Cbc Conservative.
VOL. III. NEBRASKA CITY , NEB. , THURSDAY , DEC. 20 , 1900. NO. 24.
PUBLISHED WEEKLY.
OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK.
J. STERLING MORTON , EDITOR.
A JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE DISCUSSION
Or POLITICAL , ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL
QUESTIONS.
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Address , THE CONSERVATIVE , Nebraska
City , Neb.
Advertising Rates made known upon appli
cation.
Entered at the postofflce at Nebraska City
Neb. , as Second Class matter , July 20th , 1808.
On August 7 ,
FINANCIAL
HISTORY. 1898 , congress was
convened in extra
session by Grover Cleveland. It was
convened for the avowed purpose of
repealing the purchase clause of the
Sherman silver act. That act compelled
the United States to buy 4,500,000
ounces of silver bullion each month. At
that time President Cleveland uttered
these words :
'With plenteous crops , with abundant
promise of remunerative production and
manufacture , with unusual invitation
to safe investments and with satisfac
tory assurance to business enterprise ,
suddenly financial distrust and fear have
sprung up on every side. Numerous
moneyed institutions have suspended
because abundant assets were not im
mediately available to meet the demands
of frightened depositors. Surviving
corporations and individuals are content
to keep in the hand the money they are
usually anxious to loan , and those
engaged in legitimate business are sur
prised to find that the securities they
offer for loans , although heretofore
satisfactory , are no longer accepted.
Values supposed to be fixed are fast
becoming conjectural , and loss and
failure have invaded every branch of
business. "
Let it be remembered that this panic
was under the MoKinley high-tariff act
and while that
MoKinley TarllV.
measure was in
full vigor.
Further along in the same message
President Cleveland said :
"I believe these things are principally
chargeable to congressional legislation
touching the purchase and coinage of
silver by the general government. This
legislation is embodied in a statute
passed on the 14th day of July , 1890 ,
which was the culmination of much
agitation on the subject involved , and
which many considered a truce after a
long struggle between the advocates of
free silver coinage and those intending
to be more conservative. "
Congress convened and discussed the
silver question at great length. On
August 11 , 1893 , a bill was introduced
in the house of representatives by Wil
liam L. Wilson , of West Virginia ,
which repealed the purchasing clause of
the Sherman act. This bill concluded
as follows :
"But this repeal shall not impair or in
any manner affect the legal tender
quality of the
Repeal. , , . . , ,
standard silver dollar
lar heretofore coined , and the faith and
credit of the United States are hereby
pledged to maintain the parity of the
standard gold and silver coins of the
United States at the present legal ratio
or such other ratio as may be established
by law. "
The debate on this bill lasted until
August 28 , 1898. Many motions were
made to add to it a provision for the
free coinage of silver. Every one of
those motions was voted down , and on
the 28th of August , 1898 , the bill passed
the house by a vote of 289 to 109.
Then it went on to the senate , where
it was amended as to the last clause , so
that it read as follows :
"And it is hereby declared to be the
policy of the United States to continue
the use of both gold and silver into
money of equal intrinsic and exchange
able value , such equality to be secured
through international agreement or by
such safeguards of legislation as will
insure the maintenance of the parity in
value of coins of the two metals and the
equal power of every dollar at all times
in the markets and in the payment of
debts. And it is , hereby further declared
that the efforts of the government
should be steadily directed to the estab
lishment of such a safe system of
bimetallism as will maintain at all times
the equal power of every dollar coined
or issued by the United States in the
markets and in the payment of debts. "
On October 80 , 1893 , the senate sub
stitute bill was passed by a vote of 48 to
82. The house concurred in that bill as
amended by the senate , with a vote of 194
to 94 , and on the 1st day of November ,
1898 , Grover Cleveland affixed his sig
nature to the bill.
The foregoing is a brief , correct con-
cise statement of the legislation relative
to silver during the extra session of
1898. THK CONSERVATIVE will take up
in some future issue the discussion of
the attempt to reform the tariff laws of
the country , made by the same congress ,
beginning on December 19 , 1893 , and
upon which consideration was postponed
until January 8,1894 , when William L.
Wilson , chairman of the house ways
and means committee , opened the debate
upon what was called the Wilson Tariff
Bill.
It is the duty of intelligent and fair-
minded journalists to give truthful ,
historical data from time to time rela
tive to all the great economic legislation
of the country , and with this duty in
view THE CONSERVATIVE proposes ,
sometime , to discuss the so-called Wil
son Bill.
A recent article
SUGGESTIVE. .
m the Crete Demo
crat is very suggestive as to the char
acter of many who made up the conglom
erate opposition to the republican party
during the recent presidential campaign.
Colonel Bowlby , the able editor of that
journal , gives the expense account of the
republican treasurer of the state com
mittee for Nebraska for the year 1900.
It shows total disbursements of fifty-six
thousand three hundred and sixty-seven
dollars and eight cents ( $56,867.08) ) ,
and an outstanding indebtedness of one
thousand three hundred and sixty-one
dollars and thirteen cents ( $1,361.13) ) ,
with a remaining cash balance in the
hands of the treasurer of one thousand
seven hundred and eight dollars and
thirty-three cents ( $1,708.38) ) . From
this statement the Colonel makes the fol
lowing deductions :
"A $1,000 placed in each of 58 counties
in the state would enable any ticket to
win. This is the republican way. One
leading pop paper states that the sum is
$160,000 , which is probably true , for
Hanna had all the money he could use. "
Does the Colonel mean to intimate
that the mass of voters for Bryanarchy
are in the market for cash ? If he does
not mean to declare , by implication at
least , that a majority can be bought in
any county in the state of Nebraska ,
what does he mean ? If the American
people vote for cash on delivery of the
ballots , why should anybody be proud
of this government and the institutions
which are maintained under it ?