Show MXIHTLEYS PLEDGES REDEEMED RE-DEEMED The reply of Great Britain to the propositions of the Wolcott commission whatever they may have been puts tho administration in a position to say that it has redeemed the pledges of the St Louis platform It also relieves It of several embarrassments Oneofthese embarrassments was the request of the president for power from congress to appoint a commission to investigate the currency question and report at the regular session That request was absolutely ab-solutely inconsistent with the mission Of tile Wolcott commission provided I the president had any faith that the I result of that mission would be in any j j I Wisfr different from what it has been j j Xo currency commission could have I acted Intelligently so long as the attitude I atti-tude of England Germany and France on the subject of an international agreement concerning bimetallism was unknown If the sending of the special commission to Europe was in the nature na-ture of a mere byplay with no expectation expec-tation that anything would come of it and it looks very much as though that II I I I Is I what it was and nothing else then the appointment of a commission to I I consider and report on the currency t question would have been all very well I President McKinleY sent the special bimetallic commission to Europe it is true but no one who was not infatuated infatu-ated believed for a single moment that anything would come of It and we do not believe that President McKInley was infatuated The party that elected him is the historic and avowed enemy of sliver the platform it adopted at St Louis last year Is uncompromisingly hostile to silver the financial plank declaring de-claring that the party Is unalterably opposed to the free coinage of silver except by and with the consent of the leading commercial nations And those who drew up that plank and those who adopted It knew all the while that the consent of the leading commercial nations na-tions to an arrangement for International Interna-tional bimetallism could not be had under un-der any circumstances If President McKinley had had any really friendly feeling for silver he would hardly have appointed as his secretary ot the treasury a man who I is a devoted adherent of the single gold standard Every scheme for reforming re-forming the currency that Secretary Gage has evolved has had no place in it for an enlarged use of silver much less anything looking towards the restoration res-toration of silver to its proper place in our monetary system His latest scheme contemplates the retirement of the greenbacks bonds to be issued for that purpose and the substitution of national na-tional bank notes in their place the new bonds to be used as security for the notes the same as now The administration is now able to declare Chat it has redeemed its pledges and that England and not it is to blame that nothing can be done for sliver by it England has proved to be its friend in need |