Show GREAT S1Y VER DEBAT Senator Wolcott Advocates White Metal in the Senate A MAGNIFICENT ADDRESS The Sherman 4ct Ho Sajs Has Not Caused the Present Trouble Prosperous Day Will Conic Back to This Country When We Open Our Mints to the Free Coinage Coin-age of Silver WASHINGTON Aug 15In the Senate this morning Senator Gordon of Georgia I recalled the plank in the last Democratic platform by presenting a measure to suspend I sus-pend for ninety days the law imposing the ten percent tax on state bank issues He declared it would give relief to the country in fifteen days and make it possible pos-sible to move the cotton crop in the south The proposition was not received with any particular warmth by the Senate and it was referred to the finance committee Senator Voorhees reported back from that committee the bill introduced intro-duced by him yesterday as a measure meas-ure of relief I had he said the approval of the committee and ecretary of the treasury and he hoped the Senate I would take the matter up National banks were no favorites of his but that J was no reason why they should not be used to bring about measure of relief i they were capable I Senator Cockrell of Missouri objected saying that several bankers desired to be heard on the proposition so the bill went over and Mr Cockreil then asked the Senate to pass the House joint resolution for the payment of mileage to senators and representatives for tho present ses sion Senator Grey of Maine ridiculed the idea of a public duty which would postpone post-pone relief for the people and make haste to provide relief for senators and members mem-bers The resolution then went to the resoluton calander The Lee Mantle case involving the right of governors oi states to appoint senators under certain circumstapces was taken up and Mr Hunton of Virginia Vir-ginia spoke briefly in support of Mantles right to a seat Senator Voorhees introduced a joint resolution extending for six months the bonded period for whiskey in government meat warehouses Senator Lodge then made an address in advocacy of his resolution offer dTuesday last directing the Committee on Finance to report at once I bill to repeal the purchasing pur-chasing clause of the Sherman act What the people wanted he said was prompt action He had no mind for parity policy or delay Senator Wolcott of Colorado replied at length He had yet to hear any intel gent man state that he firmly believed the Sherman act had wrought the injury under which the country now suffers TheSherman act was illogical and vicious in that it made of silver a commodity ana left silver bullion in the treasury un coined It had some advantages however how-ever Ito quasi recognition of silver had been of infinite value as it had inspired bimetallism and in fact it had afforded an enlarged currency from month to month for the past three years I had given the country a currency backed by the credit of the government and by sil ver at its bullion value That was a pretty good currencybetter than thirty seven millions of clearing house certifi cates now in circulation in New York I The only tangible statement he could get as to the injury wrought by the Sherman Sher-man act was that there was a lack of confidence con-fidence in Europe but he did not find that statement borne out by the facts American securities had been held enor Amercan mously by Great Britain That country had suffered seriously in Argentine and her own colonies and been forced to sell her securities Great liquidation had come not because there was a lack of confidence con-fidence in American finances in GJcat Britain but because the holders of Amsr can securities were compelled to sell The Sherman act was not responsible for the Reading fiasco or the Whisky trust troubles or the Cordage trust trouble and yet New York papers were striking a balance between the quotations of now and a year ago and argoed that i silver and the Sherman act were iesponsi i I ble for all those disasters The mal cause i of the present financial panic wi3 to be looked for elsewhere I came partly because be-cause of European losses in South Aruer ica and Australia partly Decause Russia and Austria were buying gold and partly because the United States had purchased pur-chased more goods abroad than it had sold abroad All these causes were utterly I ut-terly independent of and irrespective of silver and the Sherman act All legislation legisla-tion that might be enacted would not j bring back confidence to the mon who hav withdrawn their money from the banks I Mr Wolcott expressed the conviction that when prosperous days come bank to this country it would be after it had announced tp the wor d that thit was a nation of bimetallists believing in hard money both gold and silver and that it proposed to have its shure of the gold of the world wasrich enough to hold it and was entitled by its resources and condition condi-tion to have it That at the same time ton it proposed to open its mint to the free i and unlimited coinage of silver and that we had returned to the paths of the founders of the remiblie The Lodge resolution was then laid I aside without action and Senator Hoar addressed the Senate on MrVests resolution resolu-tion as to the bimetallism The Republicans publicans J he said stood ready to holdup hold-up the hands of the president and restore that prosperity which the country enjoyed down to March 4 J 7 He dwelt upon the long discussion concerning the production of gold and silver during which he announced himself him-self in favor of both these metals as a currency cur-rency on a par He had always been a bimetallist but it was the bimetallism of yaphington and Jefferson which recognized rec-ognized gold as the finer metal and necessarily neces-sarily the standard of value The purchase pur-chase of silver under the act of 1890 was wasteful and extravagaqt expenditure of public money It could never have been excused Put us an escape from the fiat money of the Bland bill and from the threat of the absolute free coinage of silver 1 Republicans are told duly that it is their duty to forget party and cooperate with the president in renewipg public confidence and restoring a sound currency cur-rency The Republicans will do this now let the Democrats deal with them in the same way No candid advocate of silver currency can affirm that the people of the United States have not gone to the extreme limit of public safety in their struggle to maintain silver in connection with gold as a monetary standad We have purchased it coined it and iven i legal tender power beyond its value for fifteen years During all the time it has been constantly on the decline andaeven India has abandoned it y ulook still for an international agreement agree-ment and if that shall come the relation of the twojjmetals to each other willbe carefully reconsidered I do not believe that the policy ofet tnal monometal lism adopted in a time of panic could stand lt is enough for tho present occa I o 1 i ec e sion to say that there should be no further coinage of silver except by unanimous consent of commercial nations upon that policy I we adopt i voluntarily we can stand i we decline to adoptit voluntarily volun-tarily we shall be compelled to it alike by loss of trade and the necessities of all classes chiefly however the laboring men of the country who cannot live without with-out a stable currency and steady credit At the close of Senator Hoars speech a discussion started as to the old question of responsibility for the demonetization of silver and was carried on some time by Senators Stewart Cockrell AldrichHoar ana Sherman The Senate then adjourned ad-journed |