Arizona silver belt., 1900-10-18

In reply to the question, What
 could Alr. Bryan do about the tinan
 cial policy of the government, If hc
 were elected president?" l would say
 that, during the first two years, he
 could maintain the existing status of
 our gold, silver and paper currency
 and that, during the next two years, fl
 his party could carry the intervening
 congressional election on the financial
 issue, he could restore silver to the
 currency upon terms which would in.
 sure its continued parity with gold.
 The attempt of Secretary Gage to
 alarm the country, lest Mr Bryan, in spite of q hostile senate. should put the country ''on silver basis by pay Ing out silver to redeem bonds and
 notes still payable therein, Is as farci
 cal bugaboo as party exigencies have ever put forward. In the first place, as the Springfield Republican
 has pointed out, MT Gage himself has
 been paying out silver and silver cer- tiiicates to as great an extent as was easily possible Of the $500, 900, GOO of silver currency in the country, less
 than 3 percent Is in the treasury. There IS now the 'circuit of silver out of the treasury into the hands of the people, from the people into the banks from the banks into the custom house, and into the hands of the collectors of internal revenue, which the secretary looks forward to with so much trepi
 dation. If this, as he says, will put us on a ''silver basis, We are now on n
 "silver basis" No secretary could pay ont his silver receipts any faster than Mr, Gage has done, and he can hardly alarm the country by predict. ing that Mir. Bryan's secretary will continue to do just what he has done from the beglnaing.
 So long as the United States senate remains hostile to the increased use of silver as money, a democratic president could not possibly increase its use as money. All that be could do would be to maintain the existing status. This, however, IS a matter of importance. The gold standard act passed by the last congress does not, in so many words, make our silver dollars and sil. yer certificates redeem able Tn gold on demand; but 1t contains clause which might be construed to authorize such redemption. Prior to 1893, there was never in any statute any shadow of authorization for the redemption of silver currency in gold. In that year, lu response to the question whether the silver (issued under the Bland Al. hsOn act had ever been redeemed in gold, the writer received, through Sen ator Sherman, the following letter from the treasury department:
 'The treasury does not pay gold for standard silver dsllars or silver certifi cates issued under the Bland-Allison act. Silver certificates issued under l that act are redeemable only in stand. ard silver dollars, or other silver cer. lSignedD J. K. MEGLNE,
 Assistant Treasurer, U. $.
 If Mir. Bryan were elected presI dent, his secretary of the treasury ! would undoubtedly continue to treat the silver dollars and silver certificates IS they were treated by secretaries of the treasury under Presidents Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland and Harri- son. He would not redeem them in gold, unless the republican congress luring the next session should require aim to do so but his preservation of he silver currency upon the same ba. 'ls on which it was issued and remained II par for fifteen years would not hreaten the slightest depreciation.
 Mr. Bryan's policy would not devi- 'te from that pursued by any of Sec. etary Cages predecessors, and would ,nly devlate from that which Secretary iage himself proposes in case he in- ends to redeem silver in gold on de hand, and thus turn our $500, 900, 900 ,f silver into an endless cham to iraw gold from the treasury and force he issue of bonds. If Secretary Gage loes not propose to do this, frankness equires that he should so state to the country.
 So far as the next congress is con 'erned, the only peril to the existing tatus of our currency lies in the desire of certain powerful supporters of Mir. to complete the retirement ,f greenbacks and begin the retire. nent of silver. Two years hence, however, new congress will again be ,lected and new senators will be chos m Tn doubtful states now represented )y republicans. X change in the po- Itical complexion of the senate, there. ore, IS then possible; and while the senators who may be chos, rom the more eastern states will prob Ibly be conservative upon the silver question, Mir Bryan may hope, during he last half of his term, to sign con tructive acts to restore silver to it's old Ilace in the currency. The fact that he passage of n free coinage bill pure md simple is hardly to be hoped for loes not in any respect negative the of restoring bimetallism Conservative bimetallists have again md again recommended as an initial the unlimited coinage of sil- er purchased at it's market vslue. This nsures to monometalists that gold ollar's worth of silver bullion shall be ack of every silver dollar issued: it nsures to bimetallists that all the sil- CT not used in the arts or shipped to