The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-04-03
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
THE DANGER OF EVASION.

currency as 1t Is, still exposed to the
attacks of the ''bimetallists," with the
resulting liability to panic.
Those who believe in the gold standard
must not be satisfied with saying so; they
must demand some positive measure to
keep our currency up to that standard
, Or, if they are content to depend, as now,
upon the unaided discretion of the EXecu-
tive, they must insist upon a candidate for
President as determined and fearless as
Mr.. Cleveland. No ''wobbler' can give
security, even if elected on sound money
platform, without more specific pledge
of currency reform than any State con-
vention has vet ventured to suggest.
That this is real danger Is plain from
the efforts of papers like the New York
Tribune, which processes adherence to the
gold standard, to represent the Ohio plat
form as expressing sound Republican doc
trne, and from the general disposition to
accept the action of the Minnesota con-
vention as "a sound money victory" in
that it did not directly favor free coinage,
but adopted the old platitudes about inter
national bimetallism, to the satisfaction
even of Senator Pettigrew.
1t is not enough to be assured that Il
candidate would veto a free coinage bill.
There is not much probability that such a
bill will reach the President. The danger
is more insidiouS than that. Even the
| declaration that the metals must be MAIN
tanned at Il parity did not prevent the
| Congress of 1890 from passing, or Presi-
dent Harrison from signing, the silver
purchase act, with consequences that
| threw our whole financial system into con-
! fusion. We have not escaped from these
consequences yet, and shall not till we
| have put the system on SOunder
| basis.
To do nothing is to prolong uncertainty
and invite renewed attacks and recuring
panics. Therein lies the peril of all this
temporizing talk about international BIZ
metallism and such like dsingenuous
evasions. If our people want sound
currency, they must insist upon positive
and not a merely negative. policy. We
have had enough experience of compro-
mise.
AN IDEAL CANDIDATE ONLY.
The Baltimore Sun says:-It is not like
! ly that any Southern man who was a
| Confederate soldier will ever be nominal
| ed by his party for the presidency. Despite
the assurances constantly repeated that
the animosities of the war have died out
and that fraternity is the ruling sentiment
the nomination of a Southern man on the
democratic ticket for the highest place in
the gift of the people would be the signal
| for sectional campaign III which the
latent bitterness would be aroused to the
highest pitch. Notwithstanding the
improbability of such a nomination, it is
| gratifying to observe, as an evidence that
the war did really end thirty years ago
except in the case of Boutelle, that Sena-
tor Palmer, of Illinois, thinks Congress
man Turner, of Georgia, would make IAN
ideal democratic candidate for President
| Mr.. Turner is one of the few Southern
men in the House who are resolutely OPP
pressed to the free coinage of silver or to
a debased currency in any form. He is, y
says Senator Palmer, "a man of broad and
deep learning, an accomplished orator, of
high reputation His recent speech i'll the
House on the currency question is by far
the ablest delivered IN this Congress. He
would make a most worthy candidate, and
if elected, an admirable President" This
is high praise. but, for the reasons we have
stated, Judge Turner is not available. We
could we'll wish that the case were different
for as the South casts the great majority
of the electoral votes required to elect a
| democratic President, and as, moreover.
all its leading men were associated with
the Confederacy, it is practically proscrib-
ed so far as the presidency is concerned
But this is not SO great a misfortune, after
all, and it may be hoped that some time in
the near future the South will again be-
come as influential in national politics as
it was in the day when it sent more states
men to Congress.
| THE COST OF HOLDING CUBA.
The Philadelphia Times says:-The
Spanish Government is said to have open
ed negotiations in Paris and London for
a new loan of 5000, 0OO,O 900, to be secured
by lien on the tobacco monopoly. The
cost of maintaining the war in Cuba is
piling up ominously. 1t has been met thus
| far by successive advances from Spanish
and foreign banks upon Cuban bonds, the
amount so issued being stated at $S2, 800 600
| of which not more than $15 100000 re-
mains unused, and the war expenses are
something like five millions month.
| This represents only part and possibly
| the least part, of what the Cuban war has
| cost. A recent estimate in Cuban paper
puts the military expenses of the past
year at sixty million dollars; the losses by
the destruction of the sugar crop at fifty
millions; by the destruction of estates,
villages, railroads, live stock and other
property, fourteen millions, and by the
paralysis of commerce, ten millions more.
These estimates are not extravasant ant
they foot up the prodgious total of
$134, OO0, 600 as the actual losses of one
| year.
1t would require many years of peace
and prosperity to make good this loss,
even if the war were brought to an end
now and order and security were at once
re-established under stable, efficient and
liberal government. But the prospect of
this is very remote. So far as appears,
the Spanish Government has made no
actual progress toward the restoration of
its authority in the island. Whatever the
| Cubans have done or failed to dc toward
| establishing an organized government of
| their own, their successful and continued
| defiance of Spain is undeniable. Nor is
| there any reason to doubt their deter
minatlon and their ability to maintain this
! defiance, so that the task which Spain has
undertaken, if not actually hopeless, can
| be prosecuted only at frightful cost,
which can no longer be supplied from
| Cuban revenues.
1t is mainly as a source of revenue that
Cuba has been desirable possession to
| Spain. since its political Importance is no
longer very great, except as matter OF
sentiment. 1t has now become an expense.
If the war be carried on after this summer
it must be at the direct cost of Spain, and
though the war should be successful, the
productives of the island has been ruined
for long time to come. and an attempt
to tax the costs upon Cuba would be so
oppressive that the people would have
more to dread in submission than in con-
tinued fighting. Either way it really
would be mole profitable to Spain to let
Cuba go.
Representative Corliss, of Michigan,
on Monday submitted a favorable report
on the resolution providing for the cleo
ton of Senators by direct vote of the
people. Year after year the report
says, the passage of such an amendment
to the constitution has been demanded by
the people, and the bitter experience of
the present year adds to the strength of
the argument that there Should be change
in the mode of electing Senators, making
them more sensitive to the demands of the
people Had the people of Kentucky
enjoyed the rights guaranteed by the pro
posed amendment in the election of last
year, the disgrace to the State and the
humiliation of the nation by the deplorable
conduct of the recent Legislature of that
State would have been avoided.