Show THE SILVER SITUATION There seems to be little hope that anything really satisfactory to the silver sil-ver cause as it is fought for in the west will come out of the present struggle in the United States Senate Compromises such as have been proposed pro-posed are only new makeshifts and it was to get rid of the present makeshift make-shift that the extra session of Congress Con-gress was called by the President The restoration of silver as money to be coined as previous to the passage pas-sage of the law of 1873 at some ratio that could be agreed upon by all parties par-ties was the aim and desire of the friends of the white metal The continuance con-tinuance of the Sherman law purchases purchas-es for a given time with all the conditions condi-tions suggested will not meet the demand de-mand nor will it materially improve the situation It will furnish for a time the same market for silver which has existed for three years and under which silver declined so rapidly The principle of the thing is wrong It is protection though not in the fbrm of the tariff Like other operations oper-ations of that system it has failed to bring the benefits predicted It ought to be abolished The purchase law should be repealed And yet we have been in favor of tne struggle to hold on to it as a security for the attainment attain-ment of something better that is all If it could be made certain that sK when that obnoxious provision were swept away from the statute books some silver coinage measure based on sound financial principles could be assured as-sured we do not think any rational silver man would stand in the way of repeal It is the fear that when the end demanded by the repealers is reached the silver question will be pushed out of sight in view of pressing Pres-sing and momentous questions of a different character that makes the most reasonable of the silver advocates advo-cates hesitate to aid in the removal of the existing makeshift It is clear that if the purchase provision pro-vision is repealed the avenue for the sale of four and a half million ounces of silver will be closed and that much metal will be thrown if produced on the general market with the probability probabil-ity of a still further decline in price The consequence unless something unexpected un-expected should arise to cause a demand de-mand would be the closing down of more mines and further distress among the silver mining population For this which is a local reason only it wouldseem that the retention of the law would be of some benefit to the west J itf On general r principles however the lawis but a makeshift and is contrary a I e S I < t1 > X i to Democratic doctrine But It seems to us that the compromises proposed are all in the same line and are just as If I heterodox as the existing provision I The only justification for any of them is the apparent impossibility of getting get-ting anything that is right under present pres-ent circumstances and the fact that what js suggested is no worse than what we have I |