The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-07-24
SILVER PARTY PLATFORM.
Declaration Included In the Report of
the Committee on Resolutions,

the Committee on Resolutions,
st. Louis, July 23.-The committee on
resolutions Of the silver convention
completed its work by adopting the
platform and address to the people,
which had been prepared by the sub.
committee. The platform and address
are as follows:
The National Silver party of America. in
convention assembled, hereby adopts the
following declaration of principles:
First-The paramount issue at this time
in the United States is indisputably the
money question. 1t is between the Bril-
tish gold standard, gold bonds and bank
currency on the one side, and the bimetal-
lie standard. no bonds, government cur
rency (and an American policy Oh the
other.
On this issue We declare ourselves to be
in favor OF u distinctvely American finan-
cal system. We are unalterably opposed
to the single standard of gold and silver
by the restoration by this government, in
dependently of any foreign power. of the
unrestricted coinage of both gold and sill
Yer. into standard money at the ratio of
IL to !, and upon terms Of exact equality
as they existed prior to 1873; the silver coin
to be of full legal tender, equally with
gold. for all debts and dues, public and
private, and we demand such action as
will prevent for the future the destruc-
tion of the legal tender quality Of any
kind of money by private contract.
We hold that the power to control and
regulate a paper currency Is inseparab!e
from the power to coin money, and, hence,
that all currency intended to circulate as
money should be issued and its volume
controlled. by the general government
only and should be legal tender.
We are unalterably opposed TO the issue
by the United States of -bearing
bonds in time of peace, and We denounce
as blunder. worse than crime the pres
ent treasury policy concurred in by
Republican house OF plunging the country
into debt by hundreds of millions in the
vain attempt to maintain the gold stand
ard by borrowing gold. and we demand
the payment of all coin obligations of the
United States. as provided by existing
laws, in either gold or silver coin. at the
option of the government and not at the
option of the creditor.
EFFECT OF THE ACT OF 1873.
The decentralization Of silver in 1873
enormously increased the demand for gold
enhancing its purchasing power and low
ering all prices measured by that stand
ard, and since that unjust and indefensible
act, the prices of American products have
fallen upon an average nearly 50 per cent
carrying down them proportional tely the
money value of all other forms of proper
ty.
Such fall of pPices has destroyed the
profits of legitimate industry, injuring the
producer for the benefit of the non-pro-
ducer. increasing the burden of the debtor
swelling the gains of the creditor, paralyz-
ing the productive energies of the Ameri-
can people. relesating to idleress vast
numbers OF willing workers, sending the
shadows of despair into the home of the
honest toiler, filling the land with tramps
and paupers, and building up colossal
fortunes at the money centers.
In the effort to maintain the gold stand
ard, the country has, within the last two
years, in time Of profound peace and
plenty, been loaded with $262 100000 addi-
tional interest bearing debt under such
circumstances to allow a syndicate of ma
tive and foreign bankers to realize net
profit of millions on single deal.
1t stands confessed that the gold stand
ard can only be upheld by SO depicting our
paper currency as to force the prices of
our products below the European and
even below the Asiatic level, to enable us
to sell in foreign markets, thus aggra.
NdtlIS the very cNllS VI WHICH our
so bitterly complain. degrading American
labor and striking at the foundations of
our civilization itself.
The advocates of the gold standard per-
sstently claim that the real cause Of our
distress Is over-production-that we have
produceO SO much that 1t made us poor
which implies that the true remedy is to
close the factory, abandon the farm and
throw a multitude of people out of en-
ployment. a doctrine that leaves us un-
nerved and disheartened and absolutely
without hope for the future
We affirm 1t to be unquestioned- that
there can be no such economic paradox as
over production, and at the same time
tens Of thousands of our fellow citizens re-
naming half-clothed and half-fed, and
who are piteously clamoring for the com.
mon necessities of life.
over and above all other questions of
policy, we are therefore in favor of restor-
ing to the people of the United States the
time-honored money question-gold and
silver-not one but both--the money of
Washington and Hamilton and Jefferson
and Monroe and jackson and Lincoln, to
the end that the American people may re-
ceive honest pay for an honest product,
that the American debtor may pay his Just
in a dishonest and unsound standard ap-
preciated 100 per cent. in purchasing
power. and no appreciation in debt paying
power; and to the end. however that silver
standard countries may be deprived Of the
unjust advantage they now enjoy, in
the difference in exchange between gold