Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1896-03-27
Transparent Deception Of Secretary
Carlisle.

ment and discrimination against sill
yer which Mr.. Carlisle in q letter to
Congressman Patterson of Tennessee,
partially, though not positively de-
MES. We publish the letter of Mr..
Carlisle to day and the reply of the
Dubuque Telegraph thereto as an ex-
preston of our views touching tile
facts charged by Congressman Crisp,
the Telegraph article being as fol-
lows:
One familiar with the law and the
operations of the treasury depart
ment would naturally assume from
this that instead of opposing silver
the secretary is actually prejudiced
in its favor, and that in his eagerness
to circulate it he has Disseminated in
it's behalf and against gold. The in
ferences or conclusion would be erro-
neous, however, because one vitality
important qualifying fact is omitted
from the premise.
What the secret airy purposely re-
trains from saying is that he violates
the law when he uniformly pays out
gold or silver at the option of the
holder of legal tender notes; and he
refrains from touching upon or adj
uniting the point because its admiss-
ion would be fatal to it's contention
that he has not Disseminated against
silver. The law declares that green
backs and Sherman treasury notes
are redeemable in gold and silver
coin, and it thus invests the secretary
not only with the power but with the
duty of redeeming legal tenders in
gold or silver, at his option. AS will
be noted, he confesses that he does
not exercise this option. Instead of
exercising it, as both the letter and
the spirit of the law contemplate, he
gives the holders of legal tenders
whichever coin they demand, thus
surrendering the option to them.
What are the fruits of this policy? A
discrimination in favor of gold and an
augmentation of the. Understanding
public debt. The secretary having
accommodatingly accorded them the
option, spectators, with the purpose
of compelling bond issues, have de
manded gold alone. Instead of pro-
tecting the treasury and the tax
payers of the United States by insist
ing upon paying one-half or any other
part of the demands in silver, the
secretary has met them all with gold,
and In consequence the government
has within twenty-five months been
forced TO go into the market four diff
ferent times to buy gold with bonds.
In this period, by reason of the treas
ury discrimination against silver and
in favor of gold in legal tender re-
demption, the debt has been lncreas-
ed $685., 500, 900, entaling an additional
interest burden upon the people of
SIS, 100000 annually. While he says
nothing about it in his letter to Mr..
Patterson, it is Secretary Carlisle's
custom to defend his transfer of the
option to the creditors by citing the
unrepealed part of the act of 1890
which declares it to be the policy of
the government to maintain the met
ais at parity. He holds that if he
should refuse gold when gold was de-
1nanded tile latter would go to q
premium and the parity be broken.
Even if the metals should part COM
pany by reason of silver as we'll as
gold redemption, the secretary would
not be warranted in surrendering the
option, for the provision that he shall
exercise the latter is mandatory,
whereas that pertaining to the parity
of the metals is merely declaratory-
sort of stump speech, as it were,
which is as forceless in the law as it
would be out of it. But it is mere
assumption, one for which there is no
warrant in precedent, or reason, that
silver redemption would destroy pari-
ty. There was no disturbance of the
latter when Secretary Manning, to
stop raid on the gold reserve, which
he did, threatened to redeem green
backs in silver as we'll as gold; and
coins of both metals continue to keep
company in France and Germany
though it is the policy of the Banks
of France and Germany to refuse
gold for paper when the gold is want
ed forexport or when the conditions
of the banks do not warrant the pay
ment of yellow coin. Yet in the face
Of all this the American people are
expected to accept the idiocy, that
silver redemption would cause the
white and yellow coins to separate,
as the essence of wisdom. In the
tides of time more colossal humbug
has never been essayed.
The fact that the public debt has
been increased 1902, 500, 900 in twenty
five months is evidence conclusive,
whatever the secretary may say to
the contrary, that silver has been
Disseminated against, for if it had not
been, if 412s grain as we'll as 1858 grain
dollars had been paid out for green
backs, the debt could.not have been
created, There would have been no
necessity for the issuance of one dol.
lars worth of bonds. And this leads
to and suggests the thought that,
while it is proclaimed that silver and
gold coins are ut at parity, the peo-
pie are paying an enormous premium
on gold, for what is the $26s, 800, 900 of
nauu dahf and which nv the time IL