The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-10-03
Harrison Answers BRYAN.

If General Harrison has been pre-
vented by personal reasons from enter
ing actively into the present campaign
as speaker for the Republican cause,
he has not been idle either with his
brain or pen, as the October number
of the Forum magazine conclusvely
shows. The first article in that peri
odical is contributed by him, and it
analyses to the minutest vestige the
Popocratic proposition of the free, un-
limited and Independent coinage of sill
Yer at 16 to /.
The first discrepancy that the dis
tinguished author points out in the
arguments of Mr.. Bryan lies between
the latters statement that free coin
age is for the betterment of the debtor
class because it holds out to it the
promise of cheaper dollar, and his
other assertion that under free coinage
gold and silver would come to a parity.
For "if free coinage will lift the value
OF sixteen ounces of silver to the pres
ent value of one ounce of gold, silver
Will then be as obnoxious as gold"
But, the ex-president adds
1t Is not true, as Mr.. Bryan seems to in
Innate, that the law of 1873 changed our
money standard to the injury of the debtor
class. The silver dollar was dropped from
our coinage, but it was not then a cheap
dollar but par dollar-the 37lh grains of
pure silver contained in 1t were the full
equivalent, as bullion, of the 800 grains
of pure gold contained in the gold dollar
1t Is not fair, then, to liken the change
in our coinage laws made in 1873 to that
now proposed. The former involved
neither dishonesty nor oppression. The
dollar that was dropped, and the dollar
that was retained were commercial, as
well as legal, equivalents; and the change
did not favor the creditor class nor ihju-e
the debtor class.
Next General Harrison addresses
himself to the Popocratic affirmation
that gold has Appreciated:
Condensed, the argument is this: 1t
takes more wheat to get gold dollar than
formerly. and therefore the gold dollar
has gone up. But the deduction in that
premise Is in the alternative-either gold
mas gone up or wheat has gone down.
Commonly. we would say wheat Is lower,
and would seek the explanation in a
large general crop or in diminished con-
sumption. We know that these things
do affect the price of wheat and will con-
tinue to do so under free silver coinage.
Drouth and rust and the cinch bug, a
full European crop, the increasing output
or Russia, India and Argentina, closed
American mills and enforced economy in
things always have and always will affect
the price of wheat. Another thing to be
taken into account in this connection Is
the production of gold-for IL a large
wheat crop means, commonly, lower
price, so large crop of gold must mean
lower value for gold. The worlds pro-
duction of gold in 1873 was $9G, ,2OO, 900. and
only two years since then has it fallen be-
low that figure. All other years show an
increase and the last five years steady
and enormous increase. In view
of these considerations and of these fig
ures as to production, who Is wise enough
to say that gold has gone up or silver
down. or how much either metal has va
ried? And yet 1t is assumed that the sill
yer dollar has been true and stable meas
ure of value, that 1t has neither gone I'D
nor down since 1873. and that 1t would be
honest to return to that standard and set
tie all contracts by it. Now how is this to
be proved?
The one thing in Mr.. Bryan's speeches
which In the ex-president's opinion ap-
proaches argument is the illustration
he uses that II a man able to perform
his contracts should offer to pay 81 a
bushel fo- all the wheat brought to
him, the price Of wheat would go up to
dollar. But, General Harrison adds
The United States Is not to buy the sill
ver-it only puts O stamp on 1t and re-
turns 1t to the owner. 1t is rather as IL q
miller should offer to take all the wheat
brought to him. to grind 1t into flour with
out charge, to put each 100 pounds Of the