The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1896-11-05

.!lift.- tIt. ~rtfirsf~ Of -
AM now q convention speaks Of the ~u-
prem. colirt ~ j, may Ic hereafter con
NtIiUGrt!. uIfu;.tiI- un~Iui>takabiy the in
tcnIion. il the party represented in that
convention comes To power. to 50 conSti-
tute the courts as to make 1t lnscnSlble
to the stern voice of the law, and re-
sponsive to the passing whims of politi-
cal parties
The archbishop sees in the platform a
sectional and guarded expression of So
cialism. The convention of Chicago lis
the international of Europe. now tax
ing body in America. * " The war
of class against class is upon us. the war
of the prolctariat against the property
holder. No other meaning than this can
be given to the appeals to the common
people. to labor. to the poor and down
trodden. and To the denunclationS
against plutocrats and corporations and
money grabbcrs and bankers. Many add
herents of the movement do not per-
ceive its full meaning; but let them be-
ware. they are lighting torches which,
borne in hands of reckless men, may
light up in the country the lurid fires of
u commune"
Archbishop Ireland thinks that the
pamphlet of Archbishop Walsh of Dub
lin on bimetallism has no bearing what
ever on the situation in America and
that it rs throughout n solid argument
against the Chicago platform. Free
coinage, he says. will give us money
worth in the commercial market of the
world, u little over half its nominal
value. s. " Legal tender COM
pelling men to accept against their will
money above its commercial value in the
markets of the world. is rank injustice"
He is absolutely convinced that the
iaboring classes will suffer the most of
all from free silver coinage?" With re-
spect TO the farmer. he pertinently asks,
VIII they not receive a higher price
for their products? Maybe a higher
price. but not higher value. Of what
use is it to have Il dollar instead of a
no more than the half dollar.
s. The best market for the
farmers's product is his own country,
and if his WI country is impoverished,
if factories are closed, if laborers in
cities are prnnilCss, the farmer will re-
ccive but little for his harvcsts.' He
scorns the absurd explanation of our in
dustrial and financial troubles by refer
ring TO the crime of 1913" and says
that 1t is the great fallacy of the day
gold Standard He thinks that under
the silver standard we will have much
harder times and that zone of the chief
causes of hard times today is the agita-
ton for a radical change i'll the currency
of the country"
Like all other men who think upon
this subject seriously, Archbishop Ire
land comes at last to consider the ethical
aspect of the question, and asks: Us it
honest TO try to pay debts with half the
money which we received when we con-
tracted them? = = = That the great
American nation will, as a nation, de-
clare to the world that it will now make
a law compelling its creditors to be sat
lsted with half, or a little more, of the
money they loaned TO it, and go on record
in the eyes of the world as a broken
down, bankrupt. repudiating nation, it is
not possible to believe"
Holding these views, which are fully
and carefully elaborated in this letter,
which is too long for reproduction here,
it is not surprising to hear him say: II
stand by the platform and the presiden-
lial candidate of the Republican conven-
ton at st. Louis. | am opposed to the
platform and the presidential candidate
of the Democratic convention at Chica-
go"
The following are the closing para
graphs of the archbishop's letter:
Here is the popular argument in
favor of free silver coinage-we have
had hard times under the gold standard
That is true. and what is also true is
that under the silver STANDARD we shall
have much harder times. 1t is the great
fallacy of the day TO be attributing ou1
hard times 60 the gold standard. The
craze of free. silver as a cure for hard
times is cX}licalle on the same theory
that n man who has been a long time
sick despite the attentive care of expert
physicians, viii call for any quack who
advertises to cure all the ills of hu.
mainly. Hard times have come through
the severe and rosiStless working OF
economic laws, which go their way il