Omaha daily bee., 1896-10-10
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M'kINLEY 1ND YER.

Referring to the course of the free
silver organs, inspired by the free silver
candidate, in quoting what Major Nc
Kinley said several years ago regarding
silver as being inconsistent with his
present position, the democratic sound
money Philadelphia Record says:
The opinions inconsistent with his present
position which Mr.. Mckinley held six years
ago are of little relevancy in this great con-
test. 1t is certain that no silverite will sup
port him because of his former utterances
about free coinage. He stands on plat
form which pledges himself and his party
to the infexible maintenance of the exist
ing monetary standard of value. His char
acter as an honest man affords the amplest
guaranty to the country that he will re-
deem his pledge. Sound money democrats
have the assurance that he will enforce in
their spirit the laws providing for gold pay
ments and for preserving the public credit
as President Cleveland enforces them, just
as certainly as Mr.. Bryan would nullify
those laws II he should be elected.
If Mr.. Bryan and his organs were dis
posed to be fair they would not confine
their quotations to n few extracts which
seem to favor their cause and convey
that Major Mckinley said on the sub
ject In 1890, when the bill to purchase
silver was under consideration, Major
Mckinley made n speech in the house
in which he opposed the senate amend
ments to the measure on the ground that
they contemplated placing the country
on silver basis. He said:
| do not propose by any vote OF mine
to force the people of the United States, the
farmers and laborers, to the cheapest money
of the world or to any policy which might
tend in that direction Whatever dollars
we have in this country must be good dol
lars, as good in the hands Of the poor as
the rich; equal dollars, equal in inherent
merit. equal in purchasing power, whether
they be paper dollars, or gold dollars, or
silver dollars, or treasury notes-each con
vertible into the other, and each exchanged
BILE for the other because each is based
upon equal value and has behind 1t equal
security; good, not by the fiat of law alone,
but good because the whole commercial
world recognizes its inherent and mex
tinguishable value. There should be no
speculative features In our money, no op-
portunity for speculation in the exchanges
OF the people. They must be safe and stable.
In the same speech he said he did not
want gold Int a premium or silver at
discount ana declared that the free and
unlimited coinage of the silver of the
world, in the absence of cooperation on
the part of other commercial nations,
would cause gold to go to a premium.
"The very instant that you have opened
up our mints to the silver bullion of the
world" he said Independently of in
ternational action, that very instant, or
mt n brief time at best, you have sent
gold to n premium; and when you have
sent gold to premium then you have
put II In great measure into disuse
and we are remitted to the single stand
ard-that of silver alone; we have de-
prived ourselves of the active use of
both metals" This is just as sound
now ms when spoken June %, 1890, and
ii simply shows that Major Mckinley
was not unfriendly to silver, as he is not
at present, believing in using 1t side by
side with gold as far as that can be
done with safety.
In the Ohio gubernatorial campaign of
1891 Major Mckinley met the issues of
free trade and free silver boldly and ex-
plicitly. In the opening speech of his