Omaha daily bee., 1892-05-26
YAN WrCK,S TAGARIES.

tunity to familiarize himself with the
leading economic issues and especially
the history and condition OF our national
finances. He is not one OF those pro-
fessional agitators who roam over the
country spouting finance and talking
glibly OF millions and billions when in
fact they have never owned hundred
dollars and could not manage a peanut
stand without going into bankruptcy.
General Van Wyck has a large expert
ence as u successful inancier. He has
vestments in bonded securities and
lands that have appreciated in value.
He is therefore one of the best equipped
men in this country to discern the diff
ference between sound currency and u
debased currency.
The relations OF free silver coinage to
labor, discussed dispassionately as an
economic issue. would afford an inter
esting as we'll as an instructive topic for
Americas breadwinners. The address
delivered by General Van Wyck at Den
yer before the knights of Labor not only
failed to touch upon the vital points in
the text, but is inaccurate and mis-
leading. Instead OF enlightening the
toilers as to the bearing of free coinage
upon wages, cost of.living and increased
demand for workingmen, General Van
Wyck has simply rehearsed exploded
stories about conspiracics by British
money-lenders, and harped upon the al
legged wrongs that were perpetrated
upon the union soldiers when they were
paid off in greenbacls while the cred
itors of the nation have been paid off in
gold. This contrast between tho treat
ment Of 1.-THE gunholders and the bond
owners" tends to evoke sympathy and
resentment, but how does this incident
OF thirty years ago concern the wage
worker of today?
Would free coinage redress the in
Justice which may have been inflicted
during the war upon the men who wore
the blue, and would free coinage restore
to the treasury single dollar that has
been paid to the bondholder in excess
been paid off in greenbacks?
General Van Wyck knows as we'll as
anybody does that the bonds issued dur
ing the war have been taken up long
ago and the bonds now out were bought
with gold or money eXchangeable dollar
for dollar in gold
The assertion that we are dominated
by England is the veriest bosh. The
commercial depression which is as
sumed to have been the direct result of
the British conspiracy to demonetize
silver in America is not confined to this
country. England, Germany, France,
Austria, and AL Europe, for that mat
ter, have expert n led u general decline
in prices and stagnation in nearly every
branch Of industry.
According to General Van Wyck:
Labor only prospers in the sunlight of
universal freedom, when trade and en-
terprise are free in all their channels;
when money, the life and spring and
source of all industries, is pulsing warm
and strong in all the arteries of busl-
ness" That is beautiful sentence,
rounded off like poem. But what
would be the effect of universal free
trade upon American labor?
Suppose you let down the tariff bar
and let in the manufactured products of
long would most of our mills and facto-
ries continue running? Why has the
Mckinley tariff created such panic all
over Europe?
Does General Van Wyck propose to
deliver Americas toilers over to the
tender mercies of the British?
The most unseemly thing of General
Van Wyck's address is his fling at Pres.
| ident Harrison. He told his audience
that:
I'VE stand far inside the line where Gen
eral Harrison, grandfather OF the lllustrious
president, stood when in his first Inaugural
| in glowing language he pictured the danger:
| OF purely metallic currency aud insisted
| upon paper. Jackson and the elder Harrison
were in favor Of free coinage; why are moi
| Cleveland and the grandson. Don't vol
| the government
General jackson may have been IL
favor of free coinage, but the free silver
| advocates can get no comfort by any
comparison of the coinage of our day
with that during General Jackson
term. General Jackson became presi
dent March 4, 1929. During his frs
term not. n single silver standard dollar
was coined although the coinage of sill
| yer dollars was free and unrestricted
| In his second term there were just ], ,O0(
| silver dollars coined all told. During Tho
first year of Benjamin Harrison's tern
there were coined $2l, ,726,Sll in stan
dard silver dollars, and the total coinag,
of silver dollars and subsidiary silver
coins for 1889 and 1890 aggregate
$40, ,294, ,49S; while the total gold coinag,
during the same period was onl,
$3, l9l ,033. In other words, with fre,
and unlimited gold coinage and limited
silver coinage we have coined Sl3 in sill
yer for every one dollar in gold in tn,
United States mint during 1889 and 1890
The contrast between Jackson ant
Harrison as regards coinage is so glar
ing that no free coinage man SHOULD
ever allude to il.
1t may be interesting for General Val
Wyck to learn that IL was during Gen
eral Jackson's term the government raj
short OF specie and pressed France tt
pay the indemnity claims of American
| piti1ana strhia pEv,nant - yo M h ;u