People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 September 1893 — THE SILVER DEBATE. [ARTICLE]

THE SILVER DEBATE.

Qyunfbiu of the Olmihlob In the United State* Senate. On the Uth Mr. Pu«h (dem., Ala; spoke In •Wfniui.l. to the repeal bill. He said It .was *» determined and unalterable purpose of the nfVanents of repeal to stand upon their consfcthwof public duty and fidelity to their jttrtges to the people whom they represented, and who bad honored, hem with their confidence ox the vital question, until their physical ttieasth was exhausted. Hit Teller <rep., CoL) resumed his speech tißtint the repeal bill. He asserted, and he betisred it could be demonstrated, that if it had aot been for a preconcerted effort in the money center of the country to prevent it, the Ist of September would have seen better times in the finances of the 'Cwmtry than the people were experiencing today. The calling of congress did not relieve Ikes country; in fact, the condition became worse from the time congress was called In extnmrdmary session. Mr. Teller said he would .atsome other time give to the senate his conception of the cause for the recent distressed condition. In his opinion it was due to legislative misconduct.

Mr. Teller next directed himself to stock operations. A New York paper had published dady for some time the depreciation in value of Mocks or the destruction of values occasioned My the Sherman law, as the paper said. The paper had finally got the amount up to 5700,000.000. in his opinion a great many stocks were selling on the market today for more than they were worth. Ho ofied Northern Pacific, which he said had taßen from 70 to 17. It was said all the great owners connected with it unloaded when It was JR. That company had 1280,000,000 of indebtedness: 475,000,000 held in Germany: a great amount owned in Holland and England. He then instanced Erie stock. Me did not suppose anybody pretended tost Erie would ever pay out He next referred to Reading. Did any intelligent man believe that any of those three great concerns mere solvent? Did not everybody know they wore insolvent? This disturbance did not come 6m the Sherman law. It came from the mis--xniditct of officials. Mr. Teller said Redid not mean to sav criminal misconduct ■Sat that they did not deal fairly with their investors. It behooved congress, he said, when it.came to legislate upon this subject to find site cause of the evil, and, if within its power, to remove the evil. Mr. Teller then yielded to a motion to go Into •executive session, saying that he had reached a point where he could quit for the present and Ste would take up another branch of the subject some other dav. On the 12th Mr. Mitchell (rep., Ore.) spoke in opposition to the repeal bill. He said that the totidamental problem to be solved was: “Are me to become a nation of monometallists, and iTso. whether gold or silver monometalllsts?" Xto denied that the Sherman act had been the cause of the panic. The causes leading up to U were in part world wide and their -origin not in this country, but in specu-. hative dealings between London bankers and ■toe people of South America, whioh resulted (through the Argentine bankruptcies and the feH Rf securities) in bringing ruin to the doors of the Barings and other moneyed institutions. The same causes—overtrading and land speculation brought bankruptcy to Australia. These great and unexpected shocks to the business world caused a sudden hoarding, not aJone of gold, but of gold, silver and paper; a general calling in of loans on the part of bankers, a refusal not only to make new loans, but to extend old ones, while general distrust seized upon •very financial community. These were mrae of the causes which, in his judgment, initiated the panic, whose storm center had passed from South America, Australia and certain European countries, and which so recently -spent its fury In the United States, and the Sherman act had no more, in his judgment, to do with it than had the man in the anoon or the recent fan-tailed comet The fear of tariff revision and of the inauguration of a free trade policy had .also had muoh to ■do with the panic. The trouble was in a large measure started by the banka New York bankers nudged the chamber of commerce --eff the city of New York and the metropolitan {press. The chamber of commerce, in turn, gave the cue to boards of trade and chambers of otanmerce throughout the country. The howl -started in perfect unison—all inspired across the seas and finally the thing got away trom them, proved a boomerang, and the banks suffered along with the rest Mr. Mitchell devoted some time to showing that it would be imposslTMe to secure international bimetallism. > Mr Hawley (rep., Conn.) declared himself la jlhe pending bill first, last and always. Therfc’wkb one general statement which had ' been iterated and reiterated until he was tired - of tt, and that was that there was somebody wbo believed in the total destruction of half of the currency of the world. It was a terrible misstatement Everybody knew that silver had been used these thousands of years with gold. Every body 1 Scbbw that although Great Britain was the vaaaanpion monometallist nation, the people of that country carried more silver money in their Ipock?ts than the people of the United States •did. All senators expected to continue the -average amount of silver money. In reply to a •question by Mr. Mitchell Mr. Hawley said he thought legislation in regard to silver neces o*ry in order to carry out the views advanced •by him, but now he wanted the Sherman law -repealed.

