The evening times., 1896-09-16
TELLER AND THE DOLLAR
Critic Attacks His Remarks on
Its Purchasing Power.
ADMITS 1t WOULD BUY LESS
Passages from the Speeches of Bryan
and Other silver Leaders Also Cit ed
Democrats Attempt to Offset the
MISUNDERSTANDING Among the
Ma asses of fWorkinSmen.

A clever Republican critic points to a
paragraph IN the speech OF Senator Teller
at Morrison, III, as showing tie silverites'
purpose TO cut down the purchasing power
OF the American dollar, Tie paragraph
referred to is as follows
We ask for no cheap dollar, in the sense
that our tctrac;ors, our slandcrers, claim
We say the Amer can dollar, as now con
stitutcd, has TOO high Il purchasing power,
and viii purchase too much of the produc-
toms of man aud too much OF his labor
The critic says he thinks the whole politi-
cal opposition should hold Teller and his sill
yer colleagues, who are making similar ut
teranceS, to the text oil their remarks. Other
leading Bryan speakers, the mau ASSERT .
are constantly advocating the substitution
for the dolla now in use dollar which they
admit viii not buy SO much of the products
of labor.
Uuequivocal as was Senator Teller in this
statement, attention is called to the fact
that Gov. Altgcld, OF Illinois, is outdoiDg
him III clear, emphatic statement of the
same thing. Altgeld says tie purchasing
power of the dollar is just twice as gree.
as II ought to he, and that its purchasing
power has doubled since 1873, and that the
silver party Will substitute for 1t a dollar
worth only half rs much-one that W i'll buy
only half as much.
ALTGELD DISPUTES HIMSELF.
In the same speech Altgeld says the value
OF the dollar was doubled at once in l 1913
and that the increase of value has been
gradual since that year. Yet he stoutly
sticks to the assertion that the present dol
lar is a '2OO-cent dollar and explains
again that this party intends to cut down
its value onc-half.
This same Republican critic, who states
that he has been looking up this subject
In the printed reports of the silver mems
speeches for the last three weeks, said fur
ther:
MIR. Bryan, in his speech at Buffalo,
August - said that the proposed free coin
age Of silver at the ratio of 8 to l would
lessen the purchasing power OF the dol
lar. He did not say, though, that the
power would be reduced oue-half, and /
do not believe he meant TO go too deep into
inconsistency by SO doing. But he did ad-
nit that the reduction would be equal to
The value which has been added, as the
silver men assert, TO the value of the dol
lar by the legislation OF 1873, and other
passages in lis addresses show that he
estimates this added partto have been about
about one-half''
The Republican who recalled these facts
said, further, that as Senator Teller, who
made the gross misStatenent first cited,
Should he well aware from his familiarity
with the Senate Finance Committees re-
port on prices and wages, that wages ad-
vanced between 1873 and 1891.
TRYING TO COUNTERPART.
That is" said he, ''our dollar of the
gold standard bought much less labor in
SCI than it did in 1873"
An effort has been lately noticed among
the Democratic leaders, and there has been
certain evidence of il at local party head
quarters to CouDteract the effect of their
statements that the purch asing power
of the dollar is to be decreased. They,
by their own declarations, admit that
while many farmers who have mortgages
to pay are pleased with these statements,
there are many others, especially among
the working masses, who do not under
stand them"
1t is a hard thing to explain to the pop
ular mind" they sa Y, in effect.
On the other hand, certain officials :t
Republican headquarters are calling par
ticular attention TO the fact that to their
minds, the asSiduous using of such utter
ances regarding the purchasing power of
TO accomplish Bryan's defeat.