The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1896-10-23

solved like hction. and gold mono
metallism would reign supreme. The
United States now entered upon the
era OF silver purchasing.
The metal which the men OF
the constitutional era had chosen
whereby to measure all other values
lgold included) was degraded TO mer-
chandise. The Sherman bill provided
for the coinage of silver dollars at the
discretion OF the secretary OF the treas
ury. II might as well have provided
that the directors of the bank OF En-
gland should. at their discretion, hold
their sittings in Mozambique! 1t was
never intended to coin the purchased
silver, but 10 treat 1t as merchandise.
II was intended to accumulate 1t and
then raise an alarm about the accu-
mutation. The law continued in force
three years and four months. During
that period the secretary purchased
monthly four million five hundred
thousand ounces of silver and issued
therefor legal tender notes redeemable
in either silver or gold at the option OF
the secretary. In this instance the OPP
ton was cunningly restored TO the
paper, with the full knowledge that the
payer would use that option in man
ner further TO depress the relative price
OF silver bullion and to make gold the
dearer coinl This provision OF the law
was said to be an expedient for pre-
serving the parity Of the two met
ais, but in reality it was an expedient to
exaggerate their disparaity py ena-
bling the holders, with the connivance
OF the secretary, to draw therefor the
gold OF the treasury, leaving the silver
TO accumulate.
We need not here enter at length into
the beauties OF the Sherman law. The
people OF the Unites States now under
stand it. They know what it was in
tended for, and what 1t has been made
to accomplish. They perceive clearly
enough-all Intelligent men perceive
that the act OF 1890 was but another
adroit step in the processes by which
silver was to be ultimately discarded
as primary money, and the United
States placed in firm monetary league
with Great Britain on the single basis OF
gold. In the short space OF three years
matters had gone SO far that the gold
party, then in firm possession OF the
administration which 1t had created in
1892 for its own purp ses, and triumph
ant by its power over the house of
representatives, felt sufficiently en-
boldenod to attack the purchasing
clause OF the Sherman law, and by an
nulling that destroy the whole. Ii is
scarcely worth while to recite the story
OF the contest OF 1893. The miserable
me lee Is still fresh in the minds OF men.
No doubt the Sherman law ought to
have been abrogated. 1t was not a sill.
YER law, but a law in the interest of
gold. Nothing could have been de-
vised more suitable to the ultimate in
terest OF the gold party. That power
now in active control of both the lead
ing political parties, was able to work
its will. The repeal Of the purchasing
clause OF the act OF 1890 was effected
without conditions, and with the pas
sage OF that.repeal, on the hrst OF No
vember, 1893, the legislation against
silver, which was begun in silence in 1878
against the interests OF honest money
in the United States and in favor of
substituting long dollar worth fully
hundred and seventy cents for the
dollar OF the law and the contract, was
boisterously and triumphantly COM
pleted. By that act the will OF the peo-
pie of the United States was prostrated.
The people themselves were gagged and
manacled. Both houses OF congress
we're thrown down, and Juggernaut
was pulled over them by the minions
Of a power having its head-center in
Lombard street, London.
The conspiracy OF the international
gold trust seems to have triumphed.
The Indignation OF the people against it
have been OF no avail. The power
which became organic as bond-hold-
ing class in America just after the close
Of the civil war has, by its league with
the financial system OF Great Britain,
succeeded in lrsmpling down truth
and justice, in choking the protests Of
mighty people, in destroying their
industries, in reducing them from pro-
prietors to tenants, in taking away
the rewards Of labor and enterprise,
and in establishing condition which