| Show I IISSILYBR YIEWS Cleveland Interviewed by Western West-ern Democrats ON THIS IMPORTANT QUESTION They are Broad and Conservative Gladstone Gets Very Angry in the Commons and Loses His Temper NEW YORK April 21The Telegram this afternoon printed a statement that State Treasurer Stephens of Missouri called en exPresident Cleveland with letters from Governor Francis and other leading Missouri Mis-souri Democrats in order to secure from Cleveland a moro thorough exposition of his views on thoi silver question than given in his letter recently widely circu ated Replying to the question Cleveland said according to bto < phens that the question should bo thoroughly discussed before Ib02 that there may be no danger of a divided party Stephens reminded him that the western Democrats wanted to know if Cleveland were elected in Ifa92 and a free coinage bill passed would he veto it no matter if ho knew a majority of the party favored it J Cleveland replied If I should be elected President in 1892 a bill would not reach me until 1S94 as Congress would not meet until December 1893 so thai is a bridge we had better not cross till we como to it What would bo bad for the country today might be a necessity in 194 As the volume of bust ness increases it is necessary to increase the currency When the law passed pro viding for the coinage of 2000000 monthly I feared the result for I thought it would prove an injury to the business interests ol the country for a time at least However the law proved a benefit for contrary tc my opinion the country was ready for the change When the present law pro viding for the purchase of 4500000 ounces per month passed I thought the measur too radical and that it might have the effect of driving gold out of the country But ia this I was mistaken and both those op posed to as well as those in layer of free coinage believe the present law a wise one in so far that the country has benefited bj it With tho rapid strides the country it making it is impossible to say what Lnan cial measure we may be ready for in I j4 In forming my views upon the subject I did not alone consider the m terest of any one section of tw country I have been unable to see that free coinage could fail of being an injurj to every section of the country believing it would drive gold out of circulation At we are in a great measure dependent upou European markets for our products ware < w-are obliged to take them into consideration When I have suggested the monetary con ference of representatives of other govern meats with our own which could agree upon a new standard of values my sug gestions have been scoffed at by Europeans Euro-peans I am delighted that the people are now engaged in such thoughtful considera tion of the subject and that by ly2 they will have decided whether or not we are ready to handle all the silver of the nmplrl Stephens gave the above account of hia visit to a this reporter afternoon A representative repre-sentative of the Associated Press called at Clevelands office to ascertain if the interview inter-view was accurate Cleveland said ho had not talked with anyone on the silver ques tion for publication he had not read ths article and could not therefore say < whether the statements accredited to him were an accurate expression of his views or not |
