Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1895-04-17
TIE CURRENCY ISSUE.

men were prepared, loaded, prlmeu ana
cooked for the occasion and the Pres
ident has drawn their fire in a booming
broadside, which shows they are eager
for the fray.
There viii be infinite trouble in
forming the line of battle for the COM
ing great fight, for the issue to the
minds of the majority of the people is
by no means clearly drawn. On the
one hand we have the gold mono
metallists. and on the other the silver
monometaIlists. 1t is these two sets of
extremists who are doing most of the
talking; but they both deny their
identity. The gold advocates deny that
they are for the single gold standard,
while the sixteen to one silver men
call themselves bi-metallists. Be
tween the two warning factions stand
the great mass of the American people,
who have no axes to grind who want
the best and safest currency, who are
equally friendly to both gold and sill
yer and desire neither metal to be
given the advantage at the expense or
to the deuiment of the other; but who
are at a loss amid the multiplicity Of
arguments to know to which side to
turn to get what they want.
The money kings, the gold monopo-
lists, who have the money markets Of
the world in their grip through their
ability to control the worlds gold and
the price Of money, are clearly not on
the side of the people But neither are
the silver mine owners of the West,
who desire the enaction of coinage
law that viii double the value of their
silver holdings, enabling them to take
fifty cents worth of silver to the gov
eynmeuts mint and have it coined in
TO dollar; the safe and at the same
time ample currency which the people
desire is not toibe found on the side o.
the cheap money fallacy. If, as the
silver monometallists claim, there is no
money outside of the governments
stamp, and that that stamp is all that
is necessary to make fifty cents worth
Of silver equal to 100 cents worth of
gold, why not make five cents worth Of
silver do the business, or, better still,
why not make a fraction of cents
worth of paper equal to 100 cents worth
of gold? In other words, if cheap
money is a good thing it must follow
that the cheaper we can get it the bet
ter. If the governments stamp is the
only thing that makes a dollar worth
a dollar why bother about anything
else in connection with the dollar? 1t
is easily seen whittier this leads us.
Trace it back. and the present ultra
silver craze will be found to spring
from the same source as the old fiat
money lunacy through which all gov
ernments have 10 pass, and of which
the United States has had its share.
The American people long ago sat
down on the rag money devil, and it is
not likely that they will turn back and
fall down and worship at that shat
tered shrine at this stage Of the pro-
ceedings. 1t is the same shrine.
On the other hand, the danger to the
prosperityof thepeopleis almost equal
ly great with the gold shylocks in con-
troll of the money market. The de-
monetization of silver in 1873 was one
Of the greatest crimes ever perpeuated
against the welfare of the people. The
question now is. how 10 restore silver
to it's place in the monetary system
without topping over the whole struc-
ture. With an international ratio be-
tween gold and silver fixed for the
great commercial nations of the world
the question would be easy Of settle
ment. Under present conditions it is
a most intricate and difficult problem,
which Will require the best, coolest
and most patriotic Judgment in its
solution
1t is useless to look for this solution
from the Republican party whose
leaders are owned body and soul by
the money kings. 1t is equally certain
that the course of safety does not lie
within the ranks of the cheap money
Populists. The Republicans will load
ND their platform with high-sounding
hut utterly empty declarations for BIZ
metallism: but the Republican party
will stand for the single gold standard
i'm the coming campaign. On the
other hand. the new silver party or
the Populists. or whichever shall sue
coed in absorbing the other, will stand
for the free coinage Of silver at the
ratio of sixteen to one Of sold, or some
thing worse.
Between these two extremes will
stand the Democracy. as it always does,
for the rights Of the people and the
money of the Constitution, Gibraltar
which every American who believes in
honest money can safely anchor under.
Through ueachery and misfortune the
Democratic party has lost many of its
later recruits and all Of the campbell
lowers who worship only at the shrine
of success: but there is a staunch and
solid body OF believers left whose faith
i'm Jeffersonian principles is the main
.+,,. Of ,,,., pa,ubli, The Democratic