Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1896-08-03

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The gold press of the country seem al
most with one accord to have adopted
the same motto. You will have to plow
through dozen columns of blood-curd-
ling expletives against the silver men to
get half dozen lines of anything that
will stand for argument, and the strength
OF the eXpletives is in inverse ratio to
the strength of the argument. In pursu-
ing this line, the single standard adyo-
Gates are doubtless acting wisely from
their point of view, but they are paying
very poor tribute to the intelligence of
the newspaper readers of the country.
The most cursory glance at the atti-
tude of the two money parties is sufficient
to show that while the silver men in their
appeal to the people bring forward rea-
sons, whether good, bad or Indifferent,
to prove their case, the goldtcs, on the
other hand, deal almost exclusively m ad
jectves to prove theirs. The moral of
this is not hard to see.
Still, there are Il few honorable cXcep-
tions among the latter, and the Boston
UGrdM is one of them. This is how the
Herald appeals to one of the most intel
lcctual newspaper constituencies in the
world:
ANY merchant who had a stock of
merchandise that is selling now at prac-
ticalIy the same price here that it is in
England or Canada, with the exception
OF the cost of transportation, would be
fool if he cOntnucd-under Il free coin
age of silver-to sell his goods with no
change of price in this country, when by
sending them to England, he could get
gold for them, and could with the gold
buy silver bullion enough to make, by
coming it in the United States, double
the number OF dollars"
What could be more simple or delight
full? Get gold for your goods in England
and then 90 off to Il British dealer in sill
yer bullion, buy 100 cents worth of white
metal for 80 cents, ship it back to the
United States and have it straightway
coined into an American dollar. That
would indeed be making the busncs of
buying silver bullion profitable pas
time, if things went just as our contcm-
porary says they would. But wait?
The learned economist in the Herald
does not explain why the British bullion
dealer should sell to you for so cents
what he can himself get 100 cents for in
America, and we can account for the
the British bullion dealer or the HeaaM
economist is singularly green.
Why will people shut their eyes to
facts of history? When silver was coin
ed at the ratio of 1G to l in the United
States previous to 1878 silver bullion
was sold at the same price in all civiliz-
ed countries Of the world, whether they
had free coinage or not.
1t should be further remembered by
those who lack confidence in the ability
OF our country to maintain the parity of
the two metals that today there is less
known silver In the world, in proportion
to gold than existed at the time that
the United States coined both metals
and called both money. The price set
by our government twcnty-thrce years
ago was accepted by all the world as
the actual intrinsic value of the white
metal, just as the world accepts the
price we place on gold today, and the
publishers of the TRIBUNE are patriotic
enough to believe that what could be
done before 1878, with II greater propol-
tionatc amount of silver against the
known gold of the world, can be done in
1896.
For eighty-one years, from 1892 to 1878,
we had bmetallism in America, and In
all that time no man ever saw or heard
tell of an American tifty-cent dollar.
Ihe silver coin which our government
called Il dollar was dollar in every
sense OF the word, and was accepted as
such at home and abroad as worth 100
cents in gold or anything else, for the
simple reason that the amount of bullion
contained in the coin could not be pur-
chased in the open silver market for
fraction less than dollar in gold, and
at times it could not be had at that
price.
Those are plain historical facts, and
should count more in assisting the COM
mon people of our country in forming
their opinion than any amount OF theo-
retical shricking which gold advocates
indulge in; and, after Il proper invcsti-
CATION of the subject, the honest voters
OF the country, whose opinions are not
warped byporsonal interests, should agree
that If free coinage of silver at 16 to l will
stop the government from bonding this
country to the verge of bankruptcy, it will
be worth fair trial. / it does nothing
else but that, let that be accomplished,
and future generations will thank the
the voters of 1896 for their wisdom pa
triotism and ability in wrestling from the
gold owners of the world the tremend-
Gus power that they possess over this
fair land and preventing them from
ever again obtaining the hold upon the
nation they now have.
Thnra 10 ynora ooto,xl -, aaaI;s.