The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1896-09-24

demonstration year, BTU have shown why
those prices have fallcn-it Is not equitable
that debtors should be held to pay more than
half the amount of their debts in gold, that
they should be released in correspondence
with the decline of prices, and that it would
therefore be right to reduce by free silver
coinage the value Of the debt paying money
by one-half.
Subject the principle to simple test. When
I contract debt, owe what it Is mutually
understood that am to pay. Our whole bust
ness life and social fabric, all human inter
course, rests upon the binding force of such
understandings. Unless 1t be expressly under
stood, has the debtor the slightest right or
reason to demand that the creditor shall be
satisfied with a less amount in payment IL
wheat or cotton or something else had mean
while declined in priceP IL SO, would not the
creditor also have the right to demand that
the debtor should pay more in proportion If
wheat or cotton or something else meanwhile
had risen in pricef If neither of them had
thought Of proposing or of accepting SO adven-
furious q contract, how can such claims be JUS
titled IL based upon a mere secret mental res
ervation or an arbitrary afterthought2 Is 1t
not monstrous that such an assumption should
be taken as a warrant for the reduction at
one sweep of all debts by debasement Of the
standard Of valueP
And yet he who has watched the free coin
age agitation knows that Just this appeal to
to their speeches, read their literature, and you
meet ever recurring-now in soft spoken cir
cumlocution, now In sly suggestion, now in
the language of brazen cynicism-the promise
that free coinage will enable the debtor to get
rid of his obligations by paying only part of
them. 1t is scheme Of wanton reputation
of private as well as public debts, not as if we
could not pay in full, but because we would
prefer not to pay in full,the practice resorted
to by the fraudulent bankrupt-and this sane
TONED by law, as part of our national policy.
The Coming Verdict.
Fellow citizens, think this out. 1t is grave
matter-a matter of vital import to the exist
ence of this nation. The father who teaches
such moral principles to his children educates
them for fraud, dishonor and the penitentiary.
The public men who teach such moral princi-
pies to the people educate the people for the
contempt and adherence of mankind. The
nation that accepts such moral principles can
not live. 1t will rot to death in the loathsome
stew of its own corruption If the nation &C.
cepting such moral principles be this republic,
it will deal blow to the credit of democratic
institutions from which the cause of free gov
eminent will not recover for centuries.
But, thank God, the American people will
never accept such moral principles. The
American people WILL before election day ar
rives, have fully discovered what all this
means. They will Indignantly repeal the un-
speakable insult offered to them by the poll
ticians who have dared to ask for the votes
of honest men upon the offer of such bait
They will know how to resent the deep dis
grace inflicted upon the nation in the eyes of
the whole world by those Americans who ex-
hibited their own belief that the American
people were capable of taking such bait.
Mr.. Bryan has taste for Scriptural illus
tration. He will remember how Christ was
taken up on high mountain and promised all
the glories of the world if he would fall down
and worship the devil. He will also remember
what Christ answered. So the tempter now
takes the American people up the mountain
and says, 81 will take from you half of your
debts If you will worship me-" But then
brave old Uncle Sam rises up in all his dig
nifty, manly pride, and honest wrath, and
| speaks in thunder tones: ''Get thee behind
| me, Satan! For it is written that thou shalt
| worship only the God of truth, honor and
Righteousness, and him alone shalt thou
serve"
This will be the voice of the American PEG.
pie on the Sd of November. And the stars and
stripes will continue to wave undefled, honor
| able and honored among the banners Of man.
| kind.