Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1893-09-06

cago only fourteen months ago, and
| therefore he should refuse to vote for
the repeal. If it were decreed
that silver money was to perish and the
world of the producer and the poor was
to undergo the suffering and sorrow of
the road which leads to a golu standard,
it should not be their fault. With the
passage of the repeal bill the fall IN ell
yer would certainly be equal to that
which followed the action of the Indian
council, if, indeed, it would
not be greater, because our an
nual purchase Of silver exceeded the
coinage of India. After that repeal
silver would sink to the level of the de-
mand created by its use in the arts and
the occasional replenishing of sub
sidiary coin. Would not the remaining
silver dollar participate in this general
decline? And what would become of
it in the trading world when silver
strikes the bottom? Under such con-
ditions he hardly thought that after the
repeal of the Sherman law the gold and
silver dollar would be kept at a parity.
Referring to the Democratic platform,
Mr.. Vance asked if it was meant that by
coming no silver we should thereby
make no discrimination against either
metal. Did the platform mean that we
should first cut off the coinage of silver
and then show no discrimination, but
coin equally of both? And after that
when the, platform said that the dollar
unit OF all coinage OF both metals must
be of equal intrinsic and eXchangeable
value, did it mean that we must first re-
duce, by hostile legislation, the intrin-
sic value of silver so as to render carry
ing out of that pledge an impossibility
And when it says that this intrinsic and
Il tod
through international agreement" did
it mean that we should first increase the
disparity in order to facilitate the task
of getting foreign nations to agree to coin
it with us at 153 to l? And failing in
that, when the platform goes on to say
''Or by such safeguards of legislation as
shall ensure the maintenance Ofthe par
ity of the two metals in equal power
of every dollar at all times in the
market and i'm the payment of debts"
did it mean that these legislative safe
guards should be applied while the sill
yer dollar was still alive, SO as to help to
maintain its parity with gold, or, after
Its coinage was stopped and its intrinsic
value was reduced so that it was virtu
ally dead? Did it mean that it should
be good in payment of the public debts,
or only debts among private parties and
golden eye to the bOndholders and
a broad silver smile to common people
who loved the old dollar? When the
platform denounced the Sherman act as
a "cowardly makeshift," did it mean a
makeshift for free coinage of silver, or
the use of gold-a makeshift for bimet-
aliSm or mOnOmetalism 1.-THE trainers
of that plank meant that it was cow
ardly makeshift for the free coinage of
silver, was not this bill for its re-
peal without a line in its place
a greater coward and worse make
shift? If it was meant that it was q
cowardly makeshift for gold monometal
ism, was not the language of the plat
makeshift for the truth? Finally, if
the language of the platform, taken
altogether, meant only that we were
to oblige the bankers, bondhold-
ers and stock brokers first, by
unconditional repeal, accompanied only
by short stump speech in the belly of
the act, saying that it is our policy at
some future time-the Lord knows when
to do something further-the Lord
knows what-in the direction of carry
ing out the other promises Of the plat
form, were not its makers and uphold
ers Of the declaration of policy and
purpose open to the charge of insincer-
lty and Of SO framing words as to de-
ceive the people whose suffrages they
were seeking?
If such an Interpretation Of the plat
form as was contended here by those
who will repeal, and presumably by the
President, had been announced during
the campaign of last year, Mr.. Vance
said, he was quite sure he would not
have carried his state North Carolina
by 90, 900 votes; and he believed further
that he could not have carried a single
electoral vote south Of the Potomac
River.
1t was said that there was no abandon
ment of the Chicago platform in the I'M
conditional repeal of the Sherman law,
but only postponement. He wondered
if in any of our political literature, rich
as it is in ingenuity and device, full as it
is Of eloquence and true genius, over
burdened as it is with every conceiva-
Wildcatism and humbuggery, which
a hundred years of free govern
ment, wherein men of all opinions
have had chance to ventilate
them, anything could be found ap-
preaching in absurdity the incorpora-
ton in this bill of a part Of the Chicago
platform. Was there ever cat trotting
through the tangled thickets Of the AL
leghenies or roaming over the barren
hills Of the Rocky Mountains, so wild
and untamable at this cat Was there
ever any bug discovered and classified
by science with hum equal to the hum
of this bug?
The Democratic party in 1884 and
1888 and again in 1892 made certain
pledges to the people that they would
make certain financial pledges if the
people would only put them in power
where they could enact laws. Last year
it promised to secure the use of both
gold and silver as currency and main
tain the parity of the two. These
promises were contained in one para
graph, and in good faith are not sep
arabic. 1t constituted a scheme by
which the financial policy Of the
country was to be reformed, and honor
and fair dealing required those prom
ises to be carried out together. Demo
Gratis were put in power and Mr.. Cleye-
land, though known to be personally
hostile to the use of silver, was elected