The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-08-24

in coin. In addition to the money thus
| in circulation and redeemabie by the gov
ei-nment. there are government bonds
outstanding $2J,36o.G00 of sis per cent.
bonds now due and continued at per
| cent; Sl20. .0oo, 600 OF per cent. bonds, and
Sl00otO,oGo of per cent. bonds. Thus We
| have IN round numbers $50 OOo.VoV OF gov
ernment paper redeemable in coin ON
demand. ami ssi1,O0O,o0o of government
| bonds outstanding payable in coin, all or
which could be placed upon the silver
standard of value by the action OF the
president and the secretary OF the treas
ury in an hour. No legislation of any
| kind would be necessary to enable free
silver president to precipitate violent
change from the gold to the silver stand
ard of value. He would simply have TO
direct 1t to be done and II would be ac-
| complished.
Mr.. Bryan must be false to his own
teachings and false to the friends who
have nominated him, and who expect TO
! profit by his election. if he did not WELD
his full power as president to make silver
the standard money of the country and to
| reject gold as the standard of value. That
| he would do so no one can doubt. He
has been teaching the doctrine for several
years. he was instructed to do so by the
several conventions that nominated him,
and the evidence Is manifold and con-
elusive that. IL invested with the power.
he would at once sever this country from
| the money standard of the civilized world.
and rank 1t side by side with the semi
| civilized and pagan nations of the earth.
With these facts undisputed, the mere
election of Mr.. Bryan TO the presidency
would at once inaugurate the supremacy
| of silver and the establishment of the sill
yer standard of value. Even IL he were
disposed to attempt TO sustain the silver
! dollar at parity with gold, the credit of
| the government would be destroyed. II
| has already been greatly strained by at
tempting to keep in circulation some 440
! OO0.OOO of legal tender silver dollars.
France and the Latin Union were COM
PEELED to suspend the coinage of silver, be-
| cause the load became too heavy for them
to maintain it In circulation with gold
Mr.. Bryan would not keep silver at the
gold standard of value II he could, and he
certainly could not if he would.
The people of the nation must look the
fact squarely in the face that the election
of Mr.. Bryan involves an immediate and
revolutionary change of our financial
| standard of value from the sound money
maintained by every nation with which
| we have important commercial and finan-
cial relations, to the standard of the pow
erty-stricken. semi-civilized nations which
are struggling with free silver and pov-
erty. The issue can be clearly stated as
| involving the maintenance or the sound
financial system that this government
has maintained since its foundation, or q
departure to cheap money imitation that
would strip the republic of its integrity
and proclaim dlshonor as a virtue In the
daily transactions between citizens. Next
to the issue of secession that confronted
us in 1860, the issue of national honor and
integrity and of honest money for all
| classes and conditions of the people, Is the
| most important ever presented to the
sovereign power of the republic for Its
| final arbitrament.