The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-06-17
CAMPAIGN KEYNOTE

The Republican national convention
met yesterday. The address of Tenn
porary Chairman Fairbanks foretold
what will be the platform. The usual
tribute was paid to the Republican
tariff policy and a demand for the res
toration of a protective tariff made.
All this was expected by everyone and
adj this is of no special interest to
! anyone. What the American people
wish to know is what stand the Re
publican party will take upon the only
real live issue before them-that is,
! the financial question.
There is no longer any doubt as to
what it viii be- 1t will be for the gold
standard and against the free coinage
of silver. Desiring not to alarm the
friends of silver in the convention at
the outset by any radical utterances
against silver, Mr.. Fairbanks threw
out a small sop when he declared that
the policy of the Republican party is
to retain both gold and silver as a
part of our circulating medium, while
the policy of free coinage of silver
leads to certain silver monometallism
This was Immediately followed up
with the statement that it is an inn
mutable law that two moneys of UNI
equal value wifi not circulate trgether,
and that the poorer always drives out
the better. Thus far no gold dollars
have been driven out by our silver,
and experiment alone can prove what
the effect Of free COMA ge of silver
would be upon our gold currency Facts
do not always follow theory by any
means.
The free silver men are told that if
they believe that this government can,
Independent of the other great COM
mercial powers, open its minis to the
free and Independent coinage of silver
at ratio of 16 to /, when the CONNER
cial ratio in all the great markets is
80 to /, and at the same time not drive
every dollar of gold out of circulation,
but deceive themselves. If assurance
Of manner and posttiveness Of tone
could make a thing certain, nothing
could be more certain than that the
free silver men are deceiving them
selves, for nothing could be more posi-
tive than Mr.. Fairbanks statement to
this effect
As he warmed to his work MIR. Fair
banks rolled off the regular gold bug
lingo to perfection. He declared that
congress might as we'll undertake to
suspend the law of gravitation as COM
2 *
dollars to circulate with one-hundred-
cent dollars at a parity. This is not
all Such IAN attempt to compel I'M
limited dollars of such unequal value
to circulate at a parity is bad in NOR
ais and is vicious in policy"
The fifty-cent dollar is a thing of
which every one hears and which no
one sees. It exists only in the dis
eased Imagination of the gold bug.
The temporary chairman plainly de-
clared what the partys policy is when
he said:
We stand against the Democratic at
tempt TO degrade our currency to the
low level of Mexico China. India and
Japan. The present high standard of
our currency, our labor and our flag
will be sacredly protected and preserv-
ed by the Republican party.
The single gold standard is to be
maintained and there is to be no free
coinage of free silver. That is the
policy of the Republican party on the
single important issue of the day-the
financial question. 1t holds out no
hope for the west and return of pros
perity.