Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1895-09-27
W'a5hlngton Standard
OLYMPIA. WASH.
FRIDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER q. 1895.
A Boiler-Plate" Boomerang.

Here is a sample brick OF the stuff
sent ont Ivy the " sound money" COM
mittce in the shape of electrOtype
plates. paid for hy the Wall Street
syndicate, and furnished IRE to all
newspapers which will use them:
Thrcr-iourth- Of the people who
favor free coinage without personal in
vcstisation have q sneaking idea that
they can pay their debts easier with a
debased currency than under the pres
ent tolIsome, slow-going process. But
this Is all dream born of the lurid
Imagination of your typical free-silver
advocate. The creditor who holds
mortgage on the farmers land is not
exactly on idiot himself. and the mo-
ment il becomes clear that free coinage
at the IS To- ratio will be legalized in
this country, thousands OF mortgages
will be foreclused by men who propose
to have their loans paid in good money
The Tree silver dupe may argue, with
tears i'll his eyes, that the price of silver
will be Immediately jerked up to the
desired point in the markets of the
world as soon as our mntS are opened
to the metal. But the hardhearted
creditor doesn't belong to that class OF
reasoners, and he will turn the farmer
out bag and baggage, then and there,
with the money in which the creditor
has confidence. Just before the dawn
OF that happy silver day-when the
silver lining of the clouds will be coined
into good government enthusiastically
will be perched around on the worm
fences in the country waiting for mort
cages to mature, like blackbirds watch
ing corn crop"
That sneaking idea," as it is
called is a true conception of just
what will follow the rehabilitating sill
yer with its power as redemption
money. 1t will not be debased money
either. 1t is simply because the law
upholds gold and places a leaden hand
upon the white metal, that it is de-
based. Give the metals an equal
chance and they will circulate side by
side as they had done, with almost inn
perceptible fluctuations, up to the
time that silver was refused all equal
right to live. 1t will be easier to pay
debts simply because money will be
more plentiful, and as measurer OF
property values will resume its former
standard, quality it possessed before
its scarcity had inflated the purchas-
ing power Of only redemption money
left, gold. In other words, property,
which is sometimes owned by people
who own neither silver or gold, will &C.
quire the purchasing power of these
metals it formerly possessed, and ena-
BILE the debt-ridden victim to again
make himself "square With the world"
Then the ox-driver's tone assumed
in the above extract from the gold-bug
manifesto is striking. The threat that
1.-THE moment it becomes clear" that
the creditor is bent upon free coinage
his master, the debtor. will come down
upon him like I" q thousand OF brick
is calculated to strike terror to the
soul Of almost anybody who has had
dealings with Shylock, but in this pre-
sentation of the case no exception il
made of mortgages that may have q
period to run which may give the vic.
tim a chance for his life-not by pay.
ment of "debased" currency, but in
the use of money that has been re-
stored to its former life of integrity
and usefulness. Then again if he may
not be so fortunate as to secure this
reinstatement until the mortgage il
foreclosed, he has year or two for re-
demption and that time for extended
labor in making his property reach a
reasonable measure with the standard
of value. 1t is not, Mr.. Gold Bug
proposed to" jerk up the value OF sill
ver," $50 gracefully and smiably ex
pressed, by the way) but to jerk up the
price of property that hangs on the
other end OF the line which you have
weighted with a metal that you have
crushed the life out of. The threat to
perch "sheriffs around on the worm
fences waiting for mortgages to ma
ture, like blackbirds watching a corn
CROP" recalls to mind that this effort
was lately made in the Eastern por'
ton of this State, but that the black
birds" flew away when righteous
Judges declined to be used a. scalpelt
for cutting out the pound OF flesh.
1t is just such brutal. language as il
used by the boiler plate" gold syndi'
cate that arouses the manhood of vic
tins who feel the weight of the iror
heel, and such arguments" as have
90 far come under our observation
from that source can serve only as &
boomerang in the hands OF novice.
THE Olympian. in discussing thu
matter OF long or short political cam
paigns with contemporary favorsth
long campaign "to promote part!
harmony" It declares that nominal
ing conventions leave sore spots ii
spite OF the most judicious manage
ment." Nobody is better able to stat
this proposition from observation thar
the Olympian. When the Republi
can county nominating convention
last year turned down some OF tn
stalwarts it came very near cutting it
throat from ear to ear and it was onl..
the curative process of time, assisted
by the best of surgical aid, that saue'
the &. o. p. from utter humiliation
That it was not buried in its own cor
ruption was not the fault OF condition
existing Immediately after the ticke
was made.