The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-07-15
Delegates to st. Louis Instructed
to Work for the Ne.
braSkan.
GOLD STANDARD DENOUNCED.
A Combination of Western Hemis.
phere Silver Producing Nations
Advocated.

hundred delegates were present at Hymns
Hall this morning when the provisional
chairman, Amos StIeckel, called the Nom
Partisan BimetalIic state Convention to
order. He introduced s. H. Bashor of
Waterloo as temporary chairman. Tenn
porary Chairman S. II. Bashor said:
Gentlemen of the Convention: These are
stirring times; times in which the ear of pa
triotism inclined to the earth hears the heart
beats of humanity; times in which the cohorts
OF organized greed and the sons of liberty are
arraying for the final conflict. On the one
side is the despotism of moneyed aristoeracy;
on the other the kingship of the masses The
fundamental doctrine of popular Government
IS. you can always trust the people; and when
submitted to them calmly and dispassionately
no question has ever been settled wrong. AS
God chained the last generation TO the redemp-
ton OF the slave, SO believe he rivets on this
emancipation of labor.
the statutes of this Nation, as Scion said of
the laws of Greece, which spiderweb-like held
the little bugs while the big ones break
through, must be repealed and legislation in
the interest of the whole people enacted in
their stead. Until this is accomplished there
can be no peace. 1t is war to the knife and
knife to the hilt. Compromise is worse than
defeat Evils and oppression, the result of
law, can be neutralized and destroyed only by
the laws repeal. 1t is not so much the creation
of new laws that is demanded by existing con-
ditions it is the repeal of already enacted
bad ones. 1t was sage pulpit philosopher
who declared that dogmatic theology tails
short of the conversion OF men with empty
stomachs. He gave but homely expression to
an established principle of philosophy which
is as broad as human existence.
With heaped granaries and bursting cribs
unsold for the want OF prices equal to the cost
of production on the one hand, aud crying
want from destruction OF the purchasing power
of the masses on the other, discomfort must be
the inevitable crown of the nations.
What is prosperity to the many when 1t is
in the hands of the few?
What is increasing wealth to the Nation
when industrial conditions and class legisla-
ton forces it through the fingers of labor into
the Golfers of idleness?
What is the difference whether the masses
are pierced with bayonets and bullets in one
mighty onslaught or slowly ground to starva-
ton under the heels of oppression?
How can oppression exist as q normal con-
dition when free pass and free speech are
throttled, when patriotism blinds the eye of
justice and party slavery parslyzes the hand
of power?
We cannot make a Nation one-half Bibles,
free schools, steam engines, improved machin-
cry, and the other half serfs. The hope of
this Nation for fifty years, and its hope still,
is the intelligence and conscience of the
people. That something is wrong no man
disputes Who lifts the lateh-strings and
steps into the world sees. Most men see be-
fore the latch-string is lifted. For twenty
years we have realized and doubted the fact
but the cause is unsolved.
One class said the remedy was more tariff
and an honest dollar; another said less tariff
and an honest dollar. Since we have tried all
and conditions constantly grow worse, these
ostensibly opposed political doctors turn
homeopaths together and about as a principle.
fundamental in politics equal with physics
similia similibus curantur.
The infallible remedy, according to those
who speak outside OF secret council is more
tariff, or less tariff. but always an honest dol
lar. ''Where McGregor sits is the head of the
table"
The ordinary man must be pardoned when
he refuses to blindly apply as remedial agent
the poison which created the disease. He,
too, believes in an honest dollar-the differ
ence is one of definition. A dollar whose pur-
chasing power is limited to one bushel of
wheat when q debt is ontracted, but demands
two when it is to be paid, has discarded hon.
esty and turned robber.
The decentralization act of 1873 which took
from silver its legal value and destroyed its
parity with gold at the ratio of 10 to 1, Will as
constantly undo that far-reaching evil when
Internationally repealed. Silver, re-estab-
lished as money of final redemption at the ex-
listing commercial ration, can never raise
silver bullion above the present dead level of
low water price.
England, the gold producing nation of the
world, in 1915 established the gold standard.
With about 18 per cent of the ratio of the
worlds production of gold in her favor at
that time she established the gold standard,
0rad ~ AL. -
ket, dictated prices universally and became
the creditor nation of the earth.
If the United States, joining with Mexico
producing they do the great bulk of the
worlds supply of silver bullion, should estab-
lish the free coinage of silver at the ratio of
Is to /, it is only question of time when the
silver market would be cornered, and from
the position of debtor she would bound into q
creditor among the nations of the earth.
With the silver-producing nations of the
Western hemisphere established on a uniform
basis of free coinage OF gold and silver al our
present legal ratio no man at any spot within
commercial reach of our shores q 1.-THE re-
moved from idiocy would take cent less for
an ounce of silver than its legal or mintag &c
value and the parity of the two metals be I'M
questionably preserved. There is little or n
uncofned silver in European countries. Coined
silver all over the East is at q ratio of 1515 to
- u per CSuL nlSuer rdtlO buhu uerS. LII Is
held shere as subsidiary coinage and at q
parity with gold. How. then. could the owner
OF bullion speculate on dumping 151z to 1
silver Into 10 to i minis when the 15l< o i
cost him in his country its equivalent in gold?
If we establish the double standard and
gold leaves our shores, as has been predicted,
the vast increase in the foreign local volume
would so materially increase the supply of
gold in Western Europe as to have It cheaper
The expectation Of gold would increase the
demand in America for silver and make it
oearer. Cheaper gold in Europe, dearer silver
In America, would by the inevitable law of
commerce wine out the existing difference in
commercial value and draw both to the exact
level OF legal mintage ratio value of 16 TO l.
II the recent election in Oregon, giving a
majority in favor of silver, raised the price of
silver bullion on Change IL per cent when
the news reached the great commercial cen.
tiers, what win be the logical rise in price
when the entire Union throws its vote the
same way?
The essential want of the times is COM
mercial relation with the weaker and non.
producing nations. They need our products.