The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1899-12-28
NEWLANDS ON
CURRENCY BILL,
SYNOPSIS OF ADDRESS WHICH
HE DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE
LAST WEEK

sDOkesat length III the House bOudy III
opposition To the currency bill. Mr.
Newlands traced the history of the
country through the period OF dspres-
sion commencing in 1893. The panic
OF 1893 was not caused by the coinage of
silver under the Sherman act. There
we're two causes for this panic. One
was the constantly diminishing price
which this country was receiving from
the export of its farm products, the
price of these products being largely de-
termined by the prices in silver eoun-
tries, whose exports were stimulated by
the low price of silver. Another cause
was the failure OF the Mckinley act to
meet expectations OF the farmers as a
revenue producer. The free admission
of sugar took away large annual rev
enue for which no sufficient substitute
was offered by the Mckinley bill, and
the bill which was intended to cure the
evils of a surplus revenue presented all
the di sad vantages of a deficit revenue
The country therefore was drained IN
two WAYS: The national treasury was
drained of its Accommodations by deflclt-
producing revenue bill, and the country
was drained by an adverse balance oil
trade owing to the fact that its agricul-
tural products had been lessened IN
their debt-paying capacity. Accom-
panying this came demand Tor gold
in Austria, and the greenbacks and
treasury notes were used by foreign
iinanciers as means of drawing out
the gold required for the Austrian treas
urY.
Mr. Cleveland, aided by the banks
and the metropolitan press, took adj
3 . ,f4 "a paisa tbn
false cry that the Sherman act was the
cause of existing conditions, and the
banks themselves, in their keen desire
To stop the coinage of silver, created a
clamor which in turn caused a run upon
the banks. The withdraw of deposits
and the constant diminutiOu of bank
credits was natural result. The Cleve-
land administration having come into
power, its first act was TO repeal the
Sherman act, and the second was to
pass the Wilson bill. No more unfay-
orable time could have been taken for
the lowering of the tariff wall. The
very purpose Of this act was to let more
foreign goods in; every foreign product
which was admitted displaced so much
American labor, and thus a re-adjust-
ment of the labor question throughout
the country was forced.
The country therefore during Cleve-
land : administration was subjected to
two great disturbances, one financial,
by cutting off the increase of money
throughout the United States by the
repeal of the Sherman act, when more
money was needed: the other was in
dustrial, involving the lowering of the
tariff wall and proportional snbstitu-
ton in our own markets OF foreign pro-
ducts for goods produced by the labor
of our own people During all this time
confident predictions We're made Of an
immediate advance in prosperity, to be
caused by increased confidence None
of these predictions we're realized, and
the Republican party came into power
upon the promise Of protective tariff
measure and OF an increased volume OF
money to be secured by free coinage of
silver through international agreement.
AS soon as a Republican victory was
announced 1t was declared that conf
dence was restored and that the wheels
of industry would Immediately move.
The whistles of the factories through
out the country heralded the coming OF
renewed prosperity and activity, but
Congress met in the following March
without the realization of this confident
prediction. 1t was then insisted that
as soon as tho protective tariff bill was
passed the wheels would move, and so
the Dingley bill was framed and allowed
to take its course unobstructed by the
opposition and aided by the friends Of
silver in the Senate. The bill passed,
and again the whistles were sounded,
but the wheels did not move, and Con
gress adjourned in July 1897, without
any change in the condition of the coun-
try.
SHORT CROPS ABROAD.
1t was not until after Congress ad-
jourped that the change took place.
The cause of it was the great demand
for our agricultural products, caused by
short crops elsewhere, the result being
favorable trade balance which brought
within few months many million dol
lars of gold to us. This was followed by
large exports of manufactured goods
mainly produced by the very trusts
now complained Of and which consti-
tutes 50 serious a menace to individual
enterprise as well as to the compensa-
ton OF labor The gold trust produced
the Industrial trust. The cause for their
organization was falling prices and the
necessity OF cheaper production, and so
the various industries were combined !:
improved machinery was secured: mid
die men were dispensed with: clerks.
statesmen and officials were consolidated
and the result was a cheapened produc-
ton which sought the markets OF fereign
countries. Thus the great demand for
our agricultural as well as our manu-
/ featured products brought to this coun-
try within three years very nearly $500,
900, 600 in gold, and the increase In pros
perity can be directly traced, not to the
passage of the Dingley act, though the
/ latter was factor by doing away with
a deficit of revenue, but to the increased
volume of money caused by favorable
trade balance which restored the per
capita circulation in this country which
prevailed prior to 1898, viz, S25 pei
head-the per capita during lnterme
date years having fallen as low as -;
per head.
BANK CREDITS INCREASED.
The OBJECT OF this increase OF money
was to increase the gold in the treas
ury and to increase the cash reserves
in the banks Each dollar of addition
al cash reserve gave an opportunity O
the extension of s. of credit by the
banks, and thus hundred million,
additional cash in the banks meant
possible extension of credit TO the ex
tent of five hundred millions which thus
increased the check transactions OF tn,
country. The panic had been caused
by withdraw of cash from the banks
which in turn, compelled the banks Il
call In their loans. The loans made b,
national banks had been diminished
from over two billions dollars in 1892, t
one million eight hundred and seventy
one million in 1893, and in 1898 thes