Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-02-26

Silver coin in the Treasury. 2ss. .s55.s7s
2Ss 474,I54
Certificates in circulation .. .297 .84S,3l7
s.s25,s37
Of this silver not 10 circulation IL we de-
duct the bullion we find only So 991 207 not
in active circulation, while $152, GAG 563 of
gold is not in any sense in circulation.
And the gold certificates, like the gold
itself, does not circulate among the people.
The silver certificates can be found among
the people from Maine to Texas.
The only trouble is that there is not
enough of them among the producers of the
country.
10 this one fact is the essence of the claims
upon which all true bimetalists base their
cause. There is not money enough among
the farmers and plsnters-tbe men who pro-
duce the food of the world and the material
from which all its clothing is made do not
get enough for their productions to leave
any money with them after paying labor
bills and for needed supplies.
The distress to-day prevailing among the
agricultural classes throughout America and
Europe is entirely due to this cause.
The low prices now prevailing, for the
leading staples produced on American
farms. wheat cotton, corp, meat and tobac-
CO is the direct result of the advance in the
price of gold-the increase of its purchas-
ing power, since it became the sole standard
of value, by the unfortunate legislation of
1873. 1t could not be otherwise, for when
more than one-half of the metallic money
of the world was violently and without any
historical precedent deprived of its highest
functions-that of measuring values-it
was inevitable that prices should fall. In-
deed that was the design of the schemers
who brought about the legislation referred
to.
The fail Of silrer soas not due to natural
causes but the result O statute taaO.
The openly svowed reason given in Eu-
rope was ''the apprehension of the creditor
classes that unless one of the money metals
was deprived Of it's functions that money
would become too cheap" (See page Rs-
port of q. s. Silver Commission.)
1t was a deliberate, hesrtless act of rob-
berry directed against the taxpayers and
wealth producers of the world, and unless
speedily corrected, it will bring untold dis
asters.
The producers cannot long be the only
sufferers, for unless checked it may lead TO
an open reputation of the vast debts in
countries now er-burdened by taxation.
By what right, in law, can any nation
thus violently change the relation between
debtors and creditors.
"Debtors, and among them the State,
have the right to pay in gold or silver, and
this right cannot be taken away without
dis; urbing the relation of the debtors and
creditors, to the prejudice of the debtor to
the extent of perhaps one-half, certainly
one-third.
"To increase all debts at one blow is
measure SO viOient, so revolutionary, that
l cannot believe that the Government will
propose it, or that the Chambers will sano-
tion it," Thus spoke Prof. Lavelege before
The Belgian Monetary Commission in 1878
seen by comparing the prices of commodi-
ties now with those then prevailing.
It is true that Belgium member of the
Latin Union-did not demonetize silver,
but with France aud other nations compos-
ing that Union, she closed her mints to the
free coinage of silver and thus became a
party to it's downfall.
BY what right did our Congress do this
act which violently disturbed ''the relation
Of debtor and creditor to the injury of the
debtor?" i
It has been shown on the Senate floor
that it was accomplished b7 fraud and mis-
representation. 1t has been characterized
as high handed crime by Senators.
81 charge it with guilt, compared with
which the robbery of two hundred millions
is venial,' said Senator Howe in the Senate
in 1878.
THE greatest crime of the age" Is what
Judge K. W. Hughes says of it in his able
work on ''The American Dollar"
If Congress possessed the right to de-
monetizs o1e metal it follows that they have
the right to demonetize the other.
Demonetizing one metal and thus en-
hancing the value of the other is robbery
of the taxpayer and debtor Demouetizing
both metals would be a robbery of the pub
lie and private creditor. Neither is justifia-
BILE. Neither is constitutional.
Bi-metallists simply demand the restora-
ton of silver to it's time-bonored place as a
conjoint measure of values at the establish
ed ratio. They demand the cessation of the
legalized robbery of the people, now con-
tiuued, by which all silver instead Of being
coined as gold is, for all freely, is coined at
an enormous profit by the governments OF
the world.
Enlightened selfinterest should prompt
the withdrawal of all opposition on the part
of the great salared class, mauy of whom
now thiuk that an advance in prices would
be to their disadvantage, for as surely as
day follows night 80 surely will there be
reduction of salaries demanded by the peo-
Pile if this great wrong upon the taxpayers
is not remedied.
Free coinage, and that alone, can restore
silver to parity with coin. The general
prosperity which would follow this just ac-
tion will be shared by all the people.
National interest and pride in our nation
al development, should prompt every
American citizen to aid by his voice and his
vote the accomplishment of this act Of JUS
tice.
By the testimony taken before the British
Royal Commission it was shown conclusive
" that the fall in which has brought such
distress upon the agricultural interests
there is entirely due to the legislation
which destroyed the measure functions of
| silver.
j That wheat-all wheat would be worth
oe t<, III canka mar bv,shol mora than IL