The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1893-08-19

the situation at Washington. If
the president and congress cannot
harmonize their views and act to-
gether without long debate and de- |
lay, the crisis through which the
trade and industry of the country
are passing must and will grow
more acute. Is there any way of
bringing them together? Only, as
the Recorder thinks. by putting
such a pressure of public opinion
upon them both as will compel
them to meet on middle ground
and take decisive action.
The president is not justified In
asking for the unconditional repeal
of the present silver law. To post.
pone the definite readjustment of
our currency laws, leaving silver
demonetized and its use as stand
ard money metal wholly prohibited
would, in the Recorders opinion,
precipitate financial and business
catastrophe compared with which
all past panics would seem to have
been mere bugaboos.
Absolute gold monometallism
spells Ruin, universal and unspar-
ing ruin, for the people of this
country.
Congress is right in demanding
securities for the silver already
coined and represented in our paper
circulation, and a guarantee for
the permanent retention of both
metals and the historic double
standard, at a ratio to be fixed with
a due regard to the existing con-
ditions of the currencies and COIN
ages of the world. Congress stands
for the American people in this
matter. 1t is their dearest inter-
ests which it is defending in de-
Tending their constitutional cur
rency-gOld ana silver.
The single gold standard has
never been sanctioned or desired
by the people of this country. Their
will has been over and over again
expressed to the contrary at every
election and in every congress for
sixteen years past. Their deter
mination that silver shall not be
outlawed at the mints has been
clearly and forcibly shown by over
whelming majorities in both
branches of congress. 1t never
was stronger than it is today.
The clamor of the money chang
ers, the usurers, and the stock
gamblers, inspired by the English
influences that radiate from Lom-
bard Street and which represent
the organized rapacity of the world
has not shaken the faith of the
American masses one iota in the
honesty, the justice, the fairness,
and, above all, the. vital necessity
of maintaining silver side by side
with gold in their notional money
system.
There may have been change
in the relative measuring values
of the two metals. That has often
occurred in the course of history.
But that change, whatever it may
be, can be corrected by a change in
the ratio of coinage from the pres
ent 16 to to, say, 10 or even 20 to
l. 1t does not justify the total
abolition of silver as a standard
money metal. England is report.
ed to be at this moment exchang-
ing her gold for Indian silver ON
the basis of % to l, showing that
even the leading gold standard
country recognizes that silver pos
sesses an exchangeable value with
gold at some ratio that can be fix
ed. And we may be sure that the
Bank of England, in fixing 1t at %
to l, has been as unfair to silver
and as partial to gold as it dared
to be.
The Recorder earnestly calls for
a general expression of the popular
will, loud and clear and general
enough to make the president and
congress understand that the peo.
pie demand immediate relief from
the sitting and stagnating cur.
rency condition from which they
are now suffering; and that, while
they want the act of 1890 repealed,
they also want the free coinage OF
silver restored at such a new ratio
as the wisdom of congress may see
fit to fix.
The money power has spoken for
gold monometallism, and Mr.,
Cleveland seems to be its execu-
tive echo. Now let the people be
heard and Mr.. Cleveland be clear.
ly informed that congress, and not
he, represents the national will on
this matter of admitting silver as