The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-05-20
In Good Company.

with Major Mckinley for having once
favored the double standard evidently
overlook the fact that his position in
those earlier years was that of the Re-
publican party. If he was wrong then
he stood in good company. In Febru-
airy, 1878, James G.. Blaine, whose Re-
publicanism even Tom Platt would have
to concede. said: II believe the struggle
now going On in this country and in
other countries for a single gold stand
ard, would, if successful, produce wide
spread disaster in and throughout the
commercial world. The destruction OF
silver and establishment of gold as a
sole unit of value must have a ruinous
effect upon all forms of property except
those improvements which yield fixed
return in money. 1t Is impossible to
strike silver out Of existence as money
without results which will prove dis
tressing to millions and disastrous to
tens Of thousands. ! believe gold and
silver coin to be the money of the con-
stitution; indeed, the money of the
American people anterior to the con-
stitution, which the great organic law
recognized as quite independent of it's
own existence. No power was con-
ferred on congress to declare either
metal should not be money. Congress
has, in my judgment, no power to
demonetize silver any more than to de-
monetize gold"
But even earlier than that-in fact,
way back in 1792-Alexander Hamilton,
who has ben regarded the father Of the
present Republican party although he
died half a century before it was born,
gave utterance to these words: Upon
the whole. 1t seems to be most advisable
not to attach the unit exclusively to
either Of the metals, because this cannot
be done effectively without destroying
the office and character of one Of them
as money and reducing it to the situa-
tion Of mere merchandise. To annul the
use of either Of the metals as money Is
to abridge the quantity of circulating
medium and is liable to all the objec-
tions which arise from comparison
Of the benefits of a full with the evils
of scanty circulation"
Without quoting further from Major
McKinley's great predecessors in the
leadership Of Republicanism, not one
of whom has until recently, favored
the gold single standard, nor citing the
fact that SO late as 1892 the Republi-
can party in national convention itself
declared for b!metallism, we wish to
scrutinize just one other eminent Re-
publican's record on this point. If there
is one man who today stands secure
in the confidence Of the gold standard
lists it is Senator John Sherman, Of Ohio.
He surely is not "wobbly." One cannot
accuse him of "pandering to the silver
inflationists" or trying to pose as
straddler on the money question. Yet
John Sherman, the paragon Of financial
soundness, while secretary of the treas
ury in the cabinet Of President Hayes,
wrote to w. s. Groesbeck, of Cincinnati,
o., these curious words: During the
monetary conference in Paris was
strongly in favor Of the single standard
Of gold and wrote q letter which you
will find in the proceedings of that con-
ference stating my views. At that time
the wisest of us did not anticipate the
sudden fall Of silver. or rather the rise
Of gold, that has occurred. Other argu-
ments showing the dangerous effect
upon industry by dropping one Of the
precious metals from the standard Of
value outweigh, inmy mind, all theoret-
ical objections to the bimetallic .sys-
tem."
We mention these little circumstances
at this time not with any wish to chill
the enthusiasm of those who advocate
the gold single standard and are firm
in the belief that the double standard ID
only an Iridssosnt dream. We do not