The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-09-13
A Champion OF Honest Money"

THE SUNDAY HERALD has shown that,
though the tariff issue is the real question be-
fore the country, Major Mckinley, the Re
publican aspirant to the Governorship of
Ohio. and the author of the present tariff law,
has preferred to stand before the people, less
as the champion of that discredited measure,
than as the champion of ''honest money"
Mindful of the defeat sustained by Republi-
can candidates in the Congressional elections
of last fall upon the issue of the Mckinley
bill, the Republican gubernatorial candidate
has not dared to risk his chances of success in
the Ohio campaign ON that issue, and he has
accordingly vaulted with agility and assur-
ance into the saddle of the .'sound money!
championship.
Being now an advocate Of sound money
Mr.. Mckinley, in all his speeches thus far in
the campaign has made feature of what is
known as ex-President Cleveland's anti-silver
letter, and, quoting the contents of that letter
before Republican voters as the dictates of a
sound monetary policy, insists, singularly
enough, that he and the ex-President occupy
the same platform. That is, he asks Ohio
voters to cast their ballots for him because he
takes the same ground that Mr.. Cleveland
does on this question. Yet, 1t will readily
occur to most of those voters that this is the
same Cleveland of whom Mr.. Mckinley said
few months ago, that he s'had discredited
one of our precious metals, one of our great
products" meaning our silver product
Evidently Orator Puff has still two tones to
his voice.
1t has always been MIR. Clevelands position
that the extension of silver coinage must be
carefully guarded against producing depre-
ciated currency. Mr.. Mckinley now pretends
to occupy the same ground as Mr.. Cleveland.
Yet, as the Republican leader on the floor of
the last House, he pushed through a bill
which compels the Government to purchase
S54,OOO,OOO OF silver each year, and issue
Treasury certificates for it. If this measure is
permitted to accomplish its perfect work, 1t
will In time degrade the currency to the same
level as free coinage would. Nevertheless in
the face of this fact, Mr.. Mckinley under
takes to pose before the people of his State as
the champion of ''honest money!
His opponent, Governor Campbell, is known
to be out of sympathy with the position of a
section of his party on this question; but he
has never taken part In the advocacy of
schemes of silver purchase whose effect
would be precisely similar to that of free
SoihaSC1 OIueF names. lllG
difference in the attitude of the two candi-
dates is perfectly understood in Ohio and
throughout the country.
But this is not the only question upon which
Mr. Mckinley, in his present campaign
speeches, is doubling upon his own record. 1t
is well known that the Mckinley bill when
first prepared, and indeed for some time after
its introduction into the House, contained no
reciprocity provision. 1t was originally a bill
OF which Mr.. Blaine was constrained to say
that it would not make market abroad for
one bushel of American wheat or one barrel
OF American pork. The reciprocity clauses
were afterward introduced much against tho
will of Mr.. Mckinley, Mr.. Reed, and other
Republican leaders. Now Mr. Mckinley is
pointing with pride to those clauses as consti-
tuting the most important and beneficial
feature of the measure. Mr.. Reed now, az
formerly, derides that feature as an imprac-
ticable humbug; and In this opinion he is
probably honest-he is at least thoroughly
consistent. 1t is Mr.. Mckinley who, in ad-
vocating now what he formerly opposed, is in
consistent. dishonest and hypocritical.