Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-09-24
13.
TEXT BOOK OF 1892.
omcial Declaration OF the Repub-
ncan Party.


National Democratic and Silver Head
quarters. Chicago, Sept. II, 1s96.-"n
every voter in the United States were
called upon to-day to declare whether
he desired the use of silver as well as
gold in our monetary system, certain
ly as many as 90 votes out of every 100
would answer In the affirmative, and an
equal proportion would favor such legis-
lation as tended directly to bring about
the free and unlimited coinage of both
metals, if they believed the two metals
could be maintained at par"
Who said this? Was it the intemper-
ate utterance of some long-haired,
wild-eyed free silver fanatic? Was it
the declaration of some political party
pledged in its platform to national dis
honor and repudiation?
No. It was the official declaration of
the republican party, made in the year
of our Lord 1892. 1t accurately voiced
the sentiment OF that party before it
came under the domination of the
Hannas, the Morgans, the Belmonts,
banks and syndicates of the United
States.
The language above quoted can be
found on page SO of the republican
textbook, entitled ''The Grand Old
Party-Lincoln, Grant, Hayes, Gar
field, Arthur, Harrison; It is true to
the flag" The republican national
committee gave this document its Off
cial sanction and distributed 100000
of them throughout the United States.
At the dictation of the gold combine it
is now attempting, at the expenditure
of millions of dollars, squandered in
lying pamphlets. to undo the work to
which the republican party consecrated
years of its honorable existence.
Let me quote more from this text
book entitled 1.-THE Grand Old Party"
It says:
until the year 1873 the United
States coined both gold and silver free
" in unlimited quantities; that is,
you could take it to the mints of the
United States and receive for it a fixed,
unvarying price; but in 1873, by the
omission of the silver dollar from the
coinage law prescribing the silver coins
of the United States to be thereafter
coined, and by the limitation of the
legal tender of silver to five dollars,
silver was in effect demonetized, and
it has never since been restored fully to
the position it held in the earlier coin
age system of this country. There has
been much irrelevant controversy as
to whether this was done Intentionally
and after full discussion, or accidental
1y, so far as the majority of congress
were concerned, and by the artful trick
of certain persons interested in bring
ing about gold standard. Such a
controversy serves no useful purpose.
At that time both silver and gold were
at a large premium, specie payments
not having been resumed, and paper
money was the only currency. The i'm
portant fact, however, is that silver
was demonetized, and it is of little
service in considering how it was de-
priyed of them."
What do you think of that, you good
republicans who are now following
the banner hoisted by Mark Hanna Mt
the dictation of Wall street? Has any
thing happened in the last four years
to give the lie to this official declara-
ton of your party hardly four years
ago? Has the crime of 1873 been con-
doned? What has brought about this
wonderful change in the republican
attitude toward silver, one of Amer
ica's most valuable products? Let US
continue these interesting quotations
from the republican literature of only
four years ago. The honorable gentle
man who planned that document said:
'"The unlimited coinage of both met
ais had prevailed from the foundation
of the government until that date, and
yet on June 80, 1873, there had been a
total coinage of $1,o41 ,93s,557 OF gold
and only $162, ,425, ,o7o of silver. Unlim-
tied silver had not meant the debase-
ment of the currency. The scarcity OF
the metal and its free employment as
money by all nations except England
had given It value in comparison with
gold that removed all risk of its free
use in our coinage. There
is a grave danger in the unqualified
adoption of the gold standard. For, as
silver has been taken out of Europe's
coinage, the demand for gold has enor-
mously grown, and grown in a proper
ton much greater than the supply.
Measuring both metals by the stand
ard of commodities. it is substantially
true to say that gold has appreciated
more than silver has deprecated. In
the siIver-using countries silver will
buy almost as much of everything ex-
cept gold as It would ten or dozen
years ago, and this fact sustains the
demand for cheaper" money. The adj
yocates of the gold standard allege
that the value Of gold is intrinsic, and
that certain quantity of gold bullion
having fxed value should be the
standard of exchange. This would be
all well enough If anybody were able
to insure that the supply would con-
tinually increase in ratio with the in
creasing demand for it caused by
growing population and commerce, but
as matter of fact, It is decreasing in
that ratio, and, therefore, man who
| ten years ago contracted debt
which might then have been dis
charged with thousand bushels OF
wheat, must to-day pay many more
than a thousand bushels of wheat to
pet himself free. just as it is true to
| saw that the silver dollar which was
exchanged on an equality with gold
IS years ago is now worth but 50 cents
/ in gold, so It Is true to say that an
amount of wheat that would exchange
IS years ago for gold dollar Is worth