The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-05-18
ARE NOT THIEVES.
Silver Conference Issues an Ad-
dress to the People.
Silver Men Are Not Trying to
SWindle Creditors.
MEAN NO INJUSTICE.
Gold Men Had Better Not Talk
About Dishonesty.
They Want Gold Simply to
Squeeze the People.

SALT LAKE, Utah, May 1s-The silver
conference just before adjourning, unani-
mously adopted the following report of
the committee on resolutions and ad-
dress:
To the People. of the United States:
awe desire to say that the people
whom we represent are not an aggrega-
tion of thieves, seeking to swindle honest
creditors with so cent dollars. There
are no more patriotic citizens OF the
American republic than those active,
earnest, energetic men and wo-
forts of their eastern homes
to build the highways of national pro-
gress in the far west If they believed
that the complete restoration of silver
would operate as an injury to the coun-
try as a whole, or an injustice to any
class regardless of its local effects in this
western region, they would at once and
forever abandon the demand.
"'The greatest good to the greatest
NUMBER is their motto, and it is in this
spirit that they, irrespective of party
affiIiation, present themselves almost as
q unit demanding the free coinage of
silver and gold at the ratio of Is ounces
of silver to one ounce of gold with full
legal tender function accorded to each,
and no discrimination against either.
at is not as silver miners, but as citi-
zens of the republic, mindful of its every
interest," that we take this position.
"The representatives from California,
Oregon and Wyoming which produce
little or no silver, feel that their people
have been as deeply injured by the de-
monetization of that metal as those liv-
ing in any state or territory in which
silver mining is leading industry.
TN making this demand, we are not
asking for anything new. The monetary
system of this country was founded not
upon gold alone, not upon silver alone,
but upon both silver and gold at certain
ratio to each other, with no limitation
upon the coinage of either, and each
standing upon equal footing before the
law.
"Fhe system was founded by Hamil-
ton, sanctioned by Washington and JEFF
ferson, its wisdom and justice questioned
by none, until the year 1873. In that
year without notice to the people,
the standard silver dollar was dropped
from the coinage of the country
aud every debt then existing, public
and private, aggregating thousands and
millions of dollars was made payable in
gold alone.
"Men that have intelligence enough
to understand its Significance and still
oppose the undoing of that wrong,
should be exceedingly careful how they
accuse other people of dishonesty
"It was the great money power of the
world that thus stealthily destroyed the
time honored monetary system of our
country. Those men who own and con-
troll vast sums Of money and debts pay
able in money understood that if silver
could be destroyed by stopping its coin
age and limiting its legal tender their
claims thus becoming payable exclu-
sively in gold or.its equivalent the gold
itself would become more valuable
''They understood perfectly that a
gold dollar with a silver dollar by its
side, sharing its functions and meeting
part of the demand, was an entirely diff
ferent measure of values from what that
gold dollar would be standing alone
They knew that by the inexorable law of
supply and demand the value of gold
must inevitably rise, while the value of
every other species of property must Just
as certainly fall.
this is exactly what has taken place.
The business of the world is done upon
money basis. 1t is measured in terms
of money"
The following executive committee
was chosen: Colorado E. B. Light:
Idaho, g. v Bryan; California. H. w.
Langenour; Montana, F. T. Merrill.
New Mexico, 7. Bradford Prince: Ore
gon, Sydney Dell; Washington, W. C.
James; Wyoming, F. w. Mandeli; Utah,
r G. Chambers.