The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-07-12

on account of the vast change the SyS-
tenn makes in the suffrage Of that country
Heretofore Belgium has had only about
12O, 900 voters. Under the new system she
will have about 100000, and it is esti-
mated that the double voting will bring
the number of voters to about 100000.
LET US UNDERSTAND OURSELVES.
While the country is almost unani-
mously in favor Of the repeal of the Sher-
man law and the present continuance OF
the gold standard without any attempt
to bolster up the price of silver by leg
islation, 1t is still of the highest i'm
portance that the people should under
stand thoroughly the meaning and legf-
innate purposes of the movement. At
this time gold monometallists are excit-
ing themselves most strenuously to mis-
lead the public as to the causes of the
present monetary stringency, and to load
the theory of bimetallism with odium
that does not belong to it. 1t should
not be forgotten that this country has
had the single gold standard since 1873.
We abandoned bimetallism then and
have never had any application of
it's principles since then. The Bland bill
and the Sherman bill were both attempts
to maintain the market price of silver
by furnishing a market for it. The only
material difference between them is that
the latter went farther in its application
of erroneous principles than the former.
The only difference when the Sherman
bill is repealed will be that the national
treasury will be relieved of the expendi-
ture for silver bullion, and will be bet
ter able to maintain its currency Of all
kinds on a gold basis. There will also be
a restoration of public confidence"
which will do away with the pressure Of
the past few weeks.
Beyond this there ought to be a clear
ing away of misunderstanding that will
be Of public benefit. 1t ought to be
made perfectly plain that the ''silver
measures" Of the past fifteen years have
been gold measures; that they have been
put through by gold mononetallists un-
der the guise of compromises for the
purpose Of lettering the condition Of sill
yer. In this they have been aided by
some Of the rampant silver men who
have easily been led into the most alb
surd decisions, as for example that the
government could make profit by buy
ing silver for 65 or 20 cents and making
a dollar of it. The only way in which
any profit could result would be by the
restoration of silver to its former price,
but the government was preventing that
by treating it as a commodity. Under
the circumstances it would be public
calamity if those who had procured such
legislation could succeed in making it
believed that its evil effects were the re-
suits of policy they opposed, and there
is therefore no higher duty for those who
have advocated free coinage of silver as
a proper course, Independent Of any mo-
tives of personal interest, than to keep
the fact plainly before the people that
the country has been on a gold basis for
twenty years, and that the decline of
prices which has occurred in the past
must be expected in the future. This is
the more important because the country
will also soon have a change in its tariff
policy, and the advocates of protection
will not hesitate to claim that the con-
tinued decline in the price of products of
this country, which are not in fact
affected favorably by high tariff, is due
to reform in the tariff instead Of to the
continued appreciation of gold.
One of the most misleading of the
statements thus far produced for the gold
monometallists is that of ]. B. Hender-
son in his open letter to Mr.. Carlisle.
This gentleman is a victim of the bal
ance of trade theory and adjusts all
occurrences to agree with it. He asserts
that the years following the demone-
tization act of 1878 and the resumption
act of 1875 were years of prosperity, and
Two years after adopting the single
standard. in 1875, a measure was inau-
gurated and passed for the resumption
OF specie payments, to become operative
on Jan. [, 1879 If these two measures
had remained on the statute books, in
violate and unamended, there is no
economical reason why the United States