The record-union., 1896-09-10
THU REPUBLICAN, CANDIDATE
FOR TIIE PRESIDENCY.

world wide. 1t is a known fact that
more than 80 per cent. of the commerce
Of the world is settled in gold or on
gold basis
such free coinage legislation if con-
summated would discriminate against
every producer Of wheat, cotton, corn
or rye-who should in justice be equally
entitled with the silver owner to sell
his products to the United States Treas
ury at a profit fixed by the Government
and against all producers of iron,
steel, zine or copper, who might prop
erly claim to have their metals made
into current coin. 1t would as well pc
a fraud upon all persons forced to ac-
cept a currency that stimulated and at
the same time degraded.
ONE-SIDED POLICY.
In every aspect the proposed policy
is partial and one-sided, because 1t IS
only when a profit can be made by a
mine owner or dealer that he takes MS
silver to the mint for coinage. The
Government is always at the losing
end. Stamp such fictitious value upon
silver ore, and dishonest and unjust
discrimination will be made against
every other form Of industry. When
silver bullion, worth little more than
% cents. is made into legal tender
dollar. driving out one having a pur-
chasing and debtpaying power OF lOO
cents. 1t will be clearly done at the ex-
rense and injury of every class Of the
community
Those who contend for the free and
unlimited coinage of silver may be-
lleve in all honesty that while the pres
ent ratio of silver to gold is as 30 to 1
(not 16 to ID silver will rise above the
existing market value. If it does so
rise the effect will be to make the loss
to all the people so much less, but such
an opinion is but a hazardous con-
lecture at best, and is not justified by
experience.
SILVER PURCHASES.
Within the last twenty years this
Government has bought about AGO, 000-
900 of ounces of silver, from which it
has coined approximately 43OOO0,OOO
of silver dollars and issued 1870 900, 900
of dollars in silver certificates, and the
price of the metal has steadily declined
from 81 ID per ounce to 6S cents per
ounce. What will be the decline when
the supply is augmented by the offer
ings of all the world? The loss upon
these silver purchases to the people of
this country has now been nearly 150-
600, 900 Of dollars.
AN HONEST DOLLAR.
THE dollar of our fathers, about
which so much IS said, was an honest
dollar, silver maintaining a full parity
of intrinsic value with gold. The
fathers would have spurned and ridi-
culed proposition to make a silver
dollar worth only 50 cents stand on an
equal value with a gold one worth 100
cents. The experience of all nations
gees to prove that any depreciation,
however slight, Of another slai--iaf4
from the parity with gold has driven
the more valuable one out Of circula-
tion and such experience in a matter
o. this kind is worth much more than
mere interested speculative opinion.
THE fact that few gold coins are seen
in ordinary circulation for domestic
uses is proof at all that the metal
is not performing a most important
function in business affairs. The foun-
dation of the house is not always in
sight, but the house would not stand
an hour if there We're no foundation.
SAVINGS OF WORKMEN.
There are now on deposit in the saw
ings banks Of thirty-three States and
Territories Of this Union the vast sum
Of two billion dollars; these are the
savings Of almost 100000 depositors.
In many cases they represent the labor
and economy of years. Any deprecia-
ton in the value Of the dollar would
defraud every man, woman and child
to whom these savings belong. Every
dollar of their earnings when deposited
was worth 100 cents in gold of the
present standard of weight and fine
ness. Are they not entitled to receive
in full, with interest, all they have so
deposited? Any legislation that would
reduce it by the value Of single dime
would be an intolerable wrong to each
depositor Every bank or banker who
has accepted the earnings Of these mil
lions Of dollars to the credit Of our
citizens must be required to pay them
back in money not one whit less valua-
bic than that which the banks and
bankers received in trust.
There are in this country nearly
5000 building and loan associations,
with shareholders to the number of
500, 900, and with assets amounting to
more than 5000, 100000. Their average
Of holdings is nearly $500 per capita,
and in many instances they represent
the savings of men and women who
have denied themselves the comforts Of
life in the hope Of being able to ac-
cumulate enough to buy or build homes
Of their own. They have aided in the
erection of over a million of houses
which are now affording comfort and
shelter for 100000 Of our people.
EQUAL TO CONFISCATION.
Free coinage at the arbitrary ratio
Of 16 ounces of silver to l of gold would
he equivalent TO the confiscation Of
nearly half the savings that these peo-
pie have invested. It would be tanta-
mount to a war upon American home
makers; it would be an invasion of the
| homes of the provident' and tend di-
rectly to destroy the stimulus to en-
deavor and the compensation of honest
toll Every one Of the shareholders of
these associations is entitled to be re-
paid in money Of the same value which
he deposited by weekly payments or
Otherwise in these companies, and none
OF them should be made homeless be-
cause political party demands a
change In the money standard of our
| country as an experiment or as a con-
| cession to selfishness or greed.
The magnitude of the disaster which
would overtake these and cognate in
| terests becomes the more strikingly APP
parent when considered in the aggre-
| gate. Stated broadly, the savings
| banks. life insurance and assessment
companies and building and loan associ-
atoms of the country hold in trust Sl5,-
| 500, III ,3S1 The debasement of the cur
rency to a silver basis, as proposed by
the Chicago platform, would wipe out