(^ 
 
 r^5 
 
Cornell University Library 
 HG 223.T45 
 
 Monometallism and protection. 
 
 3 1924 013 818 038 
 
 ^tate College of Agriculture 
 at Cornell ©nibersitp 
 
 Stbaca. iBt. §. 
 
 Hibrarp 
 
MONOMETALLISM AND PEOTECTION. 
 
 BY 0. S. THOJIAS. 
 
 " WTiat 13 that whioli I should turn to, lighting upon days like these? 
 Every door is barred with gold, and opens but to golden keys." 
 
 The political contest of 1892 was waged upon an eco- 
 nomic issue whose magnitude involved all others in the 
 darkness of a total eclipse. Its persistent clamor for recog- 
 nition had long been acknowledged and avoided by the cau- 
 tious leaders who feared its influence because of its importance. 
 Before then it had come, as an unbidden guest, to every 
 national convention since 1864, either to be frightened into 
 silence by beating the tom-toms of sectionalism, or juggled 
 into obscurity by the lofty rhetoric and sonorous jargon of 
 party platforms. Politicians had in a more than double 
 sense paltered with public opinion in their discussions of 
 its character and tendencies, and with cheerful optimism 
 counted upon the future to evolve some congenial condition 
 whose atmosphere would stifle it unto death. 
 
 But the issue of tariff reform, like another Hercules, only 
 ftrangled the pythons which were sent to destroy it. Its 
 great underlying principles were near the heart of humanity, 
 and closely intertwined with the essentials, of liberty and 
 jjistice. Its advocates appealed to the consciences of men 
 and the honesty of governments. They were instant in and 
 out of season. They stormed the citadel of the classes, 
 ||rengthened the apprehensions of the wealk, inspired the 
 Solutions of -the strong, quickened the reluctance of the 
 tittiid and stimulated the enthusiasm of the zealous. They 
 ipere undaunted by the successive disasters of ever recurring 
 dJjiiflicts, and renewed the warfare with the conviction that 
 ^sfust cause waged in behalf of the, rights of man was ever 
 t90i And so the struggle went on until with one acclaim 
 the .national Democracy declared for a system of import duties 
 for revenue only. 
 
 The advocates of protection had already offered th,e gif'g^ 
 o| I^attle, Its ready acceptance was accompanied by an af- 
 
 169 
 
170 THE ARENA. 
 
 firmation of the soundness of the avowed Republican finan- 
 cial policy, and followed by a sort of tacit agreement to 
 relegate the currency issue to the rear, as a theme possessed 
 of neither interest nor consequence. Its relation to the issue 
 of protection and tariff reform was not admitted, and the few 
 who sought to give it the prominence which its tremendous 
 importance deserved, were either silenced by the clamors of 
 the dissentient public or compelled to take refuge for the 
 time among the ranks of the politically discontented. But 
 scarcely had the sound of Democratic jubilation over the vic- 
 tory of November died away, before it became apparent that 
 the disjointed character of the national finances, resulting 
 from the demonetization of silver in 1873, and its subsequent 
 compulsory coinage and purchase under the Acts of 1878 
 and 1890, presented the opportunity to contend that it had 
 produced conditions and was threatening calamities so direful 
 and far-reaching in their consequences, as to demand the un- 
 divided attention of public opinion and the immediate con- 
 sideration of legislative and executive authority. The little 
 cloud, no larger than a man's hand, had overspread the eco- 
 nomic sky with a black pall whose menacing thunders proved 
 true portents of the storm which followed. 
 
 I shall not weary the reader with a recital of events which 
 began with the deliberations of the Brussels conference and 
 closed vTith the repeal of the purchasing clause in the Sher- 
 man Act. They mark the establishment of gold monometal- 
 lism in the United States, as the first result of a change ofj 
 administration effected by an overwhelming anti-protection 
 sentiment. This circumstance conduces to their importance;, 
 for monometallism is protection applied to the substance se-| 
 lected as the material from which is coined the sole money' 
 of ultimate redemption. Each expression is, in other words,] 
 the equivalent of the other, in its relation to the metal which 
 is vested with mint privilege and money function, to the ex- 
 clusion of all others. And to the advocates of tariff reform, 
 after securing control of the government, belongs the ques- 
 tionable honor of extending complete and unqualified protecf 
 tion to gold, by uniting with their adversaries for that pur-* 
 pose, thereby making the task of reducing imports on all 
 commodities enormously difficult if not impossible of 
 accomplishment. 
 
