The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1895-08-07
A CRUCIAL FACT.

The debate between Horr and Harvey
has not proved as interesting as was eX-
pected. not from any lack of ability or
knowieGse of his subject on the part of
Horr or of sklllful dialecuc fencing on
The part of his antagonist, but partly be-
cause the plan of the debate, which cuts
up THE time allotted TO each to alternate
.ng periods, apparently, of five minutes,
did not admit OF the connected or COM
plete development of the argument on
Horr's side, which was desirable, and
partly because the greater part OF the de-
bate up to the pres. MT time has been de-
voted to questions chiefly of historical
interest, having only remote and In
direct bearing on the main question
From Harvey'r point Of view these his
.orlcal matters have u definite, logical
.e.Htion to his position on the silver ques-
tlon That poslc4on is, In substance, that
,ne SILVER dollar was established, by our
drst coinage act, as the sole unit and
measure of value; that It remained SO
til It was steNlthily, under British IN
luence, demonetized In 1873, ana that
hereby, In consequ nee of the fall In
prices and The rise in gold, great wrong
vas done to all property owners and all
debtors. which can only be redressed by
the IfEe Cb.Hd6e VI slANtl et AlS A"NiS VI
l6 to /. and the deblsement OF gold coins
TO the silver standard. IL Is unnecessary
20 repeat that every step by which he
reaches this conclusion has been over
md over again demonstrated TO be a
Aalsl0catlon of historical and economic
facts. Mr.. Horr has shown Ghem to be
so, but as fast as an oA falsehood was
beaten down Harvey was ready with a
new one to take It's place, and his reck-
less disregard of facts has gone far 10
make ghe debate ridiculous.
The plain, indlsputaHe fact Is that gold
has been, IN an commercial pTactlce, the
Standard pf value In this country for
over fifty years. Atl contracts during
liiat time have been made with che un-
denStanding thai they were to be dis
charged In gold values. Every United
States bond has been issued and sold
WITH thU understanding Every railrond
bond; all the Obligations Of corporations;
al mortgages; ala life insurance policies;
all agreements Of every kind to pay
money at some future time have been
bissd for finty odd years on the gold
standard, with the implied understanding
that they were TO be paid In gold. Since
1873 or for twenty-two years, gold has
been the sole legal standard of value.
And all CondTNckS or agreements Ny CUR
porations or individuals 10 pay money
In that time have been virtuaiEy gold con-
tracts. There are very few existing con-
tracts whose lffe dates back before 1873,
and there are certainly no debts owned
by individuals in this country which
were not incurred since that time with
me express legal obligation to pay them
n gold or ITS equivalents, BT wherever
contracts do exts. which antedate that
year they were still incurred when gold
was universally accepted and recognized
as Hhe sole standard Of value In COM
maolai or common usage.
Therefore, when Mr.. Harvey proposes
20 substitute the silver dolinr for the
go.d Standard on which all business tran
sactions have been based for over fifty
years. and TO debase the gold coins 20
hall their present value in order to bring
them down 20 the levei Of silver, he de-
serves, at aeast. ehe credit OF unblushlng
For this Is Al open confession
that the free coinage OF silver contem-
pfates the most stupendous swindle
which was ever attempted to be exploited
by unadmen or knaves In any country un-
der heaven. n Is scheme to repudiate