Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1894-12-20

value. Money is the medium OF
exchange, and, as claimed by some,
the proper way to arrive at the value
OF a dollar, is to find out how much
it will buy. Measured by this stand
ard, il has greatly enhanced in
value for it will buy much more,
either of our agricultural or manu-
factnred products than it would
some years ago. So true 10 this that
the advocates Of free silver coinage
aver that the silver dollar. ut its
marketable value, will buy nearly
or quite as much as it ever did. Be
thisas 1t may it seems to me we
should have q currency unchange.
able. It may be that from the ma
ture of the case, that this is impos-
sible. Still if our financiers can hit
upon some plan by which this diff
ficulty can be obviated they will
confer a boon upon the human race.
! The demonetization of silver-the
prime cause as many aver of des-
troying the parity of the two metals
has worked incalculable injury to
our people. With starvation star
ing them in the face; their children
crying for bread, and their little
homes surely being absorbed by the
usurer, they are in no condition to
split hairs over problems of econom-
ic science, but jump at the first op-
portunity that offers them relief.
1t is this that has given the free
coinage of silver its strength, and,
right or wrong, an ample supply of
money, even of a less purchasing
power, would be God-send to the
man in debt. 1t would enable him
to lift mortgage, or pay in a de-
preciated currency, a debt that he
has to pay now, if he pays at all, in
an appreciated, or higher currency.
In other words, it would enable him
to get rid of his debt by paying a
part of it, whereas now he has to
pay more than his just dues. IL
any favor is to be shown, it should
be on the side of poverty.
This is the situation as it obtain
ed during Cleveland's first term,
although not so aggravated as it is
to-day. His message of 1887 first
called the attention of the people to
the excessive import duties under
which they struggled, and its OPP
pressive features. 1t cost him the
presidency in 1888, for the manu-
facturers of the country jealous of
an agitation that promised to des-
poll them of the unjust advantage
the tariff tax afforded them, poured
| out freely a part of their ill-gotten
gains to defeat the man who had
the courage to question the right Of
the people to submit to tax, levied
expressly for the henefit of favor
ed few at the public expense. The
result was Cleveland was defeated,
and Harrison installed i'm his stead.
The platform of both parties
called for revision of the tariff,
but from diametrically different
stand points. The republicans,
flushed with victory revised it in the
intrest of their pets-the manufac-
turers. They gave us the McKin-
ley bill, which instead of reducing
the tax, actually increased it to
more than so per cent. upon the
taxible schedules. The immense
surplus in the treasury, turned over
to Harrison, was not only dissipated,
but, during the close of his term,
such was ITS paucity, that had all
the accrued liabilities of the treas
ury been paid at maturity there was
an actual deficit. Meanwhile the
people were getting poorer and poor
er. No silver lining appeared to
the dark financial distress that hung
over the body polite.
The democratic party through its
public men and press, kept the
tariff in the foreground. 1t was
emphatically endorsed in their State
platforms; so that in tho fall of
1890 the republicans were signally
defeated. The people borne down
by the oppression Of years, were be-
ginning to turn to the only party
that promised them relief, and was
able to cope with the republican
party. The fall of 1892 found each
party face to face in their attitude
upon the tariff. The democratic
party laid it down as q cardinal
principle, that the government had
no constitutional right tn levy a tax