The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1886-01-20

that he knows nothing about it. But
he fails to inform US that further
coinage of silver has been suspended
there and for the entire "Latin
Union" so called, consisting of
France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland,
Greece, aud l believe of Roumania
and Seryia. If these countries re-
garded deprecated silver currency
as such blessing, would they have
suspended its coinage? Nor does he
inform US that III. Cernuschi, the
great bi-netalist apostle Of France,
is Of opinion that the only means of
keeping gold and silver both in cir
culation is for the United States to
suspend silver coinage until some In
ternational arrangement can be made
as to the ratio the two metals shall
have to each other.
Nor does Senator Coke or either
of the other advocates of silver, refer
at all to the recent correspondence of
our government with those of France,
Great Britain and Germany, showing
the utter hopelessness of coming to
any such international agreement, so
long as we continue the coinage of
silver at the present ratio. I may
remark too, as to the present re-
markable financial prosperity of
France, of which Senator Coke speaks
III such glowing terms, that her own
leading financial authorities, such as
Leon Say and Leroy Beaulieu, are
very far from taking such favorable
view; and that the vast amount of
depreciated silver currency in the
country IS one of the serious difficult
ties she has to overcome.
Senator Brown, of Georgia, Of
whom better things might have been
expected, sneers at the anti-silyer
agitation as the mark of bondholders
and bankers, and would have US be-
lieye that they are the parties to be
benefited by the suspension, while
the poor laborer is being deprived of
his special money. But ne fails TO
explain how the laborer and every
one who works for wages, can be
bene6tted by receiving their wages in
80 cent dollars instead or in dollars
of the full purchasing power of 100
cents, such as the gold dollar and the
paper dollar measured by the gold
standard.
1 hope to show further on that
while all classes, except of course,
the few 'ssilver kings viii be injured
by the descent from the gold to the
silver standard, that it will be the
laborer, the poor man with his little
savings in the savings banks, the
..breadwinner OF all classes, Tbo will
suffer by far the most, and Gho has
the greatest interest in the suspen-
sion of deprecated coinage.
Senator Brown asks what the
bondholders paid for their bonds, and
refers back to the darkest days of the
war, when United States bonds sold
as low as forty per cent, as if that
had anything to do with the question.
In the first place the present bond
holders are probably in very few in
stances the same who bought their
bonds at these low rates. But even
If they were, that has nothing what
ever to do with the amount they
should be paid. Tie government
pledged itself to pay the holders of
these bonds dollar for dollar, and it
is morally and legally bound to do so.
1t has no right to pay the holder of a
$1,000 bond with $500 worth of sill
yer. as it would be doing to pay off
the bondholder with Bland silver
dollars at the present rates. If silver
has deprecated in value since the
bond was issued, the government is
at least morally bound to make good
the difference, as measured by the
standard money of the world. Nor
has the government any right to ask
the bondholder what he paid for his
bond. He may have paid forty per
cent, he may have paid seventy-fve
per cent, he may have paid 125 per
cent, as he would have to to get any
of our 4 and 4I1 per cent. bonds at
present. But it makes no difference
what he has paid be is entitled to
dollar for dollar in good sound money
of full value, and he is entitled to all
of this even if he did buy his bonds
in the dark days of the rebellion,
when cur credit was low and our
bonds worth only forty cents on the
dollar. If Governor Brown invests
in Virginia bonds at present rates,
under fifty per cent, he will be sure
to claim the full face value Of the
bond, and the same if he buys up de-
preciated railroad bonds. Why then
intimate IS he does that our bond
holders are sort of criminal class
not entitled to due consideration and
full pay! 1t seems to me that Of the
two classes, the bondholder and
banker on the one side and the few
silver kings" on the other, who have
grown so suddenly enormously
wealthy at the expense of the entire
people, the former are much more
entitled to consideration and respect,
and that their views on financial
questions are Of far greater value.
These gentlemen ali insist that the
government and the national banks
do not give silver fair chance, and
that the former does not execute the
laws. But so far as / can see they
fail to show where any law is violated
OF in what respect silver is not given
e fair showing. 1t seems to me that
the government is doing all it can
through the national banks to force