Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 October 1891 — BUSINESS ENTERPRISES AND SILVER. [ARTICLE]

BUSINESS ENTERPRISES AND SILVER.

The interview with Gen. G. M. Dodge, published in the Inter Ocean recently, contains one point worthy of more than passing note. General Dodge lived in Council Bluffs and was a member of Congress some twenty years ago, but for a long time he has been wholly out of politics, residing in New York and engaged in business. Asked his opinion of the political situation in New York State, he had nothing particular to offer in regard to the campaign, but he recalled the Albany speech of President Harrison. According to General Dodge that speech, in itself far from sensational, was nothing short of an event in the business prosperity of the country. General Dodge somewhat mistakes one link of the chain itself, but that does not matter much. In a general way he is entirely right. It was in that speech that President Harrison took occasion to declare unequivocally against the free coinage of silver. He made ho argument worthy of note against that policy. There was no attempt at discussion, properly speaking. He simply improved that opportunity to define his position then and there. He served notice on all whom it might concern that if necessary he should veto any bill of that nature. The Fifty-second Congress is likely to pass such a bill, but it-will not receive his signature, - and nobody supposes that a freecoinage bill could comamnd a twothirds majority in the House or Senate, especially the latter. There may have been some uncertainty, up to that point, touching the President’s position. No one who really knew him had any doubt, but even those Who felt sure before had a somewhat stronger assurance after that speech, and the backers of great enterprises no doubt felt that all uncertainty on that point had been removed. That speech reached beyond the Fifty-second Congress in its assurance. It served, in connection with the Ohio campaign, to remove all doubt as to the position the Reppublican party will take next year on the silver question. The convention that nominated McKinley for Governor of Ohio adopted a plank of which that Albany speech was an echo. __ Lt was not forgotten that McKinley himself had served in two consecutive National Republican conventions, as chairman of of the committee on resolutions, ”and" moreth‘anany'other man formulated the party platforms of 1884 and 1888, and that he is sure to have still m6re influence in the convention of 1892. Then, too, the Republican press of the county was a unit practically in cordially approving the/silver plank of the platform on which Major MeKinly now stands. The contrary position of the Democrats of Ohio served to emphasize the position of the Harrison came out equally clear in his utterance, all doubt as to the Republican policy on the silver question was removed. That Albany speech was the blow which clinched the nail which had already been driven in to the head.

General Dodge says that “numerous heavy enterprises were held in abeyance until some decisive stand was made by the Republican part on the silver question,’ 1 and that stand having been taken, the present prosperous condition of affairs followed. So far as the country at large is concerned the great crops of the country and the shortage of the foreign crops must be set down as the main factor in the favorable turn in affairs, but the capitalists, who contribute the millions which are necessary to push great projects, were far more solid tious about the monetary situation than the crops. The latter may be good one year and bad the next. From the nature of the case they fluctuate with the year. But the • present crisis in finance involves many years. When the Republican party prevented the greenback craze of nerly twenty years ago from defeating resumption and flooding the country with a depreciated currency it rendered a service perma nent in its character and adamanting in its effects. So, it is likely’ that the free silver craze, a modified fornc of the olcf greenback craze, is a tick which, once taken at the flood anc made to ebb, will never flow agah with sufficient force to be a menacf to the business interests of thi country. Will Russia* wheat belt ever reac around John Bull!* capacious bread basket —Courier Journal.