The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1895-04-04

lngton our own senate took most sig
nificant action. Public men in both
houses limited at their belief that tho
war on silver had gone too far, and on
the next day Senator Chandler openly
confessed that New England was
alarmed at the general tendency of
prices and business He said, and it
was most amazing confession for him,
that the present policy was most unjust
to debtors; that if tho Republicans did
not carry out their pledges i'll aid Of sill
yer thero was danger of a popular re-
golt; that England as the great creditor
nation had destroyed bimetallisln in
her own selfish interest, and the United
States had acquiesced to the injury of
It's people.
Several English writers have recently
peen honest enough to put their advo-
cacy OF bilnotallism OH the ground that
| there has been such slrinkage of the Sc.
| ourlties OIL which debts are based that
hundreds Of millions of bonds hayo been
made worthless. Mr.. David Murray,
addressing the London capitalists in re-
gard to Australia, says: Banks adj
vanced Oh securities at as safe margin
as their advances were made 20 to 80
years ago. These margins havo now dis
appeared. The produce of the colonies
has fallen in valuo one half; the estates,
the runs, the mines, the farms, al pro-
ducing factors have fallen in ike ratio,
rot from scant production, but from
diminished prices. He gives q loud
warning to tho British creditors that
their debtors can bear no more Need |
repeat his warning to our own money
lo@ds? Need / point to the continu-
Gus and rapid decline in farm val
ues, to the $4,000 farms in the west
taken Ill by mortgage in one year, TO
the fact that thousands Of farms are
rsow worth less than even tho most
cautious loaning companies We're will
ing to advance on them ten years ago,
and that in consequence our farmers,
once the most conservative class in
tho world, are now tho most radical 20
Etical innovators? Will western toilers
submit to pay so where they agreed to
pay but 81?
Efom ''COln' co GOlus
A brief bit of history is here in order.
1t is within the memory of all mon of
my age that during our civil war the
govl rnment inflated the currency at
leas 150 per cent; that in 1SG5-7O it
Vs. ;rssiuddenly contracted by the retire
ment of interest bearing notes, by the
drift of money to the south and to the
new west, and that the people were con-
fronted with the task of paying public
and private debts in money worth at
least 40 per cent more than that in
which they were contracted The strug-
gle was long and doubtful. Even with
all their wonderful prestige from the
success Of war and emancipation the
Republicans twice lost Ohio Oh that is
sue and twice carried it by less than
10, 600 plurality. We who advocated re-
sumption i'll coin-and I trust | may
without egotism mention my own ex-
perienco as a speaker and writer in the
cause-had flung at lis daily the charge
that we were helping the bondholder
and usurer to rob the producer We
could make but one reply: 1t is the let
ter OF the contract; gold and silver are
tho money Of the constitution. 1t is
hard indeed to pay ST. where only 70
cents was promised, but the country
awards it, and the law doth give it,
The people hesitated long, but with a
sigh confessed that the letter Of the
contract was against them, and with
sublime hcroism voted to keep it.
Scarcely, however, had the verdict
for honest money" been rendered when
we were confronted with the claim that
ia place Of the old specie basis in which
the debt had been contracted we must
pay with ono coin. In vain did we point
to the written contract. Our eastern
friends, admitting that it was accord
ing to the letter OF the constitution, de-
clared that the spirit and understanding
OF it were for payment in gold alone. AS
between greenbacks and coin we had |
urged the letter. Now as between gold |
and silver we were to observe the spirit
Monometallist Absurdities.
The reasons advanced for monomet-
allism have been many and ingenious,
and new ones have been urged as the
Did ones had to be thrown aside The
irst was that silver is too bulky, but
jhat is now obsolete. We do not carry
arge sums of coin; we use paper. Next
t was urged that we should be at dis
advantage in the exchange with our for
eign customers, but everybody knows
that was no trouble when our only
money was deprecated paper, and that
Exchange must be calculated just the
ame SO long as the coins of different
vary Any schoolboy can make
he calculation on any trade in one min
lte. The claim that we should pay gold
nd be paid in silver was too foolish to
impose long On any one Our people
ertainly had sense enough to charge
ricos that made up the difference in
DIN and greenbacks, and will they be
ess sensible with silver? Much has late
y been said to the effect that the most
progressive and highly civilized nations
re on the geld basis. It has also been
epeatedly proved that the same nations