St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-05-25

pGr1ance, and vindlcated Dy every
Democratic chief executive from
Thomas Jefferson to Grover cleveland:
When you have stated that the will OF
the people Is always to govern, local
seff-government always maintained; ;
guaranteed individual rights neither
taken from nor denied to the citizens
by legislative or executive act; the
best government the one which gov
ernS least; the taxing power to be eX-
ercised equally and impartially, ra1s>
ing no more revenue than necessary
to meet the expenses of the govern
ment and pay the public debts, and a
financial and monetary system upheld
which guards Sacredly the public credit
and makes each dollar which bears
the governmental imprint or sanction
worth a dollar, you have written the
2 WHOLE DEMOCRAT CREED.
1 will not elaborate upon it, but will
content myself with discussing but a
single principle of it of vital import
ance, that in which is embodied the
sentiment which has just been an
nounced, sound money, fundamental
principle of true Democracy. Mr.. Til
den, in the course of the discussion of
the currency in his letter accepting
the Democratic nomination to the
presidency, asserted that 1.-The public
mind will no longer accept Shams; II
lldS suffered enough lIolh Hiuoioiio
An 1nSincere policy increases dlStruSt;
an unstable policy increases uncer-
tainty.'' Within three months Mr.
Cleveland has demonstrated how COM
pletely that distrust can be disarmed
and that uncertainty dispelled by
policy neither insincere nor unstable,
and yet despite the precept of the one
and the accomplished results with the
returning prosperity attestant upon
them of the other, it is insisted that
in dealing with the silver question, the
party shall hang it's present and its
future fortune upon sham and an
illusion. In the light of such facts,
l am sure Democrats bent upon ad-
vancing their party's interest and their
country's prosperity can do no better
service than discuss the objections
from a distinctly Democratic stand
point to- the position to which the adj
vocate of the free coinage of silver, as
it is now presented, would commit the
party. The grave5t indictment DEM
ocrats presented against the protec-
tioniStS was that they were aiding and
abetting class legislation in maintain
ing protective tariff laws upon the
statute books, yet the attempt is now
being made to place the Democracy
in the position Of advocating, for the
politics there is in it, legislation that
is as distinctively
CLASS LEG1SLAIlON
as the most extreme measure ever
conceived by. the warmest adherent
OF protection. 1 do not overstate when
say that the present agitation of the
free coinage or silver is due, in the
hrst instance, to the silver-produclng
class, who, complaining that their min
ing interests are languishing, claim 1t
to be the duty of the government to
revive them by atfordlng market
for all the silver bullion that they can
deposit at the mints, and to make them
profitable by coming for them, free of
charge, all such bullion into dollars
containing less than one dollars worth
OF metal, enGoWed with full legal ten
der properties. An attempt is made to
disown any such claim by pleading
that silver is wrongfully disseminated
against; the amount of our circulat-
ing medium is too small per capita,
and that the country is in financial dis
tress by reason thereof, though the
circulation per capita is greater now
than at any time in the country'S his
tory, made.-so largely by the coinage
since 1878 of 423, ,439 silver dollars.
But under this pretext is to be found
motion, of the silver interest by legis-
latiye enactment. If there be doubt
as TO the truth of this charge, let an
examination be made as to those who
in the first instance originated the
movement to have silver again made
a standard money in our monetary
system and it will be found that from
the day in 1877 that Senator Jones, of
Nevada, made his famous financial re-
port until the present moment the
power behind this agitation of silver
legislation has been the silver-produc-
ing class. l do not mean that no others
have joined them in their onslaught
rhA f0Y. h ;e,,
the case: but these. men have been the
inspiration of the government, and
through
SHEER PERSISTENCY
have at last succeeded in making their
demands a factor in party politics.
Enact such legislation and the mine
owner will alone profit by it. The
debtor may possibly scale his debts,
but it will be at the expense of his
honor: the farmer will gain nothing
but deprecated currency; the labor
err s wage in such money will not make
him a richer man nor give him any
more of the comforts of life, while
the patriotic American will be COM
PEELED to see his governments circu-
lating medium patterned after that of
the Mongolian. If the attitude of these
silver advocates is right the position
of the Farmers Alliance people who
ernment storehouSeS to receive their
produce and advance money thereon
is right. and they should be aided in
securing such legislation. If the de-
mand of this silver class that the gov
ernment gain for them through means
of law an artificial price and afford
them profitable market for their
silver is not invoking the extreme of
paternalism in government, then the
demand of the specialist and the ma
tionalist Is not Objectionable on the
ground of being class legislation, 1t
is equally Objectionable on the ground
that. it is legislation that WILL if ever
enacted. set at naught the Democratic
principle that such legislation should
conform and aid the natural
and fixed laws of commerce and
trade. rather than conflict with
and retard them in their operations.
There is one more objection | desire
to state, and I am done. This pro-
posed silver legislation designs to
give us a dollar which as a matter of
fact is not worth dollar. Upon the
very face of it it is a cheat, and the
government ought not to be, from
the standpoint of either sound law or
good morals, a party to a fraud. 1t is
in violation of the rights of every
wrong-doing in every debtor. Such
money would be, as it ought, a re-
proach to the American people If
there. be any Democrat advocating
such a currency and at the same time
cherishing as his political idol Thomas
Jefferson. let him read and reflect upon
these words, translated by Jefferson
from a French manuscript and sent
to John Adams with his hearty in
dorsement: 'It is to be desired that
coins had never borne other names
than those Of their weight, and that
the arbitrary denominations called
moneys of account, as pounds, shill-
ings, pence and so forth, had never
been used. But where these denomi-
nations are admitted and employed in
transactions to diminish the quantity
of the metal to which they answer, by
ain alteration of the real coins, it is
to steal. and it is theft which even
injures him who commits It"
Inspector Williams Retires.
NEW YORK, May 24.-Police In
spector Williams has been retired from
the force on his own application The
inspector said to a reporter that there
was no truth in the statement that the
board had forced his retirement; he had
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