 It requires, I think, no great amount of argument to es- 
 
MONOMETALLISM AND PEOTECTION. 171 
 
 tablish the proposition that if the people were by statute pro- 
 hibited from the use of all kinds of meat except beef, or of 
 all kinds of grain except wheat, the two privileged articles 
 mentioned would enjoy the highest type of protection. 
 Their value would increase with the increasing demand for 
 them, while the products which before were used for food 
 either in connection or competition with them, would become 
 practically worthless and disappear from the markets. A 
 prohibitory duty imposed upon competitive products would 
 be far less efficacious for protection than such a law. Indeed 
 the theory of protection, in its last analysis, leads to such 
 conditions; for if it be good for our people that they be 
 taxed for the benefit of the producer by being compelled to 
 pay artificially increased prices for his competitor's wares, 
 it is surely better that the price for such wares be so greatly 
 enhanced as to make their sale impossible. In that event 
 prosperity should be not only certain but permanent. 
 " Home markets " would thus necessarily be created for the 
 protected industries ; and the miserable followers of the pro- 
 hibited ones might either compete vnth their more fortunate 
 countrymen, or enter their employment at the higher rate of 
 wages for the establishment of which all protective schedules 
 are exclusively designed. 
 
 These principles, founded upon all the logic of protection, 
 have, up to this time, never been applied except to gold. 
 When the nation went protection mad, and tariff ran riot 
 through Congress with McKinley astride its back, legislation 
 halted far before the goal of prohibition. That extreme was 
 left as an experiment for the future. A reform Congress 
 has tried it with gold, and the " object lesson " has thus far 
 been an instructive albeit a most disastrous one. The motive 
 which induced protectionists to cooperate in the enactment 
 of such a measure is easily perceived and clearly under- 
 stood, but the policy of their allies seems to be at variance 
 with every principle of tariff reform. 
 
 The purpose of protection is to enhance prices by a forced 
 reduction of competition and consequent limitation of sup- 
 ply to demand. Its adjustments, made in the interest of the 
 one, are vehemently alleged to be intended for the benefit of 
 the other. It imposes upon the tax payer the additional 
 burden of paying a royalty upon every necessary of life, the 
 only consideration for which is the assurance of the bene- 
 
172 THE ARENA. 
 
 ficiary that such royalty is the corner-stone of national and 
 individual prosperity. It has been given full play for more 
 than thirty yearg'in the domain of our national industries. 
 As one result, every one of them is controlled by a gigantic 
 combination whose existence is a menace to free government, 
 while workmen by tens of thousands are needy in a land of 
 limitless extent and resources. It is a system which sprung 
 from greed and injustice, and whose products are monopoly 
 and pauperism. 
 
 The purpose of monometallism is to enhance the value of 
 credits by limiting the volume of the circulating medium. 
 Its adjustments, made in the interest of the annuitant and 
 the money lender, are earnestly declared to be for the pro- 
 tection and benefit of the general public. It imposes upon 
 the debtor an additional burden by decreasing the price of 
 his products and labor, and taking more of both for the 
 liquidation of his debt than were necessary for that purpose 
 when it was contracted. It gives full control of financial 
 affairs, and thereby of all other affairs of men and of govern- 
 ments, to a single class. It makes money the object rather 
 than the instrument of commerce, and harnesses all enter- 
 prise, all energy, all business, all property, all the wealth and 
 all the labor of the land to the chariot of the money changer. 
 It is the capsheaf of protectionism, its choicest flower and 
 rarest fruit. It is worth all other forms of protection com- 
 bined ; for with it all the others may be continued or dis- 
 pensed with as selfishness or ambition may demand. 
 
 Monometallism was established by Great Britain in 1816. 
 Gold was the metal of its choice. The automatic system of 
 money which naturally and wisely gave to the debtor the 
 option of making payment in either gold or silver, thereby 
 preserving and continuing the equilibrium of the ratio be- 
 tween the two, was discarded. Britain was then an advocate 
 of protection. The better to protect gold at the expense of 
 silver,. she decreed that the Bank of England should pay £S 
 17 s. lOJ d. for every ounce of gold which might be ten- 
 dered, regardless of its actual value. At the same time she 
 laid on the Corn Laws as a concession to the agriculturists 
 for their support of Lord Liverpool's Act, and because she 
 feared lest otherwise her gold would be exported to pay for 
 wheat. For thirty years thereafter she followed her general 
 policy of protection. When she finally abandoned it she 
 
MONOMETALLISM AND PKOTECTION. 173 
 
 made gold an exception, that she might gather it as tribute 
 from all the nations of the earth and thus completely subject 
 them to her continuous domination. 
 
