Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-02-06
Jones on Timetable situation.


Senator James X. Jones. chairman
of the democratic national committee,
has written letter to Hon. George 5.
Bowen, of Chicago, secretary of the
American Bimetallic Union. in which
he sums up present and prospective
conditions in the United States senate.
Here is what he SAYS:
The claim of the republican pa
pers that the senate is already irrevo-
cably against silver. and will so stand
until 1908 at the earliest, is like many
of their extreme claims, in my opin-
ion. not well founded.
Upon the passage of what is known
as the Teller resolution, of Jan. IS,
1898, which declared that the bonds of
the government are paving principal
and interest in silver dollars, coins of
the United States. containing 412l
grains of standard silver and that
to restore to its coinage SUCH silver
coins as legal tender in the payment
of such bonds, principal and interest.
is not in violation of the public faith,
nor in derogation of the rights of the
public creditors, there was a majority
of fifteen votes in the senate in its
cepted as a test vote on the silver
question. A gold man has since been
elected from Oregon to fill 4 vacan-
CIV, which reduces our majority to II.
OF those who voted in favor of that
proposition ut that time. seven sena-
tors will probably be succeeded on the
4th of March next by senators OPP
posed TO the unlimited coinage
of silver. namely: Senators
Allen. of Nebraska. Mitch
ell, of Wisconsin: Murphy, of New
York; Roach, of North Dakota; Smith,
of New Jersey: Turpie, of Indiana.
and White. of California. This will
leave the two sides equal, and the de-
Gliding vote will be in the hands OF the
vice president. This condition of
things hardly warrants the triumph
ant claim of the gold men that they
have captured the senate and will
hold it for many years to come. This
year an unusual proportion of bimet-
allists, who come from close states,
have had their terms to expire. In
1900. however, all this will be evened
up by larger proportion of gold men
retiring who come from close states.
What is likely to be the condition of
the senate in 1901 can he easily seen.
These terms of 80 senator's expire at
that time. OF these so. II who
are now friendly to silver, may safely
be counted as absolutely certain to be
succeeded by silver men. These SEN
ators come from the following states:
Alabama. Arkansas, Colorado. Georgia.
Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and
Virginia. The following states may
be expected to elect gold men TO sue
coed GOLD men at that time: Maine,
Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
New Hampshireis now represented
by silver man. whose term will eN-
pire in 1901. Much will depend in
that state upon the personal popular
lty of the present senator, Mr.. Chand-
ler. but if he should be succeeded by
a gold man, Louisiana and Kentucky,
now represented by gold men, are
certain to send two bimetallists in
their stead. leaving the advantage so
far with the silver men.
In two states-South Dakota and
Delaware-where we now have silver
senators, there will be contests, ard
the most that can be claimed by the
gold men is that we are not positively
certain To hold these states: while the
following states. now represented by
gold men, can certainly not be claimed
as sure TO return solid gold delega-
ton, namely: Iowa, Kansas, Michi-
gan, Minnesota. Nebraska, New Jer-
sey. Oregon, West Virginia and
Wyoming.
From all this it is perfectly safe
to assert. without fear of contradic-
ton. that if the bimetallists succeed
in electing the president in 1900, they
will unquestionably have clear
working majority in the United States