The copper country evening news., 1898-01-06
TALK OF THECURRENCY
The Leading Theme of Conver-
sation at the Capital.
WE'RE A NATION OF FIyANCIERS.
That's Why the Money Question Ii Never
settled-Plans of the Monetary Com
mission tn Fix the Gold standard-The
Same Old Struggle.

mission tn Fix the Gold Standard-The
Same Old Struggle.
WASHINGTON, Jan. C.-[Spccial. Cur
| rency reform is the chief topic of discus
| sion just now in the national capital We
| are not likely to hear the last of 10 for a
| long time to come Foreigners whom
have met while visiting Ton city marvel
| that we always have some financial sub
Ject up for debate i'm our parliament They
cannot understand why we do not settle
these questions at somo time or other and
be done with them. They say we would
have better times if we did. One foreign
| er, very intelligent gentleman, not with
out experience i'm public affairs in his own
country, asked me why our government
did not settle the currency question some
| day and be through with it.
"You do not understand our govern
ment, l said to him. In your country
| II there was currency problem the gov
| ernment would appoint commission to
| inquire into it, Tho whole subject would
| be treated wholly as an expert matter.
| The people would have nothing TO say.
| The report of the commission would no
adopted in law, and that would be the end
of the matter. But with us it is different.
| Here we are all running the government.
| There are very few men in this country
| who do not think they could manage the
| government better than the men who are
managing it. We are all financiers We
all sit down and scheme out just how the
thing should be arranged, and we take
| good care that our senator's and representa-
| tives i'm congress know what our opinions
| are. This explains why it takes so long
| time to accomplish anything of that nature
in this country. Our public men are
| Umid. They want to 30 act as to please
their people at home. With you expert
opinion governs in such matters. With
| us public opinion rules.
"What beastly country exclaimed
| my friend from across the water. you'll
never get out of the mess"
"There's where you are mistaken
| again." said Here you show once
more that you don't know the American
| people. Well come out all right in the
| end. The instincts of the American peo-
pie are rarely wrong. They are almost
| certainly correct don't know how they
| will settle this thing, but venture the
prediction they will settle 1t in sound
and enduring way"
| scheme of the Monetary Commission.
Just now the national capital is filled
| with two camps. One thinks the country
will go to the dogs if we do not reform the
currency. The other says we have man
! aged to get along u great many years with
our present system, and they see no danger
of an immediate collapse. The report
made public a few days ago by the none
tary commission appointed by the In
| dianapolis convention is the bone of con-
tention. Perhaps the reader would like
me to tell him in few plain words what
| it is this commission has recommended
! and what lies behind the reform move
| ment.
| The great object of the new plan is to
| fix the gold standard. The men who are
! behind this movement point out that il
| the country were to become involved in
| war, or there was to be great panic, or a
silver man was to be elected president,
with or without senate and house in sym
pathy with him, we might be forced to a
silver standard. Therefore they want to
I fix the laws so that we can't slip back to a
silver standard, no matter what happens.
To accomplish this they propose several
things The most important are to grad
ually retire the greenbacks and treasury
notes which are used to draw gold from
| the treasury with and thus stop what has
| become known as the endless chain; to
| pledge solcmnly in law that all the money
J and all the bonds issued by the govern
ment shall be paid in gold, unless other
wise expressly provided; to have the gov
| ernment stop issuing paper notes, and
| to turn all that over to the national banks,
and to give the banks authority to issue
notes, not wholly upon government bonds
deposited for security, as now, but upon a
gradually increasing proportion of their
| assets.
These are the principal changes propos-
| ed, and as they all make for perpetuation
of the gold standard and the power of the
banks it may be imagined that the silver
men are very much opposed to them.
| Thus we are able to see without any diff
Guilty that tho struggle is really one be-
tween the old forces of gold and silver
another battle of the standards. Those
who believe in the gold standard assume
that the country voted for gold in 1896
| and that now the gold standard must be
fixed in law SO securely that in order to
overturn 1t the other side must get posses
sion of the White House, the senate and
the house of representatives ot tho same
time. Possibly they would need the SUI
premc court also, for If the government
declares with the solomnity of law that
every obligation is gold obligation the
supreme court might hold that that pledge
could not afterward be broken.
"Let Well Enough Alone"
But there are various reasons why the
battle Is not a clearly defined Issue be-
tween the gold and silver forces. All the
silver men are opposed to the plan of Sec
retary Gage and also to that Of the none
tary commission, but not all the gold men
are in favor of action. Many Republicans
say: whats the use of stirring this up
again? If we do start another agitation,
we shall lose our seats. The silver people
will overwhelm us in all the close dis
tricts. Let's let we'll enough alone, pass
the appropriation bills and go home. II
we can save our seats and majority OF
the house next fall, then we may begin to
talk about reforming tho currency"
Another class of Republicans, and
among them some very prominent leaders,
take a little different view. They say
"Well, II we let things stand as they are
till after tho next presidential election, we
will b. able to retain control of the gov
ernment The gold Democrats, the bust