The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1896-10-09


he said: Whenever money goes up
property goes down. You cannot
have a dollar that buys more unless
you have property chat sells for less.
Now that is fair proposition, so SIM
pie that anybody who has money and
wants it to go up can understand the
advantage of the gold standard, and
anybody that has property and does
not want it to go down can understand
the advantage of bimetallism."
Mr.. Bryan in all his speeches claims
to be a bimetallist, and talks about the
return of bimetallism." In his opin-
ion the opening of the mints of the
United States to the unlimited coinaga
of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 would be
return to bimetallism," because the
mints are now open to the coinage
of gold. Why, then, he says, should
they not be open to the coinage OF sill
yer? Simply because, at the ratio OF
16 to 1, the amount of silver which 1t
is proposed to have the government call
a dollar is not worth dollar. II 1t
were this controversy would be lmpos-
sible.
Yhe government has put its stamp
upon the dollars which 1t has coined
upon it's own account, and for whose
redemption it is morally and legally re-
sponsible, just as it is responsible 1or
the redemption of the paper dollar.
True, it does not redeem silver and
paper money in the same way For
the paper dollar it gives a gold dollar
in exchange. 1t redeems silver lndl-
rectly by accepting it in payment 1or
debts due itself This has the same ef-
feet as if it paid gold in exchange for
silver, since all the silver in circulation
could be returned to the government IN
any one year. But if the government
should coin silver, not on its cWn ac-
count but on the account OF the owner
of the bullion, it would be under no
such obligation. The nature of its OBJ
legation would then be changed, ana
it would be under obligation to see
that the man who passed silver dollar
is worth one hundred cents snail re-
deem it at one hundred cents, upon
demand of the holder, just as 1t COM
pels national bank to redeem lts
notes at a hundred cents on the dol
lar in gold.
The return" of which Mr.. Bryan
speaks exists only in his imagination,
therefore. If the government shoulu
coin silver worth one hundred cents
into silver dollars, then the mlnts
would. be open to gold and silver upon
equal terms. Mr.. Bryan's proposition
is to open the mints to gold and silver
on UNEQUAL terms, giving silver twice
the privileges that are granted golo.
The government, under Mr. Bryan
scheme. would coin one hundred cents
worth of gold into dollar, but 1t
would coin fifty cents worth of silver
into a dollar. This is so plain that IL
would seem as if even child can un-
derstand it.
So long as the government maintains
a parity between gold and silver, com
ing gold in an unlimited amount anu
silver in a limited amount, we nave
bimetallism. 1t is not full, theoretical
bimetallism, but it is practical blmetal-
Ism since both metals circulate and
perform every function of money at
mar with each other. Mr.. Bryan's
scheme would drive gold out OF clrcula-
ton, which would result In practlcal
silver monometallism, since silver coin
alone would perform the functions now |
performed by both silver and gold:
The Republican party has planted it
self in it's platform upon the
doctrine of bimetallism properly
understood, that is, of blmetal-
lism in which both metals circulate
freely at par with each other Mr
Bryan seems to think that we would
not have the gold standard, If we had
bimetallism. He claims that the gold
standard and bimetallism are contra
dictory expressions, and that they
stand for irreconcilable ideas. On the
contrary, with theoretical bimetall1sm
in force, the gold and silver standard
would constitute but one standard, ana
il would make no difference whether
it was called the gold standard or not;
it would be the gold standard all the
same. The Republican party believes
it easier to pass from the single gold
standard to the double standard, So
called, in which the gold and silver
standards are identical, than it would
be to pass to bimetallism from the sill
yer standard. 1t believes that the
method of arriving at truly bimetallic
monetary system is not by way OF the
silver standard, but to pass directly
from the gold standard to the double
standard; at the same time it believes
that it is impossible to have the double
standard. without the concurrent ac-
ton of the leading commercial nations
of the world 1t therefore says: We
are in favor of bimetallism, and as a
means of arriving at bimetallism we
propose to retain the gold standard
until we can secure the cooperation
and consent of sufficient number of
leading commercial nations to enable
us to put full, theoretical bimetallism
into practical operation in this coun- ]
try. The idea that this is subserviency [
to Great Britain is pure nonsense. We
might as well say that we are slaves I