 When Chevalier in 1858 sounded the alarm against gold, 
 and warned Europe of the consequences of a golden inunda- 
 tion from Australia and California unless silver was protected 
 by giving it also the money function, Germany and Austria 
 gave heed to his council, but England never wavered. She 
 had dependencies scattered over both hemispheres, some of 
 which produced gold, but none of them silver. They needed 
 for the metal the protection which her financial policy would 
 give, and gold continued as her standard of value. So late 
 as 1888 six members of the Royal Monetary Commission pro- 
 nounced against the formation of a bimetallic union, for the 
 reason, among others, that "Australia and other of our 
 colonies, as large producers of gold, might take objection to 
 it. . . . The interests of our Australian and other gold-pro- 
 ducing colonies must also be considered. Their deposits of 
 gold are one of their principal sources of wealth, and any 
 measure which tended to check gold mining or to depreciate 
 that metal would, in all probability, injuriously affect the 
 prosperity of the colonies and react upon the trade of the 
 mother country with them." This sounds strangely like the 
 resolutions of a modern wool growers' convention. 
 
 Said Mr. AUard, one of the Belgian delegates to the Brus- 
 sels conference : " The monetary question is transformed day 
 by day into the tariff question, and protection increases 
 throughout the world without our knowing perfectly the 
 cause of the phenomenon which is found to exist everywhere. 
 Did we not see, even in England, on May 19, 1892, Lord 
 Salisbury make a profession of protectionist faith at Hastings ? 
 These are serious revolutions, which should especially attract 
 the attention of England, the cradle of free trade, the coun- 
 try which, under the influence of Cobden, was the first to 
 enter the path of commercial freedom. Let England not for- 
 get what I have just proven clearly, that to persist in her 
 present monometallism is to incite protectionism. Bimetallism 
 implies the idea of free trade." 
 
 No advocate of gold monometallism at that conference as- 
 sumed to question the truth of this assertion. I do not think 
 that it has ever been challenged, although the literature of 
 politics for a twelvemonth has been very largely devoted to 
 
174 THE ARENA. 
 
 a discussion of monetary problems, and congressional debate 
 has explored the entire domain of financial history. Indeed 
 the policy of the gold men from 1816 down to the present 
 hour has proceeded upon the recognition of its verity. 
 Events have justified the correctness of this assumption, and 
 to-day protection finds its chief source of strength in the advo- 
 cacy and adoption of monometallism, although many of its 
 sincerest supporters are among the ablest opponents of the 
 tariff. This statement is abundantly justified by a brief con- 
 sideration of the course pursued by the beneficiaries of our 
 import laws since the election of November, 1892. The re- 
 sult was a total rout of the Republican party, which had 
 staked its all upon protection and lost. The victory of the 
 tariff reformers was so overwhelming that its opponents pre- 
 tended to be better pleased since it gave abundant opportun- 
 ity to the victors to demonstrate the soundness of their 
 theories by the test of legislation. The country resigned 
 itself to the coming change and looked forward to the inau- 
 guration of the new president with the belief that sorely 
 needed industrial and commercial reforms would commence 
 with his administration. Tariff organs from one ocean to 
 the other, with a pretence of sincerity, counselled their van- 
 -quishers to adopt no half-way measures in their change, but 
 to give the country the fullest opportunity to judge of the 
 new methods and contrast them with the old. 
 
 But protection, like any other beast of prey, is always 
 dangerous until it is dead. It had been stricken down in 
 spite of the formidable weapons of falsehood, prejudice, force 
 and corruption which it had used so long and so well. It 
 had gone through the outward form of surrender and seemed 
 to content itself with sullen predictions of coming disaster. 
 But gloomy forebodings of what would be, should its grasp 
 upon the nation's throat be loosened, were nothing new. The 
 people had become accustomed to them from constant repeti- 
 tion, and knew full well that the ills they might encounter 
 could not be worse than those from which they had long 
 suffered. 
 
