Smyrna times., 1885-09-23

without disturbance to financial circles
but the folly and greed which have
forced the government to coin two mil
lions of bastard dollars a month for
years has finally wrought its logical
consequence in unsettling the gold
standard and threatening to drive gold
| out OF circulation. Cheap money. or
rather money that is a lie in its profess
sion of value, will always be forced
into use when it is in competition with
honest money, and the time is close at
hand when the depletion of the gold
balance may force the government tC
adopt the silver standard. Hitherto
silver has not circulated because it is
cumbrous and incOnvenient, and also
because there has been no necessity to
draw the line between the value of an
honest dollar and the silver dollar +:
put those who would inform themselves
OF the disturbance a silver standard. or
anything approaching a silver stand
ard, would make in business circles
need only recall the history of the
trade dollar. 1t is intrinsically worth
more than the regular silver dollar.
and it once circulated freely as a dol
lar, but its present holders know that
It's purchasing quality to-day is some
fifteen per cent. below par. Congress
will be compelled to face this question
as soon as it shall meet in December,
and hazard little in saying that the
whole silver speculation will be broken
up and the coinage of the present bas-
tard dollars stopped at once. Just
when general business revival is at
hand, it is u fearul wrong for the gov
ernment to be embarrassing its coming
by disturbing the circulating medium
that must be honest to assure business
stability and prosperity. The silver
problem will solve itself because public
necessity is stronger than even the
bonanza rings.
In the same connection he took up
the subject of the Tariff and thus spoke
of this important political question
about which our wisest men so widely
differ:
" The Tariff question will be an alb
sOrbing one in the coming Congress,
and upon its final solution will depend
much for or against the advancement
of the general business interests of the
whole country. Both parties are
pledged by their last national platforms
to revise the Tariff and reduce the rev
enueS, and if the conservative men of
both parties would unite in the next
Congress to shape their own honest
convictions in u new Tariff bill, the
problem would be easily and Justly
solved; but the extreme prOtrctiOnists,
who insist that protection shall give
monopoly to few at the cost of many,
seem likely to force a party issue on
the question by protesting against any
and all notifications of the Tariff
They thus do more to strengthen the
hands of the free trade destructiOnists
than could possibly be done by any eff
forts Of their own, and they do more at
once to endanger the policy of prOtec-
tiOn than the free traders could accom-
plish in a generation. 1t must be re-
membered that war taxes and war du-
ties are ended that the reduction in
all values, including both money and
labor, has greatly changed the basis of
business and the basis of protection;
that the protection absolutely neces-
sary in many cases ten or twenty years
ago, is now needed only to half the ex-
tent it was needed then and in some in
stances is not needed at all: that the
cheapening and multiplying of our pro-
ducts to any extent consistent with
safety to labor and capital, is one the
first necessities Of the altered cOndi- |
ton of the country, and that labor is
no longer to be depended upon to sus-
tain a monopoly Tariff. These are
facts so plain to the intelligent obser-
yer that he who runs may read, and
the refusal of the friends of protection
to aid in just revision of the Tariff |
and reduction Of revenues, is a viola
ton of their plighted faith to the
country and the greatest possible !
wrong to the cause they profess to
champion. Tariff revision must come.
and 1t should come as the creation of
the most intelligent and practical busi-
ness experience of the nation. 1t is |
such revision of the Tariff that Presi- !
dent Cleveland and Secretary Man
ming earnestly wish to attain, and if !
they shall be aided by all who honest
ly desire such an achievement. we will
get judiciOus Tariff that will fully |
protect our productive industry and |
assure the general prosperity of indus
try, commerce and trade for a genera
tiOn to come"