Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1898-01-14
Secretary Cages Plan.

ing of $500, 200, 900 of gold bonds, to be use
in the retiring of that amount of greenback
and substituting bank notes in their stead, ha
created serious division in the ranks of tn
Republican party Speaking broadly, the Sec
retary's proposition has the cordial support c
those VINO believe in the gold standard and VIII
tolerated the partys declaration in favor of in
ternational blmetallisn the ground that
was devoid of practical bearing. On the othe
hand, it is encountering the firm resistance Q
those who believe in international bimetallisr
and who tolerated the declaration in favor Q
maintaining the existing gold standasd on tn
ground that its wrongs to debtors were less thai
the wrongs to creditors which National III
metallism might inflict These two element
were all along known to disagree will
each other upon vital principle, and Secretary
Cages bill has brought this disagreement to q
focus. The frank explanation which Secretary
Gage gave of its objects before the House Com
mittee on Banking week before last had the
tendency to bring the two elements into SHARP
conflict. With fearless honesty he stated that
the "hrst" object of his bill was "to commit
the country more thoroughly to the gold stan
dard" AT the present time, as everyone
knows, oar gold standard is now really mixed
standard. In fact, two Thirds of our legal-ten-
der currency is either silver and silver notes,
which i'll no way promise to pay gold, or paper
money payable in Coin" which latter, by the
express terms of the law, may be paid in gold
or silver at the option OF the government. Our
bonds also on their face payable in ''coin, v
explicitly declared to be payable in gold.
Hence bill authorizing the issue of $500, ,oOo,-
900 specifying to pay gold, i'll order to retire
$500, 900 900 of greenbacks payable il gold or
silver is a long step toward the substitution of
a pure gold standard for one in which not only
silver or its equivalent is largely used but also
in which nearly all government obligations are
on their face payable in gold or silver at thn
governments option. Indeed, the chief adj
vantage claimed for this bill is that it commits
the country more thoroughly to the gold stand
ard and thus strengthens our credit here and
abroad; the other advantages are based an this,
and are incidental to it,. The opposition to the
bill may be expressed in a sentence, thus: 1t
takes a long step in the direction of the gold
standard, and yet which requires many
others of the same sort before the gold
standard is finally reached. This step retres
$500, 900, 900, bnt over $500, ,ooo, 900 more
must be retired by gold or bank notes payable
in gold before the gold standard will be finally
achieved. Rather incidental to this than indie
pendent of it is the objection to the proposition
that the government would guarantee the re-
demption of the bank notes, and thus loan to
the banks the Nations credit, while the banks,
not the Nation, would receive the interest for
the use of this credit If we may trust the dis
patches from Washington, most of the Repub
lican senators from west of Missouri will OPP
pose the administrators financial policy if it
adopts and makes its own Secretary Gage srec-
concentrations Senator Chandler, of New
Hampshire, goes SO far as to say that if Secre-
tary Cages bill is pressed it 'will split the now
united Republicans into fragments" "
The truth is, however, that the Republicans
not united, and were not really united dur
ing the presidential campaign on the financial
question. Coalition is not union, and there
only coalition between silver and gold
Republicans for the purpose Of carrying the
country. Since the financial issues are so often
confused, it is desirable to restate them from
time to time for the benefit of the lay reader
Tney appear to us to be these:
l. Shall the government treat paper as
money and issue it, or shall it treat only coin
as money ald leave the paper to be issued by
private corporations? AT present neither course