The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-08-01
THREE MONEY PLANKS.
Ctterances of Republican State Con-
VentiOns.

Ctterances of Republican State Con-
ventfOns.
Chicago Times: Three Republican state
conventions were held Tuesday in Illinois,
Iowa, and Wisconsin, and three decara-
lions on the currency question were put
forth which are consistent, harmonious
and exactly alike in that none of them
means anything at all beyond letting the
currency system of the United States re-
main just as it is today. Indeed to ex-
tract even this significance from these art
full lodgings of the silver question one
must construe them by the utterances of
men honored by holding offices in the con-
vention. In Iowa and Wisconsin the tenn
porary chairman spoke with commenda BILE
frankness but in Illinois both temporary
and permanent chairmen devoted their ora
torlcal efforts to recountng the services of
the republican party in putting down the
rebellion and to facilitating their hearers
on belonging to the, party of Washington
and of Lincoln. so that the issues of the
present day passed untouched
The Illinois money plank reads as fol-
lows:
I'VE favor bimetalism and believe in the
use OF gold and silver as money metals
upon parity of values with complete in
| convertibility under such legislative pro-
visions as shall make the purchasing or
debt paying power of any dollar coined
or issued by the United States the abso-
lutte equivalent of that of any other dol
Obviously the merit of this plank rests
upon the definition of 'bimetallism.' Re
publican campaign orators will proceed to
construe it according to the sentiments of
the audiences they addressing, but the
task of catchg any free silver votes with
bait of this sort is likely to appal even
such veteran political anglers as Shelby
Cullom and Billy Mason.
The Wisconsin Republicans We're equally
tender in handling the problem. They
damned silver with faint praise thus:
The Republican party is in favor of
honest money and unfalteringly opposed to
any scheme to give to this country a de-
based or deprecated currency. We favor
the use of silver a currency to the eX-
tent that 1t can be circulated on a parity
with gold"
Happily, however, the temporary chair
man of that convention thought wise to an
notate and elucidate this Delphic utterance
by the following very frank explana ton of
the views held by Wisconsin Republicans:
Let us reaffirm, then, the principle that
the national credit and the national cur
rency shall be maintained at par forever;
that silver is necessity to currency,
but that no dollar should be issued from
the national treasury that is not either in
trinsically worth 100 cents or that is not
redeemable upon demand by 100 cents.
A nation which advertises its trust in God
upon debased and dshonored coinage
proves itself more competent to trust than
to be trusted. thing have but one
standard of measurement, whether that
thing is money or time, or distance or what
you WILL and though the name of the
thing may be changed at pleasure, the
thing itself can never be changed. No
man can lengthen inch into a foot by
juggling with it's name or by creating
double standard for it's measurement.
1T follows that the white lie which the
government tells whenever it issues a sill
Yer dollar deceives no one. 1t is not dol
lar because it is worth but 63 cents, and it
never will be a dollar until the government
pledges it's faith to redeem it at par in
gold. That pledge the government has
never given, but should give, and, when
it does give it, the silver question will be
solved"
The bimetallism of Wisconsin Republic
ans, then, is that sort of bmetallsm which
holds the silver dollar to be white lie''
and will only employ silver as money
metal with the proviso that coins made of
it must always be redeemed at par in gold.
In Iowa there hosts of free silver
men, many of them guilty of the strange in
consistency of voting the Republican tick
et Yet this is the best they could do for
free silver in the Republican platform
1--WE adhere to the declaration of the ma
tional Republican party in 1892 upon it's
monetary policy. We reaffim our belief
that interests of the country, its farmers
and workingmen, demand that every dollar
IL.
shall be as good any other dollar We
favor the largest possible of silver as
money, that is consistent with the perrna-
nent maintenance of equal values of all
dollars INTERPOLATION. We do not want mono
metallism, either of gold or silver, and we
pledge ourselves to continue to work for BIZ
metallism, to be brought about by all fit
means within the power of the govern
ment.'
By singular good fortune the Iowa con-
vention, too, was furnished with tenn
porary chairman who believed in elucidat-
ing the mysteries of the Republican posi-
ton on silver. which he did in these sug-
gestive words:
1.-The Republican party believes in honest
money honest dollars, and in having one
dollar, be it gold, silver, or paper just as
good as any other 1t believes in the use
of both gold and silver as the worlds meas
ure of value, and therefore Republicans
are bimetallists.'
ITO keep every dollar as good as every
other dollar, we must get our share of the
gold; to get it we must buy it, and buy it
we must sell our bonds"
The last paragraph of this able and states
manlike utterance the Times commends to
every student Of monetary science, either