Potosi journal., 1903-07-22
THINGS ARE DIFFERENT.
Conditions nder C1eyela nd Not W hat
They Are Inder ROosevelt
AdminiSt ration.

AT this time ten .ears ago an extra
session of congress had been called by
President Cleveland and that body was
soon to assemble. In April. 1893, for the
first time after the republicans specie
resumption law took effect in 1879. the
gold in the treasury available for green
back redemption dropped below the
sloh .0oo.0a mark, This was month
after Clcveland's second term began.
The decline continued, and at one time
the free gold in the treasury was down
as far as SAL ,00o.o00. Alarm seized the
people: runs were made on the banks
in many cities: manv banks suspended
and others collapsed; great business
houses went down in some of the big
centers and carried many smaller con-
Germs down with them; mills and fac
tories shortened their hours of work or
closed altogether: wages were reduced
on all hands. and panic was on This
condition of things impel!ed Mr.. Cleve-
! land to call congress in extra session,
| and it met on August I, 1892.
a widely different condition prevails
today all over the country, says the st.
Louis Globe Democrat. Instead of the
| declining gold reser:e and the runs on
the treasury, we have a larger hoard of
| gold in that depository than was ever in
| it at any time in the past. In addition
| TO the regular reserve fund of gold.
| which was fixed at $50 n0on BY the
| law Of 1900. over 81 ,"oo. 600 of gold coin
| and bullion is in the treasury vaults now.
| President Cleveland was obliged to sell
bonds four times during that fateful Sec
! ond administration OF his in order to pro-
tect the gold reserve. He increased the
interest bearing debt of the government
to the extent of S262. 600 900 in this way
but lie was unable to keep the gold fund
up to the s100,o 900 ,0oU line. Greenhacks
| were rushed into the treasury and gold
| was forced out by them almost as fast
as the gold could be gathered there by
bond sales. A general feeling of de-
| preston prevailed all over the land.
There was fear that the country would
have to drop to the silver basis. For a
time there was alarm lest the republi-
cans gold resumption law which went
into effect in 1879. under which Cleve-
| land made his bond sales would be in
adequate to protect the country against
the assaults which were being made on
the treasury's gold fund.
The situation in 1868 is strikins'y diff
ferent in all respects from that which
prevailed in 1893. Not only is TIE gold
hoard in tho treasury the largest which
has ever been known. but the general
tendency is upward Instead of buying
gold to-day. the treasury officials would
be glad to sell some of it or to get rid OF
it in some other legitimate way. The
endless chain" which Mr. Cleveland
talked abOrt-by which the ereensacks
after displacing gold in the treasury
were used to force more gold out-has
been abolished. Nobody is going to the
treasury these days with greenbacks tC
exchange for gold. The current to-day
is in the reverse direction. 1t gives golG
in exchange for ereenbacks The ''finan.
cial distrust and fear which Cleveland
mentioned in his message to congress
when it met in called session ten years
ago has been succeeded by prosperity
and confidence Everybody in the coun,
try to-day who wants work has it. Al
the great interests and activities are
busy. The country is happy. prosperou:
and hopeful Where President Cleve
land found calamity President Roosevelt
sees good times in higher degree thar
the country has ever before known
Here is a tale of two administration
which carries its own moral to the mind
OF the Alneri, an people