Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1896-08-20

tural aHd the min
Egs8 MSSSA ing arms and
J. limbs, dependent
upon it for nutrition. Go to the root
of the evil, remove the cause of our
troubles, and all minor questions as to
what kind of money we shall have or
how it shall be coined, will settle them
selves quickly.-Great Bend Tribune.
Like every other republican paper,
as we'll as republican orator, The
Tribune labors under the mistaken
idea that high tariff only will cure all
the troubles of the body polite; that it
is not the financial, but the tariff, ques-
tion that aff1icts the country at this
time. Those republicans, myself
among the number, who favor free
coinage of silver with gold dissent from
this view. and claim that the demone-
tization of silver and destroying it as
redemption money, and the consequent
contraction of the currency are the
sole causes of the trouble in this coun-
try at this time.
It is proper to correct very errone-
Gus impression which. in talking with
the people, find prevails among many
of them, and that is that our govern
ment obligations are payable in gold
and GOLD ALONE, Nothing could be
more misleading. If it were generally
known that every obligation the gov
ernment has outstanding with one ex-
ception) can be paid in silver as we'll as
gold. then there would not be any great
trouble in arriving at the cause of the
financial depression which hovers over
the country today. With the excep-
tion of the gold certificates, for which
there is a special gold fund in the treas.
ury for the purpose of redemption,
not one government obligation exists
today but can be paid in silver as well
as gold. The law says they are re
deemable or payable in coin, and GER
tainly no one will contend, in view OF
the fact that there is more than $500,
O00, 900 legal tender silver money in the
country, that the law means gold and
gold only. But the holders of these
obligations have been led to believe
that coin means gold. They were
brought to this conclusion by Chas
Foster, Mr.. Harrison's secretary of the
treasury, who voluntarily surrendered
the government option to redeem in
either gold or silver, and placed that
option with the note-holder. Until
Mr.. Foster wrote that letter to the sec
retary of the republican club in Boston
in October 1891, saying that Sherman
notes and greenbacks were redeemabls
in gold, it the holder so desired, bn,
very few of these obligations had evel
been presented for redemption, as they
were legal tender. more convenient
to use as money than either metal, anc
the general supposition was that il
presented at the treasury the holder
would as likely get silver as gold
This being the case, not to exceed $40,
O00, 900 greenbacks land not one Sher-
man note issued under the act of 1890
had been presented for redemption il
all the time from 1879 to the day
Mr.. Foster gave the raiders Of ths
treasury to understand that they woul(
be paid in gold only for the asking.
How we'll these gamblers in the obi
cations of the government and export
ers of gold have improved the time viii
be seen from the fact that while onl,
$40. 200, 900 gold had been paid out be
fore October 1891, more than 1865,
0OO,O 900 of these obligations have been
redeemed in gold up to April 1st, 1896
Forty millions only in thirteen years
while since 1891, about four and hal
years, more than 1926, ,OOO,O 600.
The law provides that these obliga
tions when redeemed shall be reissued
and as Foster said they were redeem
able in gold, in whose footsteps Mr.
Carlisle has followed, the speculator
get the same notes, go to the treasur,
and take gold .and SO the endless chair