The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-07-24
CONGRESSMAN TOWNE
GOES FOR THE MINNEAPOI s.
TRIBUNE RED HOT.
Denies That it is Repul - Al
Paper-Calls it an Organ o.
British Gold Standard
HE STRIKES FROM THE -oUL-
DER AND MAKES THE
FUR FLY.
Editor Of the Tribune:

Editor of the Tribune:
1t has never been my habit to air either
my views or my grievances, if had any
of the latter, in the newspapers; and
have not departed from my custom during
opinions by the press, in the course of
which l have been purposely and shame
fully misrepresented and villified by the
organs of gold monometallism, like the
Pioneer Press, the Minneapolis Journal,
and The Tribune, masquerading in the
borrowed garments of bimetallism. I
must confess that the ardor of battle has
sometimes strongly moved me, when
reading the columns of these and similar
papers of the false statements, strained
inferences, and cruel structures, with
which the avowal of my honest opinions
was received by them, and that it has now
and then been difficult to restrain an i'm
pulse to chastise some particularly flag
rant violation Of decency, or to expose to
deserved ridicule some especially char
acteristic weakness or unfairness of argu-
ment.
Nor is my object now to make up for
past self-control l merely desire some Of
your space to comment little upon your
editorial of today in answer to my chal-
lenge in the Pioneer Press and the Trib-
une to fair discussion of the relative
merits of gold monometallism and bimet-
yourselves, you have both discreetly de-
clined.
You are quite right in your charitable
surmise that I have heard of that "aspir-
temple, and who "outlives in fame the
pious fools who reared it, But your
dictionary of quotatins misled the erudite
scribe to whom was assigned the pastime
Of answering my proposal. Your meta
phor Identifies the Republican party with
the Ephesian temple. Pray tell me who
were the pious fools who reared the Re-
publican party? Do you mean such
statesmen as Abraham Lincoln, William
H. Seward, Horace Greeley, and James
G. Blaine, who believed in the equal treat
ment of gold and silver? You had no
such reference, of course. You merely
meant to accuse me, in way that struck
you as being smart and literary" of be-
ing a destructionist, and bent on tear
ing down the grand old
Republican party"
This is not the first time that you have
impunged my Republicanism. l deny
your right to sit i1f judgement on any
body's Republ:canism. You are not Re-
publican journal. You are an organ of
the British gold standard, and you belong
to conspiracy, whether tacit or formal
I care not, to deceive the great loyal and
patriotic organization to which you false
ly proclaim allegiance, into support of the
most ruinous economic heresy Of modern
times. And you will fail. You ve1i fail
wholly and ignominiously. The people
are becoming informed, and will not long
remain blind to your sham pretences for
bimetallism. If once you were to come
out openly for the single gold standard
the Indignation Of an outraged party
would not endure your advocacy for an
hour. The Republican hosts made pro-
tectionist of the Pioneer Press, and they
will yet either make The Tribune a BIZ
metallist or repudiate it.
Now, sir, what is bimetallism? Until
within year there never has been any
doubt about it since the word was coined.
The prefix obj means "two," and bimet-
allism is merely tWo-metallism, and Sig
nifies the treatment of the two metals,
gold and silver, exactly alike as money,
having equal acces to the mint and equal
right, at proper ratio, in the satisfaction
of debts. I defy you to show any economic
authority for your absurd contention that
bimetallism is now in force in the United
States, or that the word was ever under
stood in economic or political discussion
to mean any thing substantially different
from it's difinitiOn, as above given. This
year John Sherman, in his speech before
the Ohio convention, and the gold news
papers generally since, have sought to
disguise their surrender to the British
standard by defining bimetallism as a
system where one metal is redeemed in
the other!-an unheard of, preposterous
definition, without warrant In history or
common sense. You say: "The country
now enjoys practical bimetallism." The
statement that it is bimetallism is just as
true as that the country "enjoys' it.
In his recent book on Monetary Sys-
TENS of the Wortd," Mr.. Muhlman, dep
uty assistant United States treasurer, at
New York, himself gold monometallist,
thus defines this term:
"By bimetallism, fstrictly defined, is
meant the free and unlimited coinage of
both gold and silver into coins of full
debt-paying power. Not the mere use
of the double standard, but the actually
open mints on the terms above given.
No country in the world is, therefore. BIZ
metallic today, since those conditions do
not now exist anywhere" The Republi-
can party in declaring, as it did in 1884
and in 1892, in favor of bimetallism, was
not foolishly wasting time in calling for
what we already had, but was demanding
return to the old and tried system Of
the equal treatment of both gold and sill
yer. In advocating any other system you
are tearing down the grand old Republi-
can party 1t is you and not that ought
to get out of the party.
Let it be conceded that there are differ
ences of opinion on the method of reach
ing bimetallism. Clearly there are such
differences. But between believers in the
same object there ought to be no argu-
ment except as to the means. Why,
therefore, are you constantly employing
arguments, and citing with violent appro-
val those used by. others, whose only pur-
pose is to glorify the single standard? !?
CONTINUED ON THIRD PAGE.)