The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-09-08
TWO MONETARY SYSTEMS.


measure calculated to debaSe our currency or
impair the credit of our country. We are
therefore, opposed TO the free coinage ofSitver
encept ty International agreement Nth the
leading commercial nations of the worId
Wh1ch a0e pledge ourselves to promote, and
unit such agreement can be obtained the er-
isttng gold standard must be preserved. AH
oar stt0er aPd paper currency mast be main
tanned at a parity NTH gold, and ,ce favor
all measures designed to maintain inviolably
the obligations of the United States and all
our money, e0hether an coin or paper, at the
present standard, the standard of the most
enlightened nations of the eafth.-Republica1
National Platform.
The declaration of the Republican party
on the money question means that all
forms OF our money. paper and metallic,
must be maintained at par-that no dol
lar shall be at discount. The Republi-
can party is composed of wage-ea ers
and business men, and the party's stand
upon the money question is in accordance
with their experience in practical busi-
ness life. 1t is not reasonable to suppose
that they would declare for monetary
system that was likely to injure values of
existing property accumulations, nor is it
to be supposed that they would undertake
to retard prospective trade expansion by
adopting forms of money of different
standards of purchasing power. How
ever partisan a man may be he draws the
line at self-interest, and any sensible man
would abandon his party if it undertook
to disturb his business opera ii ons.
The position of the Republican party
may ha aOuSidarpd fharafora ont
come of the experience of labor and capt.
tai. After working together for years to
their mutual advantage they are satisfied
that the basis of their successful and har-
monioHs cooperation has been dollars
that were without Yaria pleness in their
relation to one another as measures of
values. If thea the declarations of the
party on the question of money are the
result of wide and varied experience in the
activities of actual trade, industry and
commerce, it stands to reason that they
should be trusted before the declarations
of theorists and xperimentalists, espe-
cially when it is known that the theories
of these theorists are Numerically OPP
posed to what practical experience has
demonstrated to be true.
To show the difference between the posi-
ton of the Republican party and the
Bryanites upon the money question we
quote the money plank of that party. 1t
is as follows:
We demand the free and unlimited coinage
of both gold and SILVER at the present legal
ratio Of Is to 1 aOithOut aUaiting for the aid or
consent Of any other nation. We demand
that the standard silver dollar shall be full
legal tender, equally Nth gold, for all debts,
public and private, and ace favor Stsch legis-
iation as aciH prevent for the future the de-
niOnetizdtiOn Of any Kind Of legal-tender
money By priUdte contract.
1t will be observed that the purpose of
the Bryanites is to ignore our commercial
relations with all foreign customers of
American farm and other products and
make the continuance of such relations
contingent upon their accepting without
question monetary system they do not
think is safe one. This brings MP the
question. would foreign buyers conform to
a system they believe to be ruinous to
them? The presumption is they would
rather sever all business relations with us
than do business upon a system of forms
of money of different purchasing power.
IT we elected to continue to do business
with them the consequence would be that
we should have gold monometallism for
our foreign trade and silver monometallism
tor our domestic trade. Moreover, our
silver dollars would stand in the same re-
lation to outside trade and commerce that
Mexican silver dollars now stand in trade
operations with us, which is on the basis
OF about so cents of our money for Mex
lean silver coin of the denomination of 81.
The experience of commerce in all ma
tons and in all ages is that the declara-
ton of the Republican party on the money
question is in harmony with the unwrit-
ten laws of trade interchange, and it is
also the experience of commerce that the
theories of the Bryanites have always
worked ruin to trade and traffic when put
in practical operation. The money ques-
ton is not, therefore. political but a
commercial question, and if the testimony
which the experience of commerce gives
it be taken the Bryan monetary system
should be rejected without argument.
IL II