Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1896-08-14

know little and care less about communism.
They will repudiate any communistic inter-
probation of their platform. Their object was
to pronounce anathema maranatha upon the
policy of gold money only, and to give the
cold shoulder to all who have had art OF part
in putting it in force in this country. That
will 60 no farther. Radical and revolutionary
measures like that of no money but gold, in
variably and necessarily promote counter
measures. more or less similar. The adage
says that the devil must be fought with his
own fire.
have been Republican on old and now
| obsolete party questions, but all past issues
| are lost in the intense feeling that has been
engendered by the radical and revolutionary |
| legislation of 1878. We are all released from
old party ties. The election of 1896 will be
an overwhelming reputation and rebuke of
legislation that has been so destructive to
American interests of every name and so
humiliating to our national pride.
The people at large are without metallic
money! Silver has been demonetized, and no
gold circulates among them. 1t is engrossed
and held fast by syndicates. The coins OF
gold will not bear handling by the people at
large They lose too heavily by abrasion to
| be used as currency. The government keeps
one hundred millions Of gold. syndicated in
Washington. The law gives it the option to
pay all demands upon it either In gold or sill
yer, as it may please. The Cleveland admin
istration taboos silver and pays out nothing
but gold. None are able to call for this but
the gold class; and the demands OF these are
for large sums only. No part OF the gold that
is paid them by the government finds circula-
ton among the people. 1t is manipulated by
file sylld icates. The government therefore
keeps it almost exclusively in the form OF
! bars. which do not lose by abrasion. am
informed that of the hundred millions OF gold
held in its reserve fund by the government,
scarcely five millions is in tie form OF COINS.
| The government itself discredits its own mint
whenever these CONS are demanded, by shovel-
ing them out by weight instead of counting
them out by the piece.
What sort of money is this for the people?
They are denied silver, and gold coins they
cannot get. These are too precious, to De
handled by the common masses. They would
lose too much by abrasion Gold is not for the
people, 1t is for the syndicates which, by
engrossing all the metallic money of the coun-
try, are enabled to make the prices OF all pro-
perty what they please.
| The chief usefulness of silver is as money.
It is this use which gives it value. 1t was the
money of the Bible. 1t has been the money OF
all history. Jointly with gold, it is the mon
ey Of the American Constitution. But after
4 As,r of
= use. it has been deprived of its money func-
! tion. Modern empires and quacks call it I'LL
sound money. BY characterization in Europe
til and America it has lost large part OF Its
value as metal, but for the fact it is still the
, money of twelve hundred million OF the
/. worlds population, which is fifteen hundred
and fifty million, it would sink to the value
of from or copper, and be used only in the arts.
|; Remonetize silver, restore it to its historical
g and God-eiyen function in this country and it
would at once resume its money value and
s \ become again, what it was for hundred
s years before 1873, alta premium over gold or
e the ratio long adhered to in the coinage Of
r, the two metals. Before 1873 the farmer
l. could buy the gold dollar with three pecks O.
Il wheat. Now he must pay eight pecks for TIN
e midget coin. The case is the same with cot
6 tor and with all material property. The tit
ty-cent dollar is the butt of sneers, but we hea
d nothing of the 60-cent bushel of wheat or the
: scent pound OF cotton or of land sunk to hal
q price and hard to sell for that. The prices O.
j. these range themselves with silver the money
n of the people, whose property of all sort
n Will buy as much silver as before 1873 and NJ
n more. Why should not silver be still the PEG
n pies money? They are thinking that !
j. should be, and will soon have silver re
g monetized for their own use.
The gold class have contrived to double TIN
1 value Of gold, and to make that metal thu
d | standard of all values; and when the farme
Is | asks when he shall again receive the accus
J. toned dollar and quarter for his wheat
# and the planter when again his cotton will
l. bring him fifteen to twenty cents-the.
j. answer with the refrain of Poe's Raven
j. "Neyermore," "Nevermore.'
f. America, the United States in large part
d produces nearly all of the silver used in thu
1 world. That metal by our fatuous demonet
II izatIou of it commands price only as merch
7 andise, Like wheat and cotton, its dolla
e becomes, as bullion. the 50 cents dollar JUS
# / as wheat becomes 80-cent wheat aud colt on
y rents cotton And yet here are Americans
n ignorant and silly enough to sheer at thu
S diminished prices OF these three leading stapl'
d products of their own country. Isn't it rathe
t. a matter for shame than for sneers?
The effect of the policy of the gold class il
J. to deny to the people at large all metallic
J. money and reduce them to the use of pape
e money exclusively. Their gold is carefully
syndicated, and silver, suddenly discovered
S after two thousand years of use to be dishon
It est, is demonetized The paper money in clr
f culation is not sufficient for the popul a
6 needs and is so much used, over-used, as t.
n have become too filthy and ragged for decen
e handling Verify the yoke of the gold polio.
IS is a CALLING one. 1t ought not to be endured
L and won't be.
le The people OF the country happen to be
le people of unbounded political courage; the
IS happen to be the American people abundant
It ly capable of self government. And the
IN mean to abolish the money system which
{, proving to be crushing burden and curse
+ the land They will do this by their ow2 fire
and independent action. In Europe, wher
f there are no people, where there is no popu
" Lar tneneht, no freedom, no freemen. no powe
s-1 Of popular actii0ff,,, apd where manhood is
leA ruthless chains, they cannot discard tn
ir shirt of Nessus. And yet here are men IN I'll
United States so unworthy of their countr