The Louisiana populist., 1897-09-03

responsibility. No fault finding as re-
spects details; no general criticism OF
the protective policy will be accepted
as discharge of your duty by those
who look and have a right to look to
you to prevent an aggravataion Of the
money famine which will follow the
passage Of this bill in its present form.
1t will not do to say, let the people
have another object lesson, and the
more severe the better-the more they
suffer the more likly they will be to
vote the Democratic ticket. In the
present situation no such selfish sug-
gestion can be tolerated.
A shrinkage in the next two years
Of sl5O,0OO,OOO to $2OOOOOOOO in our
money volume will cause such fall
in our present low prices as to sweep
the whole class Of property-owning
debtors into hopeless bankruptcy.
These struggling debtors constitute the
most energetic and enterprising class
OF citizens, and it Is as foolish as it
is outrageously unjust to permit their
property to be confscated. The rem
edy is very simple. There is certainly
no difficulty in fixing the amount of
treasury balance and practically main
tanning it by the purchase of bonds
with any considerable excess, and the
issuance of treasury notes under prop
er regulations as to redemption to meet
any accidental deficit. What objection
cab ~ silver senator have to the pur-
chase of bonds? We complain very
bitterly of Mr.. Cleveland because he
issued them. Why should we hesi-
tate to reverse his policy?
Experience has shown that the pur-
chases can be made under proper treas
ury regulations safely and econom-
ically, but were there job in every
transaction the injury would be in
fnitely less than the disastrous con-
sequences entailed by a contracting
money volume. AS to a provision for
authority to issue short time obliga-
ton in case Of deficit, since this
should not or need not be made obliga-
tory but left to the discretion of the
secretary, it is impossible that there
should be any serious objection.
Whether these obligations should be
legal tender United States notes or
simply redeemable certificates Is i'm
material. The secretary is not de-
prived of any OF his present authority
and the additional authority would,
even if unnecessary. be harmless.
1t will be no excuse for a senator to
vote against this amendment that he
believes there will be no surplus. Un-
less ne has some private information
and figures which have not been given
to the public, he has no valid reason for
this belief. But concede that he is
right; If there is no surplus there will
be no purchase OF bonds. The pro-
vision could only become operative in
case there should be surplus, and be-
cause senator may rely upon the
guesses, or, at least, unsupported as
ertions Of opinion of the senate COM
mittee furnishes no reason why he
should refuse the precaution of a pro-
viso based upon the hypothesis that
they may may be mistaken.
| have read carefully the amendment
proposed by Senator Stewart, and 1t
seems to me we'll adapted 20 accom-
plish the purpose and otherwise unob-
1ectionable. But if it is not properly
framed, let it be amended or SUPER
seded by substitute. The thing to be
dcne is to prevent the people from be-
ing deprived Of the money which is
still left them, and which they need as
perhaps never before, by this seques-
tration in the treasury under a bill
whose authors disavow any such pur-
pose. IT silver senator's neglect this
l firmly believe that within two years
they will be hunting for apologies for
their oversight in no very different
way from those who voted to demone-
tie silver, supposing that they were
merely enacting technical changes in
the operations of the mint.-Washing-
ton Times.