 The effects of currency contraction are well known. A 
 reduction of the volume of money in circulation speedily 
 produces disaster, to the injury, if not the ruin, of nearly all 
 classes of people. Prices fall, enterprise is destroyed, mines 
 and manufactories close, industry is transformed into idle- 
 
MONOMETALLISM AND PROTECTION. 175 
 
 ness, commerce becomes stagnant, agriculture is prostrated 
 and debtors are made bankrupt for lack of ready funds. Mr. 
 Balfour has well said that no more paralyzing or benumbing 
 influence ever touched the enterprise of a nation. What 
 blood-letting is to the individual, currency contraction is 
 to the people, and a people suffering from the acute stages 
 of such a calamity are in no mood for what may be termed 
 experimentative industrial legislation — especially if they, 
 or a large part of them, can be made to believe or to fear 
 that their woes are caused not by their slender stock of 
 money but by the menace of impending legislative reforms. 
 Could prosperity be banished from every department of in- 
 dustry and commerce ere Congress met to carry out the last 
 expression of the public will, its purpose could be thwarted 
 by the very agency which called it into being and every re- 
 cipient of protection retain his darling duty for years to 
 come. Small wonder, then, that every tariff organ and bene- 
 ficiary beyond the precious metal states, at once assailed the 
 national finances and demanded currency contraction by the 
 recognition of gold alone as money. 
 
 The situation was eminently favorable for their assault. 
 The Democratic party, whose masses had always been and 
 still were devoted to the gold and silver money of the con- 
 stitution, had nominated and elected to the presidency a man 
 the range of whose financial vision was bounded by the 
 limits of Manhattan Island. Of his sincere devotion to the 
 cause of tariff reform there could be no question; yet, like 
 many of his followers, he could never be made to realize that 
 such reform is impossible unless it can be effected during a 
 period of abundant money circulation, and that low prices, 
 consequent upon the scarcity of money, by enabling pro- 
 tectionists to attribute them to the operation of their tariff 
 system, deprived their adversaries of the benefit of their 
 most potent argument against it. The policy inaugurated 
 by Secretary Foster, of redeeming treasury notes in gold 
 only, although expressly payable in coin at the option of the 
 government, coupled with the European demand for gold re- 
 sulting from its adoption as the standard by Austria, and 
 from the financial disasters of Australia, enabled the advo- 
 cates of monometallism to drain the federal treasury of its 
 gold, export it to the old world, and by attributing its movement 
 to public apprehension as to the fiscal future of the govern- 
 
176 THE ARENA. 
 
 ment, create an overwhelming demand for the repeal of the 
 Sherman Law and the demonetization of silver. The na- 
 tional banking system, wholly dependent for its existence 
 upon the continuation of the national debt, menaced by the 
 threat of the repeal of the tax on state bank circulation, and 
 anxious both for a new issue of government bonds and the 
 cessation of all government issues of paper money, eagerly 
 joined the crusade. The tariff beneficiaries whose subsidies 
 were threatened, saw a certain means of escape from impend- 
 ing disaster by the destruction of silver as money, coupled 
 with an opportunity to attribute public and private suffering 
 to the menace of anti-protective legislation; and they, too, 
 clamored for repeal. 
 
 The sudden closing of the Indian mints to the free coinage 
 of silver, the immediate fall in the gold value of that metal 
 and of all staple products, the consequent panic which swept 
 the habitable globe, presented at last the much desired op- 
 portunity. All the national ills were attributed to the mis- 
 chievous operation of the purchasing clause of the Sherman 
 Law (itself a protection measure, designed and enacted by 
 protectionists), whose repeal would be followed by an imme- 
 diate return of prosperity and happiness. Congress was 
 hastily convened in special session, and the president, in a 
 message teeming with ponderous platitudes, urged it to do 
 away with the obnoxious measure without delay. The press 
 reenforced the recommendations of the executive with threat, 
 entreaty and invective. Finally, after three weary months 
 of debate, the senate reluctantly voted for unconditional re- 
 peal, and the last vestige of legislation for the coinage of 
 silver was swept away. 
 
 No advocate of tariff reform will seek to defend the Sher- 
 man Law. Its enactment was a misfortune to bimetallism, 
 and its operation was opposed to the elementary principles 
 of monetary science. It was forced upon the advocates of 
 free coinage, and its administration by the avowed enemies 
 of silver contributed more powerfully to the spread of mono- 
 metallist sentiment than all other agencies combined. Many 
 serious evils can be laid at its door, but the charge that it 
 caused the financial calamities of 1893 is not one of them. 
 
