The herald., 1893-08-03
THE SILVER PLATFORM.

| The report of the committee on reEo
lutions was then read.
-
THE SILvER PLATFORM.
A Vigorous Demand for the Money of
the Constitution.
CHICAGO, Aug. 2.-The committee on
resolutions this afternoon submitted a
long report. The preamble recites that
bimetallism is as ancient as human
history. For more than 5000 years gold
and silver came down through the ages
hand in hand, their relations having
varied but few points in all that time,
then almost invariably through legisla-
ton; that both metals are named to-
gether, indissolubly united in the con-
stitution of the United States as the
money basis of this country; that in
1878, without the previous demand OF
any political party or any part OF the
people; without public discussion, all
yer was stricken from the place it occu-
pied since the days of Abraham and
Pharaoh, under circumstances of such
secrecy that A. G. Thurman, w. III.
(then speaker of the house,, j. A. Gar.
uciu duQ OtUoI AcuU0fb Vi COukI0eS
voting for the bill, subsequently pub.
licly declared they did not know until
long afterwards that 60 great q change
had been made in the financial system;
hat the debates in congress show
that the measure was partly as
cribed to Ernest Seyd, q London
banker, who, it is claimed, was sent to
Washington by the moneyed classes OF
H., IL IL % hxr
secret, corrupt means; that President
long subsequently that he did not know
of this attack on silver was to double
the purchasing power of gold, thus re-
ducing the price of all commodities, ar
resting enterprise, impoverishing the
toiler and degrading mankind; that the
awful consequences OF this act are now
upon the whole world.
Continuing, Che report says: We
stand in the midst of unparalleled die
tress-in the shadow of impending
calamities beyond estimate. The ruling
industry of the people who inhabit one
third of the area of this republic has
been stricken down; property values
have been destroyed; workmen COM
PEELED to fly as from pestilence. Hon
est toilers, mum bering hundreds Of thou
sands, have been thrown out of en-
ployment to eat the bread of
charity or starve. The products
of the farm and workshops are depre-
ciated in price until production ceases
to be profitable. The money of the
country, inadequate for the business of
the land, has gravitated to the banks
while the people, distrusting the banks,
demanded their deposits to hoard or to
hide. Mercantile houses are going to
the wall by the thousand, because the
masses have not the means to buy even
the necessities of life. The movement
of the great crops being gathered de-
roandn a vnpb p.,ae,,-.t os e~---~.-ey - fz1Ci-
the banks are unable to furnish. In the
midst of these conditions the daily press
is clamoring for the repeal of the Sher-
man act, although it's repeal means the
stoppaee of the issue of more than
S3, 000, 900 every month; ignoring the
fact that to hold the balance level be-
tween the debtor and the creditor; the
fact that the supply OF currency must
increase with increased population and
business power. The growth OF the
population is 33 per cent every 10 years
the increase of business is much
greater" =,
The preamble then quotes at length
from the utterances OF James 6. Blaine
Daniel Webster and Secretary Carlisle
| in favor of bimetallic currency and Hon.
John Sherman on the dangers OF none
| tary contraction.
The resolutions then say:
There must be no compromise OF thit
question. All legislation demonetizinl
silver or restricting the coming thereo
must be Immediately completely re
pealed by an act restoring the coinage o
the country to the conditions estab
lished by the founders of the nation
which continued over 80 years withou
complaint OF any part of our people
Every hours delay undoing the corrup
work of Ernest Seyd and our foreign en-
| emies is an insult to the dignity of tn
| American people; crushing burden OF
their prosperity; an attempt to place u
again under the yoke from which Georg
Washington and his compatriots rescue'
US.
We assert that the only remedy TO
the purely metallic financial troubles i
to open the mints of the nation to gol
and silver on equal terms at the oil
ratio of 16 of silver to one of gold
Whenever silver bullion can be ex
changed at the mints for legal tende
silver dollars worth 100 cents, that mo
ment 4l2L grains of standard silve
will be worth 100 cents; and as com
merce equalizes the prices of all com
modities throughout the world, when
ever 4121s grains OF standard silver ar
worth 100 cents in the Unite'
States, it will be worth that everywher'
else and cannot be bought for less
While it will be urged that such result
would enhance the price of silver bul
lion, it is sufficient for us to know tha
similar case will be made in the price
of every kind of property. except gold
Legislation to demonezize silver ha
given an unjust increase to the value o
gold at the cost of the prosperity o
mankind. Wheat and all other agricul
tural products have ridden side by sid
with silver.
While the Sherman act of July 14tl
was device of the enemy to preven
the restoration of free coinage, and
greatly Objectionable because it conSin
ues the practical exclusion of silve
from the mints and reduces it from
money metal to q commercial commodi
ty, nevertheless its repeal, without tn
restoration OF free coinage, would stol
the expansion of our currency require,
by the growth in population and bust
ness widen still further the distanc
hatwaan the two uracous metala thu