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R E M A R K S 07 HON. A. C. HOPKINS, OF PENNSYLVANIA. I N THE HOTJBE OP EEPRESENTATIVES, Saturday, August 26, 1893. The House having under consideration the bill (H. R. l) to repeal the part of an act approved July 14,1890, entitled " An act directing the purchase of silver bullion and the issue of Treasury notes thereon, and for other purposes"— * Mr. HOPKINS, of Pennsylvania, said: Mr. SPKAKKR, I desire to send to the desk for reading the financial article (or a part of it) of the Philadelphia Press of yesterday, Augti3t 24. Before doing so I ^ish to say that this paper is one of the most widely read and influential papers in Pennsylvania, and is considered one nf the inoat reliable for news. It advocates gold monometallism, unlets the Latin Union should j In this country in the use of silver. That its great power may be hatter appreciated, it should be known that its editor-in-chief is understood to be our late Minister to Russia. Its views are sought at all times with avidity. It formulates ideas, which smaller papers copy. It dictates much of the opinion of mv country. For the past nine months it has partued the Sherman act with all the malignity of any Cleveland Republican. Fortunately it has a great financial editor—to my mind one of the best writers of the day upon the question of finance. He very often hits the exact truth, and tells it with a fearlessness t tbat must escape the notioe of the managing editors. The Clerk read as follows: The resolution of Senator PEFFER, of Kansas, calling on the Secretary of the Treasury for information as to whether the banks of this city, Boston and New York had violated the law in refusing to pay checks attracted a good deal o f attention. The subject tea dangerous one, and It is well that the resolution went over under the rules. Silver is exceedingly strong at 76 cents bid and 77 cents asked. The Treasury refused to buy at considerably lower n^ure*. < The money market in New York is unchanged. There is plenty of call mniev, but it is almost impossible to make time loans. On Monday a loan of 8100,000 oil gilt-ed^ed collateral was made for four months at 18 per cent. The banks are refusing to pay out currency iri large sums to anybody, and their patrons accept the situation with great good humor and inatieut acquiescence. Just at the mofcent the political situation is largely affecfing the money markets. The New York banks for several days have been endeavoring to bring a home influence on United States Senators t o i n d u c e them to vote for the repeal of the July silver law. To tiii* end correspondents of the New York banks in the West ana South have been told that they need not expect to get money from New York until the purchasing clause was repealed, and the Southern and Western bankers have been strongly urged to write to their Senators and to i twist that they work and vote for immediate repeal. This movement has given rise to the recent feeling in New York that the silver majority in the Senate could be overcome, as the influence -of the bank* of the metropolis, when (Concentrated on any object, is regarded as invincible. Mr. HOPKINS, of Pennsylvania. Now, Mr. Speaker, I wish to ask, Is that statement true or is it what the New York banker calls rot"? It is no boy from "the wild and woolly West" who makes this assertion. It is make by a great power in the land. ]f it is true—and who of us who were here in the closing days of the Fiftyppcond Congress, and followed by supplications and -imprecations from those great city powers—who is there of us who does not believe it? Are those city banks who refuse to give to the country banks the money due them, the same banks that Senator PSFFEB refers to? If so, his resolution ought to be placed at the head of the Calendar and not at the foot Shall we quietly allow them to place their unclean hands upon the throats of oar Senators and threaten the liberties of the people ? Can not our constituents have money due them till they make this Congress vote to suit the unhqly wishes of these men? Are we no longer the representatives of our respective districts? Are we in the hands of the great monied powers of the earth or are they in ours? That is the question of the hour.
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