 After repeal, what then? The issue of bonds to the 
 amount of 150,000,000 and their purchase by the banks to 
 be used as a basis of circulation, on the one hand, and the 
 
MONOMETALLISM AND PEOTECTION. 177 
 
 never ending but effective cry tliat " Hard times are caused 
 by tbe menace of the Wilson Bill " on the other; a depleted 
 treasury with but little money in circulation, accompanied 
 by a veto of the bill intended for the coinage of the seign- 
 iorage silver, because "It would operate to injuriously 
 expand the money volume"; a series of overwhelming Re- 
 publican victories at the polls as a result of the pitiable 
 efforts of the Democratic party to reduce the tariff in the 
 face of constantly falling revenues ; the great forward move- 
 ment of economic reform, checkmated by its opponents deftly 
 using its advocates as pawns; an unconditional surrender by 
 the dominant party to the national banks ; an increase of the 
 national debt and, per consequence, of the annual expendi- 
 tures; a divided and disheartened Democracy, an abandon- 
 ment of one of the chief features of its policy, and an in- 
 ability to effectuate the other by reason thereof. 
 
 Gold monometallism, having been established by Mr. 
 Cleveland as the representative of an element which did not 
 elect lum, must be maintained, regardless of its effect upon 
 the progress, the happiness or the general welfare of the 
 country. Since gold is the standard, its departure from our 
 shores necessarily creates grave apprehension among all 
 classes of people, and that in time stimulates hoarding, 
 diminishes the circulation, produces further fall in prices 
 and threatens panic. Hence that whicli we have must be 
 kept at home and more must be obtained, even if we have to 
 buy it with, bonds and tax the people for their payment both 
 of principal and interest. But since we are a debtor nation, 
 and since if we get more gold we must increase our obliga- 
 tions, it follows that our gold must leave us in spite of our- 
 selves unless we repudiate our debts, or pay them in com- 
 modities instead of gold. The first we cannot do ; the last is 
 feasible only by so adjusting our international trade as to se- 
 cure a large excess of exports over imports, and that we can 
 ds, says the protectionist, by a system of tariff schedules, 
 devised by the Carnegies and enacted by the McKinleys. 
 Stated concisely, the contention now is that since we have 
 our coveted gold monometallism, we cannot, being a debtor 
 nation, maintain it except by a continuation of our present 
 tariff system. Therefore protection, heretofore a debatable 
 proposition, is now a national necessity. 
 
 This line of reasoning, barely hinted at before the com- 
 
178 THE AEBNA. 
 
 mencement of the present year, is now boldly adopted by the 
 advocates of protection. It is, indeed, one of the strongest, 
 if not the strongest, which can be urged in its behalf. Mr. 
 Henry B. Russell, a recent contributor to the American Jour- 
 nal of Politics, calls attention to the estimated decrease in 
 the amount of our annual revenues which must result from 
 the passage of the Wilson Bill, argues that its enactment 
 into law will cause an increase of imports and a decrease of 
 exports, in consequence of which our general interest charge 
 on securities held abroad must be paid in gold instead of 
 commodities, and concludes with the following reflection : — 
 
 Such a turn in affairs would play havoc with our gold reserves and 
 our gold standard at the very time when they should he the objects of 
 our tender care and careful management. Large exportations of gold 
 have produced uneasiness when there was really no ground for it. 
 An extensive exportation just now would create good grounds for 
 uneasiness. Such an exportation may be expected to some extent, 
 early in 1894, but especially after the imports now held back are 
 dumped upon the market. If the Wilson Bill, or one no more pro- 
 tective in character, be made a law by July 1, there will be abundant 
 reasons for expecting a premium on gold in this country by next 
 November, if not sooner. 
 
 Such reasoning as this, accompanied by a standing threat 
 of gold exportation should Congress dare to relieve the mon- 
 etary situation by investing the treasury with authority to 
 do anything except to issue bonds, and attended by a fall in 
 prices without precedent, ingeniously but falsely attributed 
 to the natural operation of the McKinley tariff upon consump- 
 tion, cannot well be refuted. Indeed it finds support in the 
 suggestion by the Indian council of an import duty on silver 
 bullion, and in the proposition of Mr. Westland in the legislar 
 tive council at Calcutta to provide for the deficit in the Indian 
 budget by the imposition of an import tax of five per cent 
 on all commodities save cotton, yarns and manufactures; 
 both of which result from the tentative experiment of last 
 summer towards placing India upon a " gold basis." It vin- 
 dicates Mr. AUard's assertion at the Brussels conference, and 
 reveals as with the powerful glare of a search-light the inti- 
 mate connection between the scheme to demonetize silver 
 and the scheme to thwart, if not destroy, the possibility of 
 tariff reform. 
 
