The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-09-26

When our 1nQenDenQence nau peeIi
achieved and the states of the Union.
as we'll as the United States. found
themselves deeply In debt. and when
the paper money of congress and OF the
states of the Union was tremendously
deprecated, the founders of the Con-
stitution--Washingto Hamilton, JEFF
ferson, Madison and the other worthless
whose wisdom and patriotism we all
still revere more and more as times
goes on-found 1t necessary to establish
q stable monetary system which should
be based upon silver and gold.
Silver and gold were adopted because
they were the money of the world and
because it was known that money, diff
fering from all other things, knows
no barriers or limitations Of countries
or political divisions. Its UNIVERSAL
value depends and has always depend
ed upon the commercial value of the
precious metals of which 1t is COM
posed.
FRANCES HARD LESSON.
Accordingly our coinage system was
established in 1872; and it is well worthy
of our remembrance and reflection that
in that very year. when our fathers
were establishing our system upon the
solid philosophy and experience of man.
kind. the rench people, carried away
by the same wild doctrines that are
this year SO urgently pressed upon the
people of the United States, established
as q supposed panacca for hard times
in France Il system OF flat money, not
based upon the intrinsic value of silver
and gold but upon the credit of the ma
tion, secured, as they fondly believed
upon the real estate of the nation. This
Al. ttor tSN MI
crate quantities and times appeared
to improve and there came what we
nowadays in the language of the streets
call a boom" and many at first believ-
ed that the millennium of finance had
arrived.
But, as in every such case, as prices
rose with the great imitation of currency
1t required still more currency to carry
on the operations of society, and still
more was issued. And so on, and SO
on, until within a period of less than
ten years the inevitable crash came,
and, as always happens In such cases
It was the poor, the laboring people, the
farmers-and therefore it was the
industrious, the small traders, the small
great body of society-that suffered the
enormous misfortune, and France was
left in condition ten times worse
than that from which 1t undertook by
the experiment to relieve itself. 1t was
only the great capitalist and the sharp
trader with means who made profits
out of the misfortunes of the rest of the
nation.
Our fathers saw and knew what the
certain effect would be OF the French
experiment. They knew what our own
experience had been with colonial and
continental money. These instances
out of many that / might quote from
history illustrate the truth of the great
saying of Thomas jefferson, that 1.-The
whole art of government consist In the
art of being honest
PURELY A COMMERCIAL VALUE
The subject of the establishment OF
the Mint and the coinage of money IN
1892 was most carefully examined by
the great men who had the matter IN
charge. Mr.. jefferson was called upon
to examine and report upon the cues
ton for the benefit of congress. In
that report, which Is still accessible IN
the archives of the government, he de-
clared what nubody in any country
with such exceptions as ! have namedI
disputed that the question of the diff
ference between the value of gold and
silver as money was purely CONNER
cial question, and that 1t did not de-
pend upon the will of legislative law
and that it did not depend upon the
fancy of men or the ideas of men, but
upon the same laws of commerce, that
everywhere regulate the price of every
commodity.
THE SAME TRUTH STANDS.
Everybody, In 1892. understood the
matter alike and accordingly, congress
passed the act establishing the Mini
and the coinage upon the basis that fif-
teen pounds of pure silver should bs
equal III coins to one pound of pur,
gold; and this was done, as jefferson
proposed and as / have stated, upor
the average market ratio of the price
and value of those metals. not as coins
in all the principal countries of the
world. This ratio was changed later I,
1888 of silver to one of gold, i'm order t
keep the values Of the two metals to-
gether in commercial ratio.
The question which the voters of the
United States are this year to deter
mine is, whether George Washington
who approved the act, and Thomas
jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, VIII,
proposed it. and all the other men o
that day-acting upon the experience o.
all civilized countries of the world--wert
right in saying that the ratio tha
should exist between silver and gol(
when they We're to be used as money
and made compulsory legal tender, de
pended upon the relative ratio of theil
commercial value. Were they wrong
And has human experience for NOR,
than two thousand years been wrong
in acting upon this principle? Has the
Democratic party, which has governed
the country for two-thirds of its ex
istence, been wrong in steadfastly ad
herring to this principle? Has the Re
publican party during its period of con
troll been wrong in adhering to thi.
principle?
JONES AGAINST HIMSELF.
Truth never changes. The truth o.
1892 Is the truth of 1896. Even the fore
most Of the present advocates of coin
age at the ratio of 16 to 1-Senator Jone!
of Nevada--has, until recently, main
tained the same proposition. Senator
Jones was, in 1877, q member of the
monetary commission established by
congress to inquire into the matter o.
coinage. On the 2d>of March, in tha
year, he reported from the committee
the results of its investigation; and IL
tuut IepOEt Ilt Sd1u. mere never
be practically two money standard!
whose units of count differ in value Ii
any country at the same time. 1t is o.
importance that the value of the stand
ard should be unchanged"
Whenever. under the double stand
ard, there Is q variance between tn,
legal and the market relations OF tn,
metal. the standard would be practical
ly based on one metal. and 1t the cheap
er and more available one. Wheneve
the legal and market relations of tn
metals coincide there would be aqualit!
in the material and standard, but unit,
In its value, which would make 1t II
its all-important feature single stand
ard"
ONLY ONE STANDARD.
You see from this that the most abl
and intelligent of the extreme silve
men of this country states fully ant
broadly precisely the substance of wha