The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1896-10-07
COMPULSORY DISHONESTY.
Benjamin Harrison Tells How People Would
I Be Made Dishonest by Law If Bryan Were

Benlanln Harrl-On. NrltiuS upoh Nom-
pulsory Dishonesty" says:
.The free silver leaders do not seem 10
me 10 deny what their opponents assert
namely, that the tree coinage of silver at
the ratio of l6 TO will, if the relative
commercial value of gold aud silver re-
mains unchanged, wipe out about one
half of every existing promise to pay
money; that every promissory note, bond
savings deposit, bank deposit, building as
sociation certificate. life insurance policy,
pension, salary and wage contract will be
affected precisely as if note, bond, certif-
icate deposit book, contract, or pension
certificate had been surrendered for
new one in which was written one-half
the amount of the old. "How much ow-
es. thou unto my Lord?" and he said:
"A hundred measures of oil" And he
said unto him: Take thy bill, and sit
down quickly, and write fifty"
"A Northwestern Senator told me,
when the silver debate was on in the
Senate in ls10-9l, that a Southern Senat-
or had said to him: L do not want you to
| think that l am a fool. | know that the
free coinage of silver will scale the debts
that my people owe-and that's what we
want. We are poor and in debt The
Senator thus addressed replied: We'll,
think you have saved your intellectual
integrity, but at the cost of your moral
integrity When Senator Hill, of New
York, in the Chicago convention, pressed
this objection to free coinage and Senator
Villas, of Wisconsin, declared that free
coinage was robbery. Mr.. Bryan, in
speech that won him the nomination for
the Presidency, had only this to say in
reply:
''But if he means to say that We can
not change our monetary system without
protecting those who have loaned mon
ey before the change was made, | want
to ask him where, in law or in morals, he
can find authority for not protecting the
debtors when the act of 1873 was passed,
but now insists that we must protect the
creditors?'
ut is the supposed injury to the debt
ors of 1873 that Mr.. Bryan proposes to re-
coup from the creditors of 1896. He takes
no account of the fact that the debtor and
creditor classes are not fixed classes in
this country; that the debtor of 1873 may
be the creditor of 1896; and that the coun-
ter claim pleaded in behalf of the debtors
of 1873. would be levied on their own
goods in considerable part, and be paid t.
the men who are supposed 10 have been
despoiled in 1873. The only bonds that
run p years are railroad and other corpo-
rate bonds. Farm mortgages rarely run
more than five years. The railroads, the
banks, the large corporations, and the
United States are the great debtors of
1873. who are still the debtor class; and
among their creditors are the thrifty poor,
the widow, the orphan and the disabled
veteran. The proposition is that these
great debtors shall now be permitted to
discharge their obligations in dollars
worth one-half the dollar now in use. |
must qualify that statement; but it is not
that they shall be permitted, but cOmpell-
ed. to paw in the debased dollar. Dishon-
esty is not made optional, but compulso-
~: for while the United States must re-
ceive its taxes and custom dues, and the
banks their loans, in the new dollar, they
cannot pay in the old. And more than
all this we are promised legislation that
shall prohibit us from promising to pay
in gold the gold we have borrowed. If
r the debtor i too honest to set up the de-
, fence. suppose the court will be re-
! quired TO appoint guardian ad litem TO
file the plea for him.
''Only one chance of escape is offered to
! us from the conclusion that one of the
3 great historical parties of this country is
5 now making a campaign for the repudia-
f ton of one-half of all the Indebtedness o
e the country-national, corporate and in
/ dividual-and that is found in the sug-
= gestion that free coinage will raise tn c
! value of silver sufficiently to make the
5 silver dollar the commercial equivalent
of the gold dollar. This suggestion was
e put forth when Mr.. Bryan was in some
= measure under the influence of that con.
t servative sense of responsibility which is
9 usually felt by the man who is proposed
for the greatest office instituted by the
4 constitution. But it is not a proposition
n upon which the free silver advocate:
c agree, think. II is not put to the FROM
[ ! OF the campaign--it was not SO wei
e thought of as to appear in the platform,
a either as probable result of free coinage
or even as thing TO be desired. To bor
= row an illustration from 5. ;. Prentiss
D Mr.. Bryan uses the suggestion-thats sill
!. yer will rise to parity with gold-as &
< heavy bird of flight uses the limb of 8
e dead tree for perch-the bird keeps it
/ wings extended and in gentle motion
; while it tries the strength of the limb.
have not observed that Mr.. Bryan has
: much argued the point. Indeed, he ha'
) been sharply taken to task by friends fo
r making il. II destroys the whole silve
n program. They say that gold has appre
: ciated; that the gap between the silve
e and gold dollar has been wholly caused
e by the rise in the value of the gold dollar
@ that the silver dollar is therefore the old
e and true measure of values.
e But it is not true. as Mr.. Bryan seems
4 to intimate, that the law of 1873 changeC
: or money standard to the injury of ths
debtor class. The silver dollar was drop
ped from our coinage, bat it was not theI
a cheap dollar, but a par dollar; tn
37ll grains of pure silver in it were fall
: equivalent rs bullion of the 2322 grain
= of pure gold contained in the gold dol
u lar. II is not fair then To liken th'
: change in our coinage laws made in ls7
u TO that now proposed. The former neith
n er involved dishonesty nor oppression
; In order 10 make good the charge that tn
law of 1873 wrought the injuries imputed
Il to it, the assertion is made that the gol,
u dollar has appreciated, gone up. Coll
u production has increased from 4.65l 675
II Dances in 1873 to 9,s31,l:l ounces i'm lS9
2 and silver from 1877, Isl ounces in 1878 L
u Ia, 795,011 ounces in 1895. In view o.
these considerations and these figures a
l. to production, who is wise enough to say
n that the gold has gone up or silver down
e or how much either metal has varied
And yet it has been assumed that tn
l silver dollar has been a true and stahl,
: me rsure Of value, that it has neither gon
e up nor gone down since is73. and that i
L would be honest to return to that stand
p ard and settle all contracts by it,
"Now how is this to be proved ~ or d.
our silver friends think it worth while {,
prove anything? This ILLUSTRATION, USED
by Mr.. Bryan, is the only attempt at ar
gument | have seen; U-he says-a mar
u able to perform his contracts should Offer
10 pay one dollar per bushel for all tn
wheat brought to him, would not th'