Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1892-03-31

other branches Of our currency. The
greenback and the banknote have ex-
actly the same purchasing and practi-
cal legal-tender power lis gold and sill
yer. There is no unevenness anywhere.
and it is the same thing now to the
government whether il pays ;t.sldebts
in one kind or another of ouS DIVERSE
fed currency. So far as value j. hon
cerned the government can pay 1Ssld
just as well as in any kind of mi seyN
| The gold dollar is not worth II more
than the dollar of silver, or the green
back, or the bank-note dollar, and will
purchase no more of the necessaries of
life and is far less convenient for use.
The bondholder who staid at home and
specialized during the war received
gold when the soldier was compelled to
receive deprecated paper. This policy
of injustice and outrage denounced at
the time, and continue to denounce
it now. The soldier should at all times
be paid in the best money-in gold-or
in that which is as good rs gold, and l
am in favor Of so paying him now.
l notice, however, that l am asked in
the petition 1 have presented not only
to vote against the free coinage of silver
but also against the reduction from
4l2! grains to 37l4 grains Of silver in
the dollar. This request is based on
the statement Of Michael D. Harter in
his circular that it is proposed to give
37l} grains of silver legal-tender
value of 100 cents The soldiers of In
diana will know how to estimate this
statement when they are assured that
nothing now is, OF ever was, intended
by free coinage except to give back to
the people the old dollar Of 412! grains
nine-tenths fine, and therefore stand
ard silver, that well-known dollar that
received the sanction Of the greatest
minds ever known inAmerican history.
We simply seek to restore the silver
dollar as it existed when the soldiers of
the Revolution received their pensions,
and when the veterans Of the war Of
1872 were placed upon the pension roll.
No complaint was made then. Silver
money then proved itself, as it has ever
since, as good as the best. The govern
ment commits great wrong in paying
those who offer their lives in it's behalf
in deprecated currency, whether in
payment of their wages in the field, or
their bounties or pensions. 1 held dur
ing the war for the Union that the
contract for their wages ought to be
kept good with the soldiers in the field,
and the difference between the green
back at that time ought to be made up
to them by the payment of gold equi-
valent in greenbacks. Nor would l now
for any consideration known to the HUI
man mind aid in depriving the soldier
of a single farthing due to him from
his government.
! At the same time, 1 am not willing
to stand idly and silently by and allow
him to be imposed upon by those who
are seeking their own interests and Ill
terror designs through his sensitive
fears Of personal loss. The movement
OF the money power to dwarf and con-
tract the circulation Of the world more
than one-half by destroying silver cur
rency, thus promoting an aristocracy of
wealth and a government of the pluto
| cracy, Shall not muster into its services
the soldiers of Indiana if 1 can help it.
The soldier lives not for himself alone,
! but likewise for his wife and children,
and when he is gone, and his children
become part Of the great laboring,
moving, struggling mass Of the COM
munity, he desires that there shall be
enough money in circulation to pay
them fair wages for their labor and to
give them fair chance in the battle of
life. He does not wish to see con-
tracted currency boarded away in the
hands of the few owned and controlled
by great corporations OF syndicates,
with here and there meager amount
for the laboring people.
But great stress is laid by the enemies
of silver on the fact that when bullion
is taken to the mint and coined the
coin as money is worth more than the
bullion. This is equally true as to gold
and silver both. and if it should stop
the coinage of one metal it should also
stop the coinage of the other. But in
@smuch as the great body of the people
farmers, mechanics, wage-workers,
pensioners and other worthy classes
have to do only with the money itself.
with the dollars after they are coined,
with the currency after it has received
the authority of the government, 1 dc
not see how they can suffer any loss,
certainly no more in silver than in gold
at the mints. If the act of coinage puts
silver at par with gold, it goes with
that value into the hands of the people