The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-04-26
DEFINING THE ISSUE.
Letter In Washington Post.

Letter In washington Post
What is the great question upon
which the country is rapidly dividing
into two hostile camps, taking directly
opposite sides? President Cleveland,
| in his late letter, puts the case this
way: Disguise 1t as we may, the line
of battle is drawn between the forces
of safe currency and those of silver
monometallism." 1t is very clear that
no issue can be Joined upon such a
declaration. since what is safe cur
| rency Is itself a matter of dispute,
| which must first be settled before its
defenders can possibly know how to
| dgaw a line of battle between them
| selves and anybody else. The president
| says he is for safe currency-which Is
| true enough from his standpoint-while
| the millions of bimetallists in the Unit
| ed States, who do not agree with him
| at all, are just as much in favor of safe
currency as he ever was or ever can be.
But pass from this point to say that
| the forces of silver monometallsm are
| not on one or the other side of Mr..
| Cleveland's line of battle. There are no
| silver monometallists in this country
| to form a line of battle for anybody.
| There is no room for doubt on this
| question. Whether any country is BIZ
metallic or monometallic on gold or sill
Yer Is determined by the law Of that
country, and whether any set Of men
are gold monometallists or silver mono-
metallists or bimetalists depends upon
the legislation they favor for their own
| pplIptrv This himaf a lilo
try from the beginning up to February
| II, 1873, because by law. by it's own in
| dependent action, both gold and silver
were received at the mint and coined
| into full legal tender money. During
all this time it was lawful for any per-
sons to bring to the mint gold bullion
and silver bullion in any quantity and
| have the same coined into money,
| which, whether silver or gold was, as
the law had it, "a lawful tender in all
| payments whatsoever" This was BIZ
metallism. 1t was, as Mr.. Carlisle put
it in his speech of 1878, unlimited coin
age of both metals upon terms of exact
| equality" and his declaration at the
same time, that mo discrimination
should be made in favor of one metal
|
compiled with during all those eighty
years.
The act of 1873 took away from silver
its right to unrestricted and unlimited
coinage, so that in the last twenty-five
| years 1t has not been lawful for any per-
son to bring silver bullion to the mint
for coinage; no silver was coined except
on government account, and since the
| repeal of the purchasing clause of the
Sherman act coinage of full legal tender
silver has practically ceased. Now
| these people whom Mr.. Cleveland calls
the forces of silver monometalism, Z"
demand that the coinage law of equal
rights to silver and gold, taken away
by the act of 1873, be restored precisely
as 1t was from 1892 to 1873 They ask
| not one line of new legislation. If they
be silver monometallists, then this
country for the first eighty years of our
constitution was silver monometallic.
viii Mr.. Cleveland make that asser-
ton? This country is now gold mono
metallic because gold may be coined
into fun legal tender money without
limit or restriction, while that right Is
| utIleu SnNeT. Inc bHlteu otuleS VIII
be silver monometallic when unlimited
and restricted coinage into full legal
tender money Is accorded silver and
denied gold, making conditions precise
ly opposite those now prevailing. DO
you know any persons Of sane mind in
this country who favor Legislation de-
nying coinage to gold and putting all
the burden of primary money upon
silver? / do not know Of any; but If
you do they, and they only. may be
properly enrolled in what Mr.. Cleve-
land styles "the forces of silver mono
metallism."
The issue, then, is between those who
favor the law as It was from 1892 to 1873.
and those who favor the law as 1t has
been from 1873 to 1895. between those
who demand the unrestricted coinage
of both gold and silver into standard
money of full debt-paying power at the
ratio of 16 to 1, as was the law of 1873,
and those who would accord the right
to gold and deny 1t to silver, as Is the
law of 1896; In short, between the ad-
vocates of gold and silver, with equal
debt-paying power-the bimetallists--
and the defenders of gold only as
standard money-the monometallists.
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