Show I THE MOMENTOUS 3IESSAGE The Presidents message to Congress will cause considerable disappointment in the west and in the south The great majority of eastern people will receive it with complete satisfaction The m caning can-ing of it apart from the arguments advanced ad-vanced in the body of the document is summed upin Its closing paragraph It is an earnest recommendation of the repeal re-peal of the purchasing clause of the r SHERMAN law and the payment of the nations na-tions obligations in gold The perfect sincerity of the President is not doubted by the masses of the people nor is it disputed that he really believe the welfare of the nation depends upon the prompt action of Congress oa the fine he has laid down His miB age is well worded plain as to his meaning and evidently the product of careful thinking and a clearly marked policy As an able I state paper iron the standpoint which he occupies it will commend itself to men of reflection in all political parties t The disappointment in the west and south will be over the failure of the President Pres-ident to offer any encouragement to legislation legis-lation for the restoration of siherus money However the views of GROVE CLEVELAND on the financial question were known when he was elected We do not believe he could have been elected but for the harmony of those views with the opinions of the majority of the most influential men of the country For dispute it who may as we have stated on several occasions there is a very widespread wide-spread prejudice in the east in favoro a gold as against silver coin and it prevails among ordinary ople as much as among the bankers and speculators of the land Among these his message will be applauded ap-plauded and so it will in financial circles cir-cles beyond the seas It cannot be fairly denied that the message has a gold flavor throughout nor that it contains arguments argu-ments which to a critical bimetallist appear ap-pear untenable or at least cl doubtful force For instance If refusal of the treasurer to pay treasury notes in gold would disturb the parity of the two metals does not the discrimination against silver also disturb that parity 1 And if they are under the law payable in either gold or silver at his discretion 3 why should payment in either necessarily result in the discredit of the other and if of one why not the other also I Again If the r ual payment of gold for currency let PS encroached on the gold r ser + t hy st lId that policy pol-icy be continued Vhcrein TV as the necessity neces-sity for its adopt n and wLy should not the notes issued x aye nt for silver bullion be redeemed lu silver or gold at the discretion of the treasurer The substitution of silver for gold in I the treasnry which the President speaks of as a result of tills policy need not occur but for the discrimination against I silver and there would be no depreciated depreci-ated silver as money if the two metals were given equal opportunities at the i mints as they were before the demone tiring act of 1873 j Why does the President talk about inferior in-ferior money and superior money in the same breath with an argument in favor of parity If the parity of the metals is maintained there will bo no superior su-perior or inferior A dollar will bo a dollar whether in silver or in gold and one will buy zs much as the other if their parity is maintained by the Ian There is much weight inwhacthe President Pres-ident advances about the recognition of our money in every exchange ftrid every market of the world But if silver were restored as money particularly tit a ratio i more equal to the present relative market value of tie two metals can there be a doubt that our silver currency would ba recognized everywhere as sound and stable a ° There are good reasons for the query why should this great J nation be so terri v ly anxioBS xi1 to the rteogniticiP of < < the moneybags ISurppe Th5j i ANal nationoi the first claetv as a mutter o J e U Kx c n t u of fact and abundantly able to maintain hat position with its own money = and its own resources and to bring other nations to its doors if not to its feet when its it-s antis independent and determined to airy out its Rw poiiosr and not be dictated ated by the manipulators of the old wotl capitals As to the laboring classes about whom the President is wisely solicitous they mould be the greatest beneficiaries of a bimetallic policy It is the moneyed classes the speculators who he says can protect themselves in such times as these who foster the gold idea and protest against silver The laboring classes want silver It is the money of the poor If silver were coined at a fair ratio with gold there would be so much more actual money In the country and it would be among thelaboring classes that it would circulate The silver dollar lu the poor mans dollar and silver currency would jo a sound currency ° as it was before its demonetization and be gladly received by the man who earns his daily bread oy his daily toil We aeree with the President that the purchasing clause of the SHERMAN law 1 ought to go and that what is done 1 should be done quickly But we do not I agree with him that the work requires such haste that it shall be effected with I utsome fair provision to carry out the I principle enunciated in the platform on which he was elected The use of both gold and silver as the standard money of the country without discrimination against either metal or charge for mintage mint-age Let the parity of the two metals be maintained on some fair and reasonable reason-able ratio and the obnoxious measure to which he is opposed may be and ought toe > to-e buried out of sight for ever |