The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-12-28
THE SILVER QUESTION
AND THE QUESTION OF ULTIMATE RE-
DsMPTloN OF OUR PAPER
CURRENCY.

A Leadicg Republican Thinker and
Writer Gives His Views He Takes No
STOCK in Either John Sherman, ss a
Financier, or Mckinley as Tariff
Tinker.
YoUNGsTowN, o., ID &c. "a, 1893,
EDITOR NEws-DEMoCRAT-1n your issue
of ths nineteenth lust. you hltude to some
speech of mine, OF winch you bal evil
IDENTITY only an incorrect report, aud say:
"His plea is mat the repeal Of the Sher-
man silver law has narrowed tue hasis OF
credit to the single gold Standard
The question involved ie of such
supreme moment aud gravity that l do
not like to have my Dsition misappre-
heuded. / do conteno, indeed, that there
has been u shrinkaRe OF all exchange
values, general reduction OF wages and
widespread bankruptcy, and that these
caIamiies have come thronRing and
must come, In spite OF high protective
tariff, | coutend, moreover, that these
misfortuuea, 80 mAuy and so dire, are
directly attributable TO mistaken le9is
latiop aud, even more, TO dishonest ad-
ministration. contend that the effort TO
compel the discharge OF obligations, I'M de
payable in either silver or gold ct the
option OF the debtor, In gold alone, Is a
m ost uumistRksble, p moSt inexcusable,
a most infam Gus act OF iyrany.
The repeal Of the purchase clause OF the
Sherman law has not been "the sad in
etrumenI Of all our woe,n o. the contrary
the original passage of the act was a very
shrew device for nastening the cAtss
tTnphe toward which the country had been
tor years surely tending. Is pledged the
gov vsrnment TO tho maintainEncs OF the
parity of the money, issued under it, with
gold, instead of leaving that TO be accom-
plished, as through all the past, by ths
uatura' workings Of the law OF supply and
demAud Chis in Gifsc. tranpf ,rrsd to the
creditor an option which by im-
memorial lap ana usaVe TAI belonged
10 the debtor, and permitted him to say in
what sort OF money he would eEac; phy-
meut, Again, that act substituted for she
certificates issued under the 3 and-AllisOn
ay, which were redUEmable only 10 sil-
yer, Treasury notes IaTHDle in coin, No
harm would nave come from tnis ch AUge,
with an honest administration OF Ine
treasury dep Rriment, nut, unfortunately,
secretaries of the treasury, Republic sns
aud D Democrats alike, for score Of years
poet, ave seen IL TO defy The clear me an
log OF the law and construed coin to mean
god. The rstult was precisely wnAt
ought to have been forseen and what waS.
no doubt, anticipated by the Trainer OF
the measure. The country was thus bur-
ried 90 "A single gold standard, md, as the
dema nd for gold rapidly iucreshed tile
supply TO meet it became less and less,
ID ,bts grew and assets wAned npace.
Values shrunk, wages fell and the cOun-
Jry wBs whelmneu 10 well niRn universal
disaster, The mischief began under pro-
lection ami must continue under free
trade. You ca mot lengthen your yard
stick without having fiwer number Of
yards ia u given piece Of goods. You
cannot make your tlaal Payment, ulti-
mste redemption dollars fewer and
aud dearer without having fewer OF them
as the equivalent of given piece of prop
erty, 81 the law, ne Evlwed by the econ
cmists, Ia certainly Iue. THE purchas-
ing power of money is universally as lie
quantity, multiplied by its eff cieucy.n
Reduce the quantity Of ultimate payment
money, and land and labor, all products
from the farm and articles from the fac
tory, must ia u in exchange value. Credits
do not fall. 1t takes the came number Of
dollars, whether they be cheap or whether
they be dear, plenty or scare, 10 meet
them. Thus you see il m Skes great deal
of diff srence so she debtors of this land,
whether there be six hundred millions of
gold and elk hundred millions Of silver,
equally available for the discharge of
their obligations, or only Il shrinking six
hundred millions OF gold,
Now the importance of all this must sp-
pear, when il 10 considered that, until
never was a coutr Lct m 2de under toe laws
OF the United States for the payment OF
money from the founding of the r 'public
down, except where gold was esp psciallY
provided so d means Of iIs discharge, but
but Was legally, honestly, honorsbly pay
able in dollars of three hundred and
seventy me and quarter grains each OF
pure silver Indeed, every outstanding
bond of the U Jiied States today 10, by iIs
very terms, written on its very face, "P Ay-
able In coin OF the standard value OF the
United States on the fourteen OF July
eighteen hundred and seventy" II Is be-
cause am q conservative in finance that
insiaI on the restoration of silver 10 its
ancient place as money metal, es a
medium of exchange and standard of
value. l. is because / believe in the jnS
volatility Of contracts that / would have
the people demand, with an earnestness
not TO be misund srstood and q persistence
not to be denied, tha. legislation and adj
ministration should give them an oppor-
iulity Of discharRing their obligations ex-
actly as made.
Canton furnishes q p tactical demonstre-
ton of the truth OF what have written.
C. Aultmau q Co is a old and honorable
manufacturing establishment, capably
managed, no doubt, honest and just. It
has failed. The papers Bsy that It's ns-
sets are Two million, seven hundred thous-
and dollars and It's liabilities one million.
With such prepondera nee OF assets over
liabilities, why should IL 90 TO the wall
Now, am stranger to its AH airs and know
nothing of them, but venture 70 say that
those assets are largely made up of far
mers, notes, and G. Aultmau d Co. do not
pay, because the farmers DO not pay. 4.
The farmers do not psy because their
lands have fallen TO Rolo value, less
than onF-hAlt of their former coin value.
and their mortgages and taxes are still
counted in coin, but paid In gold. Still
further, everything they raise, their wheat
and corn. their barley and their rye. has
been touched with the same destroying,
financial blight and will not bring any
thing like the number OF gold dollars ns
it did formerly of coin dollars. SO the
misfortune of the western farmers be-
comes the misf )rtune of G. Aultman q
Co, and the misfortune of g. Aultman *
Co. becomes the misfortune of hundreds,
perhaps thousands, whom they owe or en-
pioy.
This IL q home illustration, and for that
reason 10 here used, but IL 10 only one of a
thousand or more, thai might serve
equally well. The end 10 not yet, nor will
IL come, until the old measure of property
and debts, assets and credits Ia restored.
Indeed we may yet see fulfilled the pre-
dlction made by Mr.. Carlisle, when rep
resentativs in congress from Kentucky.
"Such a scheme" he said, speaking of the
effort to demonatize silver, would ulti-
mNtely entail more misery on the human
race than all the wars, pestilenceB and
famInes that ever occurred In the history
- tha .yorId w I, "a MppET,T