Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1886 — OUR FATHERS’ DOLLAR. [ARTICLE]

OUR FATHERS’ DOLLAR.

Facts Brought Forward Shewing that It Has Many Friends in Congress. There Is No Chance for Coinage Suspension at Present, It Is Said. The silver situation is set forth in the following Washington dispatch published in the New York World a few days ago: There is no chance for the suspension of silver coinage by the present Congress. It is useless for the financiers of the East to cherish delusive hopes. The real facts of the situation may as well be recognized. All the speculation about the composition of the Committee on Coinage is secondary. It will make little difference what that committee may do. The House itself is strongly against the suspension of the coinage. The. probabilities are that when Congress adjourns the situation will be precisely the same as it is to-day. All the agitation of the question in the interval, whether in Congress or out, will be without avail. The chances of a free coinage bill being pushed through the House are greater than the chances of a suspension of the present coinage. Such a bill would, of course, be vetoed by the President, and that would leave matters just as they are. My reasons for this opinion are as follows: 1. New York, New Jersey, and New England are emphatically in favor of the susdension of silver coinage, but outside of this section the feeling is either divided or strongly in favor of silver. The idea seems to have spread throughout the West and South that the anti-silver movement is engineered by the Wall street financiers; that it is in the interests of the capitalists as against the debtor classes. 2. It is a mistake to suppose that the question is, strictly speaking, sectional. Even Pennsylvania is no longer united; I have every reason to believe that there are both Democratic and Republican members of Congress from that State who will vote against suspension. 3. The sentiment is also divided in the four great Middle States, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Ohio is certainly closely akin to the East in her commercial, industrial, and educational development; yet there are among her Representatives both Democrats and Republicans who are against suspension of the present silver coinage. The feeling for silver grows stronger as one advances westward through Indiana and Illinois, and reaching Missouri every one of the frontier Representatives and the Senators is found arrayed against suspension, and many of them advocate unlimited coinage. 4. There is probably not a Republican member from Kansas, Nebraska, lowa, Minnesota, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, or California who is not a silver man. One of the leaders of the Republican minority, who knows the men well, assures me positively that such is the case. The Democracy west of the Mississippi is absolutely solid in favor of the silver dollar. 5. A careful canvass of the House fully justifies these statements, and leaves no reasonable doubt that about one-third of the Republican members, with at least twothirds of the Democratic members, will vote against suspension, having a majority of at least sixty votes against suspension. 6. The situation in the Senate is not very different. Mr. Evarts appears to be on the fence, if not already committed against susEension. Mr. Sherman also is believed to e uncertain as to his course. The Republican Senators from Kansas, Nebraska, lowa, Minnesota, California, Colorado and Nevada are solid against suspension, and there are strong indications that Logan and Cullom, of Illinois, and several of the Republican Senators from Michigan and Wisconsin will side with them. The great majority of the Democratic Senators from the South, including Mr. Lamar’s successor from Mississippi, and Mr. Garland’s successor from Arkansas, are opposed to suspension. In the Senate the least majority against suspension is estimated at six. Even the majority of the Senate Finance Committee is said by antisilver Senators to be either against them or to be at least doubtful. 7. The silver question is not a party question. Neither party is united upon it. A Democratic administration strongly advocates suspension. Two-thirds of the Democratic Representatives and Senators are as strongly opposed to it. Republicans are also clearly divided. Nor, as I have said, is it, strickly speaking, a sectional question. Only eight States, and most of these comparatively small ones, in the northeast corner of the country, are pronounced iu their opposition to silver, while of the thirty other States, constituting the greater part of the country, some are divided on the question, but most of them strongly in favor of silver. This widespread silver feeling is largely the outgrowth of a prejudice or suspicion that the money centers of the East are endeavoring to control the Government for selfish ends, an unfounded suspicion perhaps, but yet one that exists in this rural Republic, and it must be taken into consideration. 8. It is certainly desirable that the business men of the East, as well as the West, should recognize the facts of the situation and not deceive themselves with wrong conclusions. No bill suspending silver coinage can pass the House. Any bill providing for free or more extended coinage, if passed, would certainly be killed by the President’s veto. Therefore it is far from probable that dur ing the present session of Congress there will be any change in the law regarding the coinage of silver.