St. Paul daily globe., 1895-05-10
SILVER I'M KENTUCKY.

Old ex-Gov. Simon Bolivar Buckner,
of Kentucky, insists on retaining his
Democracy unsmirched and refuses to
follow men of the Luke Blackburn
stripe off in their philandering with
the strumpet of fiat money and pro-
lection to silver. A correspondent of
the Courier-J Journal visited him at his
home in Glen Lilly, where in the two
story log house in which he was born,
. found the grizzled veteran smoking
his long-stemmed corn cob pipe, OBJ
| durate in his rock-ribbed Democracy.
AS one who is a candidate for senator
the correspondent suggested that his
! views on the currency and the relation
of the Democracy to it were matter
of public interest.
ga general reply to your question"
said Gen. Buckner, would be to refer
you to the ancient shibboleth of the
Democratic party, to which, with rare
exceptions, as in the greenback agita-
ton, it has uniformly adhered: Local
self-government, sound money and
free trade-the latter subject only to
the necessary wants of the government
to collect revenue to defray its legiti-
mate expenses.
'It would tax the imagination Of
Dante to depict the disasters that
would follow the adoption of the 16-to-1
policy" said he. "It assumes what no
government has, the power to create
values by its simple decree. Our gov
ernment can no more make sixteen
ounces of silver worth an ounce Of gold
than man can lift himself by his boot
straps" The metals, he shows, were
current in their uncoined form and
used in exchanges by their weight,
long before governments reduced them
| to shape and decreed their weight and
fineness. Abraham weighed out to
Ephron the silver he paid him for the
burial lot Of his wife, which counted
400 shekels, current money with the
merchant.
No glamour hides from the old Ken
| tuckian the true and only coinage
function of a government. Said he:
1.-The middlemen OF that day used
these metals and they circulated
amongst the people long before govern
ments intermeddled with them. Wien
they did so it was but to recognize the
! already established value of the metal,
| by coming it into pieces of convenient
! size and by placing upon the coins
! stamp certifying. in effect, that its
weight and fineness corresponded with
| that which had already been accepted
| by the merchant and by the people,"
Referring to the sixteen-to-oners
and their visions of a new finance and
new monetary laws, he said:
''Lilze most other Populistic theori:s,
| this is not new. 1t was probably re-
ceived by them as legacy from the
| famous Kentishman, Jack Cade, VINO
was an eminent Populist during the
reign of the sixth Henry. Like those
| of the present day, he believed firmly
in the potentiality of government to
regulate all values, either by written
statute or by word of mouth, greatly
preferring the latter method, however,
as he does not seem to have been any,
thing Of scribe.
Burn all the records of the realm
! iiS S-AOA1A4iACu, oo 1lC Gu IOiIuOH d.
the head Of his rebel force; my mouth
shall be the parliament of England.
There shall be, in England, seven
haf-penny loaves sold for a penny;
the three-hoeped pot shall have ten
hoops, and will make. it felony to
drink beer Unfortunately, the reign
of this eminent Populist was cut Short,
the ine4orable law of supply and de-
mand resumed it's tyrannical sway and
regulated not only the price of bread
and small beer. but even the number
of bands on the three-hooped Eot."
Met thus by logic, facts, reason and