The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-04-16
BY HERBERT LITTLE
lines Special Writer

WASHINGTON, April 16. - The
fury of the 1894 silver storm has
shaken the administration. There
are indications that a strategic re-
treat may be necessary to avoid
congressional enactment of a law
in defiance of the Roosevelt pro-
gram far more serious than the
recent overriding of the recent vet
Grams compensation veto.
The house, with its overwhelm-
ing majority representation from
city and industrial districts, has in
recent years been the governments
bulwark against agrarian and other
sectional revoltS. usually termed
raids on the treasury" by their
opponents. The alright rules by
which the majority leadership gov
erns also have headed off such leg
islation many times in the past.
In the senate, where each sparse
ly settled western state has as many
votes as New York or Pennsylvania,
such movements have gone farther,
but the house has nearly always
stood firm
Hence it was an augury of acute
revolt when the house on March 10
passed by vote of 257 to 112 the
Dies bill directing the United States
to buy up $4,000, 100000 worth of
foreign silver a year through plan
to sell surplus farm products.
Wins Industrial Centers
Votes for the bill came surpris-
ingly from industrial and eastern
states, in addition to the silver and
farming west. Whether due to the
inflationist talks of the Rev. Charles
B. Coughlin or not, members from
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New
York and New Hampshire were
among the yeas. A New York
Tammanyite, Representative An
drew Somers, was chairman of the
committee which brought the bill
up for a vote. The vote is far
more than the two-thirds necessary
to pass it over the expected presi
Dental veto.
In the senate the advocates OF
doing something for silver" are
surprisingly not in quite as happy
a position because of a belief Of the
dyed int he-wool Silverites that the
Dies bill wouldn't result in the buy
ing of enough foreign silver or the
issuance of enough new currency to
achieve initiation.
The Dies bill is being rewritten
by them to provide a straight-out
silver purchase as we'll. Whether
this will provoke more opposition
and pressure from the administra-
ton than the farm silver plan re-
mains to be seen.
Senate May Pass 1t
But it has good chance of pas
sage by the senate. The six-year
tenure of Office there, which brings
only one-third of the ninety-six
members up for reelection this
year, probably will enable the adj
ministration, if it desires to hold
more than the necessary one-third
to uphold veto. Senators who
come up two or four years hence
probably would value higher the
administrations favor than they
would the present demand for in
flation.
This is no party division, although
most Republicans in the house voted
against the Dies bill. Both Demo-
Gratis and Republicans in the senate,
depending largely on sentiment in
their states, will divide about evenly.
The nucleus of the senate silver
strength is a band Of thirty west
ernerS ready to vote for the limit
that is unlimited free coinage of
silver at a 16-to-1 ratio. But at
least a dozen, perhaps twenty or
more, are willing to vote for some
sort of silver imitation scheme, and
bill to pick up at least score of
votes, embodying the Dies bill in
part at least, probably will be up
soon for vote.
Now a Major Issue
On April II, 1888, the senate voted
down, 33 to 40, Senator Wheelers
proposed amendment to the agricul-
tural adjustment act for 16-to-1
free silver coinage. Last Jan. q,
Senators Wheeler and King brought
up an amendment to the gold bill
to order the purchase of 750000,000
ounces of silver to be used as
base for money. This was lost by
bare two votes, 43 to As.
Politically, silver has developed
into major issue, much more i'm
portant than it was last year, COM
parable to the feverish COS, and
altogether neglectful of the advice
of this administration and that of
the philosopher Aristotle, who said
some 1900 years ago:
Money itself is only a frivolity,