The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1896-09-12
JOHN A RlDPATH.
Our Great Historian Gives Out His Plat
form as q Candidate Tor Congress.

Out SFtHt bistortan tiNPS Out HIS PlAt-
form ~ n Candidate For Congress.
We want II currency system put
back precisely where il was under the
statute and constitution for the first 81
years of our existence as Il nation. Our
statutory bimetallic system of currency
was taken from us in 1878 by Il process
which / do not care to characterize in
fitting terms. Now we propose to have
it back again. The restoration Of our
silver money to the place it held before
is the peoples cause, and the people i'll
this contest are going to triumph. They
ale going to triumph in the open light
of day under the clear CLEAN of light
and truth.
The silver dollar was from of old the
unit OF money and account in the Unit
ed States. That dollar TO this hour has
never been altered by the fraction of a
grain IN the quantity Of pure metal COM
posing it. Every other coin, whether Of
gold or silver, has been altered time and
again, but the silver unit never. The
silver dollar was the dNllar of the law
and the contract. 1t il to this day the
dollar of the law and the contract. To
the silver unit all the rest, both gold
and silver, have been conformed from
our first statute of 1902 to that i'll starred
date when the conspiracy against our
old constitutional order first declared
itself. The gold eagle of the original
statute and of all subsequent statutes
wa not made to be ten dollars, but to
be of the value of ten dollars. The half
eagle was not made to be five dollars,
but to be of the value of five dollars.
The quarter eagle was of the value
Of two and Il half dollars, and the
double eagle vas of the value of
twenty dollars. Even the gold dollar
of 1S49, marvellous to relate. was not
a dollar, but was made to be of the
value Of a dollar. The subsidiary coins
were all fractions of the dollar, and
the dollar was of silver only. Not a
single dictionary or encyclopedia in
the English language before the year
1878 ever defined ''dollar'' in any terms
other than of silver. In that year the
administrators of the estate of Noah
Webster, deceased, cut the plates of our
standard lexicon and inserted a new
definition that had become necessary in
order to throw d penumbra of rationale
ty around the international gold con-
spiracy.
The way to obviate the further disas-
trouse effects of this international gold
conspiracy is to stop it. We want the
system of bimetaIlism restored i'll this
country. Bimetallism means the option
nf fhn 1nhtnr to nnx -, A.fIAx - k-,1
statutory coins, according to his own
convenience and according to the con-
tract. This option freely granted, the
commercial parity of the two money
metals will be speedily reached, nor can
such parity ever be seriously disturbed
again as long as the unimpeded option
OF the debtor to pay in IL metal or the
other shall be conceded by law and the
terms Of the contract. The present COM
mercial disparity of the two metals has
been produced by the pernicious legisla-
ton which began 23 years ago, and
which has not yet satisfied itself with
tbs mOnstrous results that have famed
therefrom.
What do we propose to accomplish by
free coinage? We propose to do just this
~thing-viz, to break the corner on gold
and reduce the exaggerated purchasing
power of hat metal to it's normal stand
ard. Be assured there will be no further
talk Of a so cent dollar when the COM
mercial parity of the two money metals
shall be reached. Every we'll informed
person must know that the present dis
parity of the two uncoined metals is but
the index of the extent to which gold
has been bulled in the markets of the
world. 1t is not an index of the extent
to which raw silver has declined in its
purchasing power in the markets of the
world, for raw silver has not declined
in its purchasing power as compared
with the average of other commodities
in any civilized market place of the
whole globe. No MAI shall say the con-
trary and speak the truth. This great
question is hot upon us. 1t can be kept
back no longer. 1t is a tremendous
economic question, that ought to be de-
cided in the court of right, reason and of
fact. My judgment is that the American
people, in spite of all opposition, are 60
ing to reclaim the right of transacting
their business, and in particular of pay
ing their debts according to a standard
unit worth 100 cents to the dollar
neither more nor less-and that they
will not accept the intolerable pro-
gramme which declares in fact. if not in
words, that they shall henceforth trans
act their business, and in particular dis
charge their debts with a cornered gold
dollar worth almost two for one. John
Clark Ridpath.