the revenue wanted, the
shaken confidence Of the country would be
restored and the effort to get gold from
the government would cease. The United
States in the matter of hard times is pre-
cisely where all the rest of the world is. no
worse off and no hetter-except that it is
in the banking business.
FROM ACROSS THE WATER.
There is not great deal being said On
The other side of the water about the