The record-union., 1896-07-31
FREE COINAGE OR PROTECTION.


The Chino Champion" has a pretty
correct idea of the true issue in this
campaign, and the reasons for 1t, which
1t expresses in unmistakably plain and
elegantly simple and forcible Language.
1t says:
However much gold or silver or copper
or tin or anything else that might be
coined by the Government as money 1t
will not go into circulation and increase
the circulating medium unless the in
dustries of the country are stimulated
and demand an increased circulation.
Money does not go into circulation of its
own volition simply because it is coined;
it must be called out by needs Of indus
try, of trade, Of commerce, or if 1t should
be 1oated, it would be as a. deprecated
currency, which benefits no working
man. This country should increase its
amount of circulating money-but 1t
should be done by stimulating, encour-
aging and protecting American indus
tries, giving employment to American
workingmen. We don't want to depre-
ciate the purchasing value of the few
dollars which the woTkingman Qdle
much of the time) may have, but we
would start the wheels of progress and
give him employment, that he may earn
good. sound dollars. Protection TO Amer
lean industries is. after all. the rallying
cry.
This expression recognizes that which
the "Record-Unfon" has repeatedly set
forth, namely that the Republican party
is a bimetallist party; that it is not, as
the radical silver men assert for cam
paign purposes, a gold party, or making
a contention for a single gold standard.
What the Republican party advances
and stands to is this, that until interna-
tional agreement Is reached nothing but
gold Is to be thought of as an interna-
tionel currency; that the largest possible
volume of silver should be coined and
circulated that can be done with entire
safety to public credit and the mainte-
nance Of a non-depreciated currency;
that unlimited free coinage is not to be
adopted until by international agree
rnent silver can be made international
currency.
But while the Republican party is
laboring to accomplish this international
adjustment, to which 1t stands pledged,
at In also awake to the higher. more i'm
portant and absorbing question of the
protection Of American industries, since
no matter how much silver is coined,
nor how much gold is coined, nor how
much of either and both is circulated,
the wage Garner will not be able to get
hold of one single cent more because of
that fact, unless there is revival Of in
dustry.
It4s the increase of the demand for the
labor OF skilled artisans and trained
workers, that is going to make an out
dow Of money from It's reservoirs into
the pockets of workers, whether with
brain or hand. whether in shop or in
office, whether with needle or forge.
No man who depends upon his in
dustry for his maintenance to-day can
possibly figure out how under free
coinage Of any metal at any ratio. at
parity or not, he is going to have one
dollar more except he is employed at
good saving wages and steadily and is
protected from competition that will
lower his wage and cut short his en-
ployment-
IT is no antagonism to silver coinage
TO say this. The Record Union" is the
friend of silver and wants Its volume to
be as large as possible and has pointed
out how this may be accomplished. It
wants gold to have no undue advantage
and to be just as much and no less a
commodity than silver. But the Record
Union" cannot understand how the ad-
vance in prices Of all necessities and
things desirable, which radical silver
men say will follow unlimited free coin
age Of silver in the Government mints
to private account, is going to work
otherwise than disastrously to the wage
Garner, unless his wage is correspond
ingly advanced to meet the rise In prices
and this advance cannot come so long as
foreign competition of cheap labor goods