Middletown transcript., 1892-03-17


every dollar In the hands Of the men,
women and children of the land, with /
stand the current Of demand for gold
when it has reached a premium, and
the panic that is sure to follow ?
Let any man ask himself why the
entire business of the country has been
carried on for the last twelve years
with such smoothness and facility
alike in the smallest as the greatest
transaction-from the dollar that paid
for the toll Of day to the millions rep
resented in the loans of great states or
incorporated companies-with no dis
counts or calculations arising from
the money employed. It has been be-
cause the central piuot upon which the
entire business Of the country has re-
volved has been the piUot of gold coin
held in reserve IN Tfeasury-placed
there to meet, and ready and able to
pay when due and on demand every
obligation Of the government in specie
in coin of either metal And the gold
SO reserved has impaired its own
stability of value to the silver coin, to
which was attached the quality and
legal right of convertibility into gold.
But if the silver coin had not been
fortified by this convertibility at the
will Of the holder into gold-then We
would have witnessed the disastrous
effects of instability in measures of
value and the transactions OF busi-
ness have referred to would have
been well nigh impossible.
Only by careful administration-onl
by the creation and maintenance of
their gold reserve have the United
States been able to maintain in circula
tion everywhere within their jurisdic-
tion, every dollar under every form of
authorized paper or coin emission-on
an absolute, unquestioned equality
equal only because convertible into
gold.
Now who will dare-or what Ameri-
can who pauses to think, will have the
heart to deprive the masses Of his
countrymen of that which gives life
and health to their daily dealing !?
Yet the fres coinage of silver as now
proposed would accomplish this helm
GUS wrong.
"How long would it be before the
suction pipes of demand for gold would
drain the treasury of every ounce of
that metal and throw upon our silver
currency and the various forms Of paper
substitutes, the test of their actual
ualues If Congress can create values
ruin may be stayed but Congress can
do no such thing-Congress cannot
make blade Of grass. Yet such is
the power claimed by such legislation
as is now proposed. Then would come
the era of distrust, and its shadow
would darken every avenue of industry
and enterprise-discouraging outlay,
diminishing employment. reducing
wages, and sending business men into
liquidation.
eff. with such nominal money, debts
already incurred may be discharged
future transactions would be beyond
the reach Of such bad faith and defalca-
tion, and prices would advance and ad-
just themselves to meet the risks.
Labor, poor labor, would be the
last to have its wages join in the pro-
cession of advance-and yet the daily
wages of the working people form by
far the largest aggregate of money to
be affected by the degradation in the
value of the dollar.
'Let this thought be borne in mind
when the immense aggregate of the
wages of labor is assailed by any policy
that would make silver dollar, or
paper dollar of less worth, Of less pur-
chasing power, than a gold dollar.
1T is not necessary to draw picture
of the distressful results that affiict a
country deprived Of the anchorage of
stable standard Of value-for uncer-
tainty would attend every business
notwithstanding in the chances
would replace careful and settled CAL
culations-and fluctuations like the
tides Of the sea would not only twice a
day, but every hour in the day. unsettle
and set at naught all calcu-
lations.
''Surely, il does not require courage
to oppose measures that threaten to
bring about such condition Of af-
fairs-and indeed nothing but fool-har-
diness can describe the condition of
mind that can deliberately advoc ate it.
'There seems to be body of. unpa-
patriotic politicians in the ranks Of the
of the House of Repre-
who find nothing but pleas
ure in the present dangerous condition
of things, and to enjoy the opportunity
of assisting to place their party oppo-
nents in false position-but the stern
judgment of an earnest and honest
public sentiment will award them the
contempt and punishment they well
deserve.
"But my word of earnest and sin
cere warning is to those Democrats
who shall have thoughtlessly assisted |
to push aside the great and essential |
measures of reduction and reformation
in our present onerous and sitting
system of tariff taxation and admins
Lration-a system that has driven our
merchant marine from the high seas,
and blighted the great vocation Of
agriculture in all its branches-has
pent American industry up within our
OWN boundaries, and turned loose upon |
It the fangs aud talons of monopolists
from which it cannot escape.