Birmingham age-herald., 1895-04-19
''The Line of Battle Drawn. ,,

Disguise it as we may, the line of bat currency and those of silver monometal- tie is drawn between the forces of safe lisIr. ..af
 President Cleveland's letter to the bus mess men of Chicago rings out like an alarm bell to arouse the country. In the sentence quoted above he strips the "bimetallic" mask from the silverites and exposes the fact that the policy they advocate means nothing more nor less than silver monometallism.
 Free coinage of the white metal would stimulate production enormously. It would be found impossible to keep the ever-growing mass of silver at a parity with gold. The latter would disappear from circulation and we would go to a silver basis, losing our place among the great commercial nations and assuming position with Mexico China and other half civilized countries that have an eX- elusive silver currency.
 This would be the logical and inevita- ble result of opening our hints to the free coinage of the white metal. The limited amount bought under the Sher- man act caused such an overproduction as depressed silver to the lowest price in it's history and precipitated the awful panic from the effects of which we are only now recovering. When the act was passed it gave an artificial and speeula- tive stimulus to the price, but presently natural laws came into play, with disas-
 
 as the rest of the country.
 All this would be repeated on grander and more terrific scale if the hints were opened to unlimited coinage 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 prating to their deluded followers about "bimetallism" and maintaining parity" and all the rest of it. Those who favor silver monometallsm and who admit their desire to get hold of 50-cent dollars wherewith to legally discharge 100 cents worth of debts are at least can did and consistent, but 1t is only neces- sary to present this proposed repuda- tion 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 those open foes of sound currency, but to the more cunning ones who attempt to befuddle the peo- pie as to the true meaning of the policy that is concealed in their high sounding phrases. Repudiation of honest debtS,- theft-is the goal at which they aim. This, and this alone. is what free coinage of silver means today. "The line of bat tie is drawn" and there's no use minc- ing words any longer. It Is true that if the sound money sentiment of the land is to save us from disaster, it must be crystalized and made immediately ac- tive. 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 nefa- rious doctrines that are being preached to them.
 The result of a depreciation in the cur rency would. of course be a correspond ing rise in the price of everything the workman has to buy; and this rise would be immediate, whereas the advance in his wages would be slow and uncertain. Where a workman has hoarded the re- suits of 100 cents worth of his labor and put it into savings bank or a building association, or used it to insure his life for the benefit of his family, he would lose one-half of his hard-earned hoard if the advocates of cheap dollar were to be victorious. If in time of sickness he drew his savings from the bank he would receive dollars which would pur- chase only half as much medicine, food or other necessaries as the sound 100- cent dollar 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 the result-New York Herald.