St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-17
AN 1NcoHERENT STATESMAN.

There is no better illustration of the
power of the financial issue to middle
the minds of men of even more than
ordinary ability than the present men,
tai condition of Senator Mills, of Texas.
Even'his political opponents credit Mr..
Mills with courage and sincerity. He
is a man who wants to do right as far
as he knows how, and who tries hard
to know how. He has progressed a
little way in the study of the money
question; just far enough to eXtricate
his feet from the bottomless bog of
fiatism, but only far enough to leave
him lettering on a little hum
mock OF solid ground between the
morass and the dry land from which he
is still so far distant. When he came
out a short time ago with his renun-
citation Of the free silver position, there
was reasonable hope that he had laid
hold of the fundamental principles of
correct finance. The arguments which
he advanced to account for his change
of opinion were valid, and, when ac-
cepted as such by an intelligent mind,
ought to lead man still further and
show him the accepted and fundamen-
tai laws that govern money and cur
rency.
But Mr.. Mills has not been able to
take the next step. He is still in the
thrall Of those mysterious spells that
bind the opponents of sound money
with all the charm, of fetch worship
He has substituted for the mythical
"gold power" against which the Pop
ulist declaims, an equally mythical
''bank power" He talks to us about
bank conspiracy and a whole lot of
nonsense like thai, which is quite as
bad in it's way as the speeches Of
PETER and Allen. He does not now
advocate unconditional free coinage of
silver But he does place himself on rec
ord as in favor Of the retention Of the
greenbacks. the coinage of the silver
bullion in the treasury, the issue of
additional legal tenders, in case Of
necessity, and the payment of national
of these positions are taken persist
emily and coherently by men who be-
lieve in the fiat money theory, but
every argument and every fact al
ready cited by Mr.. Mills in explana-
ton Of his conviction that free sill
yer would bring damage rather
than blessing is equally if not
more foroeful against the meas
ures which he now recognizes
Mr. Mills is divided against himself.
and is not, therefore, in a position to
give aid and comfort to friend or en-
envy.
We have become accustomed to the
pure rant of men like Stewart and
Jones and Pugh, whose reason has en-
tirely abdicated in favor Of a certain
financial jargon that they have COM
mitted to memory and now keep on
repeating by rote like a mechanical
doll or monograph. These men have
ceased to think at all on the financial
question. and find that the best prep
aration for endless talk. But Mr. Mills,
who, we believe, notwithstanding, to be
man both honest and sincere, tries
to think about it and comes to oppo-
site and mutually contradictory and
destructive conclusions at the same mo-
ment of time. OF all our would-be
statesmen he is the most incoherent
and unintelligible There ought to be
sort Of financial monastery estab-
Iished somewhere to which well-mean-
ing men like Mr.. Mills, who have got
lost in the mental mazes Of the finan-
cial question, might retire for sea-