The Van Buren press., 1895-10-26
SILVER AND TEE BONDS.
An AbsarA Statement b. Jssiah PAttsr
ssa-Bsads Payable in Cein.

N ADo1f4 StatemeUt ~ Jo014o fAuefs
sea-BsaAs Payable in Csin.
To TIE EDITOR Of The Guard.
The single gold standard men,
politicians and editors. In both political
parties, either intentionally mis-
represent and pervert facts. or they
must assume that large portion OF the
'.bone and sinew' Of the country are
exceedingly ignorant IN regard to the
free coinage Of silveri The notorious
recent convert to the gold standard.
Hon. Josiah Patterson, Of Tennessee, in
his recent letter, makes this remarkable
statement:
Suppose . man had 500 in gold,
and owed . debt Of like amount, the
debt could b paid In gold or silver.
both being legal tender standard money.
Now, he could take the gold and buy
sufncient silver bullion to coin e191 Is
In silver, pay his debt with 500 Of the
amount and have oo1. IS left over.
Now, It must have required consider
able cheek TO put such = statement
ON paper. he must have known that .
man Of only ordinary intelligence could
not be misled by It. Would Josiah
Patterson. or any other man, who had
sense enough to look after his own
affair, sell e191. IS worth of silver
bullion for 500, when al he would have
to do to get its full value would be to
send It to the mint and have it coined
into legal tender doilarsf
Would . farmer sell . lot of wheat
for 800. II he could take It to . mil
and get t1o1. IS worth of n0ur out of 1T
TzS.s. {. = e~s~ sv,ocivnor, ~ huu1v,x,Ha ~
equally fallAciOus statements Whlcn arc
being sent out By the sound money
advocates. They are also using al
kinds OF clap trap expressions to catch
the ear and prejudice the minds Of the
people, They assume that they have
Al the honor and honesty In the country
On their side. They want to pay debts
with sound money, honest
dollars. safe currency &c. &c.
They prsfe largely about the outrage
the free silver men would perpetrate
upon the patriotic creditOrs" who
have 30 nobly '.protected" the credit
Of the United States by buying their
bonds at millions Of dollars profit, by
requiring them to accept legal tender
coin In payment of the bonds.
Why do they not come up like honor
able, truthful men, and tell the people
that these same bonds are payable in
coin, not in gold as they would have
them paid.
All the bonds Of the United States,
which are now In the hands Of the
money power, are payable, both
principal and interest, in the standard
coin Of the government, whatever that
coin may consist Of at the time Of
payment.
These men knew that President Cleve-
land sent In . special message to the
last Congress, asking that . law be
passed authorizing the Secretary Of the
Treasury TO sell bonds payable In gold.
instead Of coin, and that Congress
refused to pass such . law. In his
message the President stated that the
syndicate offered to take bonds payable
IN gold 1t 8 per cent. interest. and thas
bonds payable in coin could not be
hoated with les than 4 per cent.
interest and he figured out thAf the
government would 1ose very largely by
having to sell bonds payable IN coin,
instead Of gold Now. these szme
gentlemen who cry out for honest
dollars' and honest payment of
dsbts, - say It would be '1gross ont
rage" for the government 70 pay on ifs
per cent coin bonds IN anything but
gold. We sincerely trust that no one
win be deceived by such hollow mockery
~ this.