Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1895-04-24
"The Line of Battle is Drawn.

Disguise at as aCe mag, the line Of bat
tie is drdaDn betaUeen the forces of safe
currency and those of SLIDER n1ono12etCk-
l6&H,.
President Cleveland's letter to the
business men of Chicago rings out like
an alarm bell to arouse the country
In the sentence quoted above he strips
the sbi metallic" mask from the silver
ties and exposes the fact that the
policy they advocate means nothing
more nor less than silver monometal-
| lisM.
Free coinage of the white metal
would stimulate production enormous
ly. 1t would be found impossible to
keep the ever growing mass of silver at
parity with gold. The latter would
disappear from circulation and we
would go to a silver basis, losing our
place among the great commercial ma
tions and assuming position with
Mexico, China and other half civilized
countries that have an exclusively
silver currency.
This would be the logical and inevi-
table result of opening our mints to
the free coinage of the white metal
The limited amount bought under the
Sherman act caused such an overpro-
ducti0u as depressed silver TO the
lowest price in it's history and pre-
cipitatei the awful panic from the
effects of which we are only now re-
covering When the act was passed it
gave an artificial and speculative slim
illus to the price, but presently natu
raj laws came into play. with disas-
trons results to the silver miners as
well as the rest of the country.
II HI III ha q
grander and more terrific scale if the
minis were opened to unlimited coin
age of the white metal The men who
are prominent in The silver movement
must know all this, but they keep the
fact out of sight and go on pratiDg TO
their deluded followers about '.bi
metallism" and maintaining a parity"
and all the rest of it. Those who favor
silver recommendation and who admit
their desire to get hold of}fifty cent
dollars wherewith to legally discharge
a hundred cents worth of debts are at
least candid and consistent, but it is
only necessary to present this proposed
reputation in its true colOrs to the
honest masses of the American people
to have it smashed into smithereens.
President Cleveland has thrown
down the gage not only to these open
foes of sound currency, but to the
more cunning ones who attempt to be
fiddle the people as to the true mean
ing of the policy that is concealed il
their high sounding phrases. Repu-
diation of honest debts-theft--is the
goal at which they aim. This and
this alone is what free coinage of silver
means to day. THE line of battle is
drawn and there's no use mincing
words any longer. 1t is true that if
the sound money sentiment of the land
is to save us from disaster it mus. be
crystallized and made Immediately
active. Those who toll upon the farms
of the West as well as those who labor
in the factories of the North must be
made to see in their true light the ne
farous doctrines that are being
preached to them.
The result of depreciation in the
currency would, Of course, be COR
responding rise in the price of every
thing the workman has to buy; and
this rise would be immediate, whereas
the advance in his wages would be
slow and uncertain. Where work
man has boarded the results of
hundred cents worth of his labor and
put it into savings bank or build
my deSOCldblOD VI uStu W Ills
life for the benefit of his family he
would lose one half of his hard earned
hoard if the advocates of a cheap dol
lar were to be victorious. If in time of
sickness he drew his savings from the
bank he would receive dollars which
would purchase only half as much
food or other necessaries as
the sound hundred cent dollars he had
deposited American farmers and
workmen are intelligent as well as
honest, and if this question is plainly
stated to them no one need fear for the
York Herald.