Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-23
HARMONIOUS DEMOCRACY.
How Grover Cleveland and Mike Harter
Agree With the Ohio Silver Plank-Gov-
ernor Campbell Has the Nerve to Risk 1t
The Eirhtv Cent Dollar

1
your attention to what the leaders of the
Democratic party, who are chef in it:
counsels, say. No one has spoken with
greater ability on the Democratic side than
| the ex-President ofthe United States, Hon
| Grover Cleveland. His letter written but 9
| few months ago, taken in connection with
his former ut1erances upon this subject
| show that nothing could be more disastrous
| in his Judgment to the business interests oi
| the country, and to the best welfare of all
| the people. than the free and unlimited
| coinage of silver Let me read you Grover
| Cleveland'S letter to General Warmer and
| other members of the Forty-eiglIth Congress-
| "The letter which have had the honor TO
| receive from youinvites, and, indeed, ,obliges
| me to give expression to some grave public
| necessities, although in advance of the mo-
ment when they would become the objects
| OF my official care and partial responsibility.
Your sotcitude thatmy judgment shall have
been carefully and deliberately formed is en-
| tircly just, and 1 accept the suggestion in the
| same friendly spirit in which it has been
| made. 1t is also fully justified by the nature
OF the financial crisis, which under the opeT-
alton of the act of Congress of February 2s,
ISIS, is now close at hand. By a compliance
with the requirements of that law all the
vaults of the Federal Treasury have been,
and are heaped full of silver coins, which are
now worth less than IS per cent of the gold
dollar prescribed as the unit of value in
section IL, of the act of February u, 1873, and
which, with the silver certificates represent
ing such coin are receivable for all public
dues.
Being thus receivable while also con-
stantly increasing in quantity at the rate of
SIS 900 900 year, it has followed, of necessity,
that the flow of gold into the treasury has
been steadily diminished, Silver and silver
certificates have displaced, and are now dis
placing gold, and the sum of gold in the Fed
| eral treasury now available for the payment
of the gold obligations of the United States
and for the redemption of the United States
notes called tgreenbacks,' If not already en-
1ad GlHT YlaQ rlPh on
croachment. These are facts which, as they
do not admit of differences of opinion, call
for no argument.
METALS MUST NOT PART COMPANY.
'These being the facts of our present con-
dition, our danger and our duty to avert
that danger would seem to be plain. 1 hope
that you concur with me and with the great
majority of our fellow citizens in deeming it
most desirable at the present juncture to
maintain and continue in use the mass of
our gold coin as well as the mass of silver al
ready coined. This is possible by a present
suspension of the purchase and coinage of
silver. am not aware that by any other
method is it possible. 1t is of momentous
importance to prevent the two metals from
parting company; to prevent the increasing
displacement of gold by the coinage of sill
yer; to prevent the disuse of gold in the Gus
tom houses of the United States in the daily
business OF the people; to prevent the ulti-
mate expulsion of gold by silver. Such a
financial crisis as these events would GER
tainly precipitate, were it now to
follow upon SO long period Of CONNER
cial depression, would involve thepeople Of
every city and every State in the Union in
prolonged and disastrous trouble. The re-
yfval of business enterprise and prosperity
SO ardently desired and apparently so near
would be hopelessly postponed. Gold would
be withdrawn to its boarding places, and an
volume of our currency would speedily take
place. Saddest of all, in every workshop,
mill, factory, store, and on every railroad
and farm, the wages of labor, already de-
pressed, would suffer still further depres-
sion by scaling down of the purchasing
power of every so-called dollar paid into the
hand of toll. From these impending calam-
tiles it is surely most patriotic and CRATE
ful duty OF the representatives of the people
to deliver them. am, gentlemen, with sim
cere respect, your fellow citizen,
ALBANY, February "a, 1885,"
HARTER CALLS IT SUICIDE
Michael ID. Harter, the new Democratic
Congressman from the Mansfield district,
and a representative man in his party, is &C.
credited with saying:
of we are unfortunate and unwise enough
to make silver party question and favor
the coinage of 20 cents worth of silver into
q legal tender silver dollar (the profit going
to the owner of the silver as it does under
free coinage), l believe we will lose New
York, ConnecticutandN New Jersey, and that
it will prevent us carrying Massachusetts,
New Hampshire and SIX or eight other now
doubtful States, all of which We can carry if
we nominate great party leader and steer
clear of this free silver craze. The adoption
of this wild idea will not bring into the
Democratic column solitary State in the
Union. 1t will be political suicide, and we
might as well make an assignment as party
and have 4 receiver appointed
What Mr.. Harter believed SO unjust and
unwise has occurred. He uses strong lam
gGage and forcibly presents the case of one
wing of the Democratic party.
My competitor has said in his reported
interviews that in sentiment, upon this SUBJ
1ect, the Democrats of Ohio are very much
divided, that the vote in the convention
was a very close one. This close vote only
emphasizes the danger in the minds of a
large number of Democrats of the State of
the free coinage declara tion, and enjoins the
importance and necessity of the friends of
honest money standing together, as in all
contests OF the past they have been forced
TO stand together, for an honest currency
Governor Campbell declared that while he
had his doubts about it, he was willing to
chance Tree ard unlimited coinage of silver.
am not willing to "chancen it, Under
present conditions, the country cannot
afford TO chance it. l can imagine nothing
which would be more disturbing to our
credit, and more deranging to our CONNER
cial and financial affairs than to make this
the dumping ground of the worlds silver
Ihe SILVER producer might be benefited, but
the silver user, never.
ONOLb DAM SdOC1LD PROt1T FIRST
If there is to be any profit in the coinage
of silver, it should go to the Government.
1t has gone to the Government ever since
the Bland-Allison act. This new declara-
tion would take it from the Governmentand
give it to the silver producer. Now the peo-
pie know that If We had two yardsticks one
three feet in length and the other two and a
half 1eet IN length, the buyer would ALWAYS
have his goods measured to him by the
shorter stick, and that the longer stick
would go into permanent disuse. 1t is ex-
actly SO with money. A 100-cent dollar will
go out of circulation alongside an SO-cent
dollar, which is legal tender by the fat Of
the Government. And no class of people
will suffer so much as the wage Garner and
agriculturist. If it is the farmer you would
Deneht-there is one way to do it. Make the
bushel measure with which he measures his
wheat for the buyer, three pecks instead of
four.
l am in favor of the double standard, but
am not in favor of the free and unlimited
coinage of silver in the United States until
the nations of the world shall Join us in
guaranteeing to silver status which their
laws now accord to gold. The double stand
ard implies equality at a ratio and that
equality can only be established by tho con-
current law of nations. 1t was the concur
rent law OF nations that made the double
standard; it will require the concurrent law
of nations to reinState and sustain it. Until
then for US to decree the free and unlimited
that our silver dollars would surely depre-
ciate and gold would go to a premium.
SHORT DOLLARS FOR SOLDIERS.
II the Democratic Idea Should Prevail PEN
Riona Would R.-a