Mr, "Teller (rep., CoL) said he knew what Aerators who talk about being bimetallists mean. They have never taken a single step leading to bimetallism, and they never will. TFMs is a fight for the preservation of silver as money among the nations of the earth, and there is not a man in this chamber who does not haow it Follow Great Britain if you want to. My allegiance is to our own people—to the people of my section and to the people of the ■ country at large I will devote my time to their interests, and no labor, no sacrifice, no ■ooutumely that can be put upon me will “phase” me in my opposition to this damnable MOL Sir. Hawley replied to Mr. Teller by saying Shat if after two or three or four months it •ahould appear that repeal of the Sherman law wraa going to desolate the west and the east it “would be quite competent for congress to modify its action, and it would be very likely to do so. On the 13th Mr. Shoup (rep., Idaho) spoke ■ against the unconditional repeal of the 'purchasing clause of the Sherman law. “ Hocepeal the Sherman act would be to remove •she United States from the head of the nations which produced the precious metals; it would be to contract the currency to such aa . snukeat that the government would be com•jpefled to issue flat money; it would be to set tack the progress of the western states and rain thousands of workmen. He would op'poaewith all the vigor of which he was capable the repeal of the Sherman law until some '< tatter substitute was adopted. Mr. Dolph (rep. Ore.) reiterated some state- > snents to the effect that the business disturb- ■»■**« were due to the threats of hostile tariff legislation, and proceeded to argue against the ftce coinage of silver and vigorously criticised those senators from the silver states who had Attempted to make this qnestion a sectional rate. dJn the 14th Mr. Daniel (dem., Va.) made an ■argument against the repeal bill He said he * taought to the discussion of the subject profound sympathy with every class of his fellow- - citizens who had been smitten with an evil Gnancial dispensation. It would be unwise to i»I the -Sherman law produced the panic. Tbo date of its lncipiency cannot be traced to any - set of local legislation. It began in South America, where there is no Sherman law. It swept over Great Britain, a gold standard country, Where there is no Sherman law. The panic swept on to Australia, where the people ■ are the richest people in the world per capita, atare there is no Sherman law. The panic got ' *> Austria, Italy and India, and is now going all «*er Europe, without -the dreaded presence of The republican party is delighted to attribute tta panic to the Sherman law in order to escape ; responsibility to the tariff. The McKinley ! sought the sheltering arms of the Sherman - flaw. The gold monometallism are delighted to hide behind it the work of their ownshands. The bankers are interested in seeing the Sber maa act repealed so that new bonds may be isaued os which they can base currency, «*'«*» why I oppose the repeal of »

the Sherman law now, after haring opposed its passage in 1880. My answer is this: “Is there a man who, having a patched coat, would throw it away in the dead of winter befpre he has got a new one?” Do the supporters of the repeal bill propose to restore the conditions existing at the time of its passage? O, na The BlandAllison act—a democratic measure—was repealed by the Sherman law, but the repeal of the Sherman law will not restore the BlandAllison law.

The democratic platform does say: “Repeal the Sherman law,” but it also says: “Repeal the McKinley law.” But would senators repeal the tariff law and leave the treasury without revenue? Would they repeal the Sherman law and leave the country without silver money? Ido not doubt the repeal of the Sherman law would have some beneficial effects in many directions. It would give some immediate ease to business and transactions partly through the hurrah which would be made. Commerce would revive, but the revival would be temporary. If the declaration in the Voorhees substitute were changed into legislative provision (as suggested by Mr. Walthall last week) I would vote for It, and ths Sherman law would be repealed without another hour of debate. What, is international conference wanted to settle the silver question? The American senate is the place to settle it. As to the president, I supported him loyally in three campaigns and expect in many a day of battle yet to bear his colors and defend bis cause. I shall not pay him the tribute of « courtier and flatterer who would say: “Behold a brave and honest man who has convictions.” But I will show him an American senator had also his convictions and is brave and honest enough to be true to them. Not for a class, but for all the people: not for a section, but for the union; not for a special interest, but for the whole do 1 feeL On the 16th Mr. Lindsay (dem., Ky.) spoke in support of the repeal bilL He called attention to the fact that the bill contains not a word looking to the discontinuance of silver coinage under existing laws, and that it leaves unimpaired the provisions of the act of 189 u for the coinage of silver in the future. He characterized as most extraordinary the position taken that we ought not, bad as the law is, to repeal it until it is known what further legislation in the interest of silver the president will propose. To the common mind it would seem that the best thing to do with a bad law would be to repeal it, and to a business man it would seem that the best thing to do with a losing transaction would be to abandon it The question in the president’s mind had been whether the country could afford to continue its purchase of silver bullion. Replying to Senator Pugh’s recent speech, he said he had read the president's message in vain to find the evidence ' upon which the senator rests his belief that the president dogs not intend to keep faith with his party and the people. Mr. Lindsay announced that he would accept no amendment to the pending bill which tolerates the further purchase of silver bullion On the 16th Mr. Allison (rep, la.) spoke in favor of repeal of the silver purchasing clause of the german law. He made the point that for sixteen years, up to 1892, no political party had gone before the people favoring the free coinage of silver or the destruction of gold as the measure of value. The law of 1890 was a temporary law. It was an experimental law also, In one sense Nobody believed at the time that it would stand long upon our statute books. It is just as plain as the noon-day sun that if we go on purchasing silver and putting it in the treasury as bullion, it is only a question of a few months (or a few years at most) when we will fail to redeem our obligations in gold; and then we will be at a silver standard. He continued:

“I want to repeat my belief now, that all history discloses the fact that when you make even a small divergence between the established ratio and the true commercial ratio, the result Is disastrous. I undertake to say that it is utterly impossible for us to deal with this question of ratio at this time. The ratio of 29 to 1 would be an increase of ratio because we have known the price of silver to change by 20 per cent in a single day. The moment the action of tho India council was known silver went down 20 per cent In the next week it went up 15 per cent How, then, can we make a ratio that will measure the value of all debts and all credits on the basts of the bullion value of sliver? Tho situation in India has changed the situation here. We are trying now to keep up the price of a thing that will go down below the cost of production, whatever that may be. “If we continue the silver purchases we uphold the British policy in India. The inevitr" able effect of what we are doing here is either to uphold or to destroy or impair the ability of England to maintain its policy in India If we cease to purchase silver it will be impossible, in my opinion, for England to carry out that policy and it will become an .utter failure. "If this government will undertake the policy of an international agreement between silver and gold I believe that that policy will be accomplished, that within a brief period we will be able to restore the parity between the metals and practically to rehabilitate silver. My belief is that if we are to have an International agreement we must make It appear to the nations of the world that we ourselves do not mean to take care of silver."