The Monticellonian., 1894-11-02

If, instead Of wheat and cotton we take land or lumber horses or cattle, sugar or wool or almost any of our great products the showing in favor of silver Is substantially the same. IL is only repeating the same idea in another form to say that there has not been d time within forty years when Mexican merchant could come 10 the United States with given amount Of his dishon6rsd s lver money and buy such a large quantity and variety of our products as be can today. II this Is true then We say that silver has not depreeiatcd on the other hand We assert 1t to be true that with given am 7unt of gold, coined or unconed, this same Mexican merchant cnn come into our markets today and buy twice as much as he could have done with the same amount of gold twenty years ago This is true Of land and labor as well as of ali our products. If so, then gold has doubled in value Our debts, national, state, county and municipal, well as our other debts, were all contracted and made payable in money but not in gold coin. The act of 1873 required them to be paid in gold. This change to gold )in with out consulting the debtors was nothing less than highway robbery. By shifting to the gold standard. and then legislating so as to raise the value Of gold the lisbiliaties of every debt. or have been doubled As we are now on a gold standard, and gold has doubled in value the effect has been to double the fees and sala " of every public official; not only SO but with. out any change in assessed values, or the rate Of taxation this rise in gold has doubled our
 
 pay tax which one pound would have paid twenty years ago
 Out national debt at the close of the war was more than E 0500p0 0l0 We have paid the in. terest for thirty years, have paid more than haif the principal. and yet owing 10 the rise in the value of gold in which 1t is payable the bal ance due on this debt is now nearly as much if not more, than the original debt; that is To say it would take as much of our products at their present market value te pay the balance now due as it would have taken twenty-five years ago to have paid the whole debt. While the civil war entalcd upon the United States an enormous public debt il left the north in a state of prosperity. Tho characterization Of silver, however, has been as destructive to rSoperty values as the civil war and has left both north and south prostrate alike.
 England could not subjugate our forefathers hundred years ago, but what she failed to ac- eompltsh in arms in 1776 she accomplished by craft in ls73 We are now the tributaries Of England and other creditor nations.
 We firmly believe that tree and unlimited coinage Of silver would immediately double or Amy oDer %oa PSs sady pag 5a5m en cents pound for cotton and eighty cents to dollar bushel for wheat fl he could get the seller to accept silver bullion as money count ing 37l IA grains to the doaar The seller would gladly accept the silver at these figures If he were only allowed to coin the silver and pay his debts with it. He was allowed to do this before 1873, and we demand that his right to do it shall be restored
 MT. sherman in his recent speech at Akron Ohio. against the free coinage Of silver, said: Tt will double the price Of all our productions but will 1t not also double the price of all we have to ouy' We are willing for the doubling process to begin MT. sherman adds: But two classes Of men will be benefited the debt or Nho can pay his debts in cheaper money and the owners Of silver mines" We ask no more than this. We are willing to exchange our present condition if We can double the price of our products and bring prosperity to debtors and the owners of silver mines.
 Our peopte are under the deluson that every. thlng' including silver is falling in value, when the truth Is II Is only the gold standard and measure Of values that Is rising
 lt1s said that we cannot remonetize silver without the co operation of Europe England demonetlzed silver in lsl6 We maintained hi- metaltsm sixty years without her aid She is the creditor nation of the world, and of course insists upon gold standard with rising value As We led the the other European nations into the demonstration Of silver it is only fair that we lead them back again. If we need gold to buy goods in Europe, We have plenty of gold m our mines to buy all the goods that our tariff laws will allow us to buy Our trade with Eu. rope only constitutes four per cent of our com. meeee II there is danger of our gold coins leaving us we need only to reduce their weight Ihls course was once adopted for this purpose with our subsidiary coin. If al the gold should leave Us we could survive for some while Many ci us have seen prosperous times when we had neither gold nor silver, -.........s#