The Portland daily press., 1896-07-29
QUESTIONS ANSWERED DIFFER
EMILY.

An advocate of free coinage of silver
asks us to publish the following which
he calls "a Free Coinage Catechism:'
1. Has the President or his servant.
the Secretary Of the Treasury, the right
to borrow money on the credit of the
United States, and to issue interest bear
ing bords therefor which must be ulti-
mately paid by taxes imposed upon the
People9 A. No. The power TO borrow
money on the credit of the government
was carefully and exclusively delegated
by the Constitution to Congress. The
men who made the Constitution would
have been shocked by proposition to
confer upon the Executive, of whose con-
coded authority there was great misgiv-
ing and jealousy, the enormous power OF
borrowing money and thereby the power
TO impose taxes. 1t was alarm at the
tax-imposing encroaohments of Parlia-
ment that led to American Independence
and created our Constitutional govern
ment.
2. He'd Congress ever authorized the
President or his Secretary to borrow 1862,
000, 700, AMI by tina amount increase the
interest bearing debt of the United
States? A. The President 8 authority in the
premises was OF SO questionable q char
aoter that he would gladly have referred
tho matter to Congress ard he would
have done SO, had he not known, as the
public we'll know, that Congress would
have peremptorily refused it's authoriza-
ton.
8. Was not the President authorized by
the act Of Jan. 18th, 1875 to purchase
gold to provide for the redemption of the
paper money notes. on which the
United States were held? a. To purchase
gold, no, to purchase coin, perhaps. All
the paper money notes then in existence
a yzon oil tbo l,av.A do Of fi,o
United States were by the terms of the
contract, as we'll as by the solemn legis-
lative declaration of Congress, payable
in coin. What makes the act of Jan. IA,
70 utterly inadequate to cover the arbi-
trary ana illegal acts he has attempted to
Justify under it, is,
1st That it is '.Funotus officio, -
having accomplished its purpose fifteen
years before. 1t is not the policy of the
Constitution or OF any representative gov
eminent to mortgage for long periods the
money borrowing, which is also the tax
levying power, but hold it subject to con-
troll and revision.
| End. The legislative requirement that
| the money notes of the United States in
existence Jan. 18th, 1875, should not be
cancelled but re-issued greatly lessened
| the requirement. of a coin reserve of any
kind. Experience has amply shown that
| the number OF persons who for Legitimate
| business purposes wish to exchange legal
tender paper for coin is very small.
Bird. Whatever power the act of 1875
conferred upon the President, it is in d is
pEtable that it conferred 10 power on
him to borrow god wherewith to pay the
| United States notes issued to purchase
| silver bullion undor the Sherman Act OF
1890, and which by plain legislative i'm
plioation were redeetmu blo i'll silver coir
and 1t was by the presentation of this
cless Of securities that the President il
his Annual Message of last December
confesses that what be called the prnci
pal 'raid'' on his gold reserve was made
-ncr to redeem certificates by their very
| terms, "paya bis in silger,' between fifty,
and one hundred millions of which the
President had paid in gold. Having i'm
providently squandered his gold for .pur.
poses not authorized by law, what right
had the President to make good the de-
felt by adding 1869, 900. 600 to the national
debt that Congress had expressly forbid.
den to BIO increased?
4. Is not the principal cause of the dis
trust, the panic. the shrinkage of values
in tangible and intangible property the
| harrest OF production, the paralysis OF
trade and industry, the ruinously low
prices of both labor and products of labor
| due to the shrinkage of the coin reserve
available for redemption and the feal
that it cannot be maintained; and who il
| responsible for the calamities of such G
situation; A The American people seem
disposed to hold President Cleveland
largely responsible and their judgment
is not unjust. Confident in his own SUI
perior wisdom, refusing to be counsellod
by thv assembled wisdom of the politiea
organization that had elected him to his
high office, or by the Congress whose be
hests it was his official duty to obey, he
| determined on his own responsibility tC
drive the country to gold monometallism