 President Andrews, in a most admirable contribution to 
 the April number of the North American Review (prior to 
 
MONOMETALLISM AND PKOTEOTION. 179 
 
 which time the greater part of this article was written), has 
 demonstrated the proposition that " Tariff reform depends 
 upon monetary reform, and can never achieve its end in any 
 satisfactory degree without a radical modification of the mone- 
 tary conditions which now prevail." Until this fundamental 
 truth shall be grasped and its great importance fully realized 
 by the friends of the one, they must continue to be in the 
 future as they have been in the past, the unconscious but 
 potent instruments for the accomplishment of the designs 
 and purposes of the enemies of the other. 
 
 So long^ as gold alone is invested with the attribute of 
 ultimate redemption, the supply of the world's stock of money 
 must be woefully inadequate for the transaction of the world's 
 commerce and industry. So long as this condition exists, 
 the majority of the nations must suffer all the horrors of a 
 monetary famine, and values measured by the volume of cir- 
 culation must fall. So long as values fall, the nations actu- 
 ated by the law of self-preservation must resort to unnatural 
 and artificial methods for the arrest of the general tendency, 
 and for the acquisition of revenue to balance the account of 
 receipts and expenditures. So long as they are forced to do 
 this, protection must be regnant, and efforts to reduce or 
 limit the range of taxation will be as Quixotic in results as 
 the famous onset against the windmills. We have joined 
 the gold alliance; we have proclaimed war against silver, the 
 greatest part of whose annual product is ours; we have de- 
 stroyed that option which makes bimetallism automatic, — 
 and we stupidly wonder why the fickle public, which shouted 
 tariff reform in 1892, now threatens us with political exter- 
 mination if we dare to carry out the programme it then pre- 
 pared. Verily our president is a famous pilot; but since he 
 unshipped the rudder and threw it overboard, he must not 
 complain if the crew wonders where the wind and the tide 
 will bear them. Did he suspect nothing when his protection- 
 ist adversaries united in one grand chorus of rejoicing over 
 the outcome of his financial policy? 
 
 But it may be asked, Is there no i-emedy? Shall the 
 nation continue indefinitely in this condition, the bound 
 thrall of a favored class, the helpless victim of protection and 
 monometallism? Shall we surrender to present conditions 
 and remain inert through sheer despair ? I think not. The 
 signs of an awakening are even now upon us. The necessity 
 
180 THE AKENA. 
 
 of a plentiful and stable money supply, increasing in volume 
 with tlie increase -of wealth and population, always conceded 
 in the abstract, will soon be demanded in the concrete. The 
 enormous rise in the value of gold, made evident by the enor- 
 mous decrease in the value of everything else, is petceived 
 to be the true source of our industrial and commercial depres- 
 sion. The nation, " while rapidly growing and vehemently 
 struggling for enlarged iheans," is clearly seen to be "re- 
 strained in golden fetters which admit neither of enlargement 
 nor increase in time for or proportion to its necessities." The 
 intimate correlation between the value of silver and staple 
 products, and created principally by the' constantly varying 
 rates of exchange, affords a fconstaht "object lesson" to pro- 
 ducer and consumer, whose enlightened conviction will soon 
 find expression at the polls. Agitation, which "uncondi- 
 tional repeal " was to destroy, was never more universal. 
 
 Tariff' reform will be triumphant in the end, but the hosts 
 which cluster around its banner will raise the battle Cry of 
 bimetallism before their victory shall be achieved. Even now 
 the inroads which it has made upon public sentiment sus- 
 peiided the executive veto of an important financial measure 
 for days, and politicians inquire with anxious solicitude of 
 the progress which it is making. "Take care, Mr. St&,tes- 
 man, cure or change it in time, else it will beat all your dead 
 institutions to du^t. Hearts and sentiments are alive, and 
 we all know that the gentlest of nature's growths or motions 
 will in time burst asunder or wear away the proudest dead 
 weight man can heap upon them."