The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-06-25
REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS AND Sill
YER.

The people of Utah have been led in
the past to believe that the Republican
/ party was the friend of silver, and
! from that source would eventually
! come free coinage and the relief they
party begun to persistently and CON
sistently soft solder the people on the
/ silver question, and the people have
| been willing to be soft soldered. The
! financial pIanks in the party platform
tell the story of Republican duplicity
on the silver question better than it
can be told in any other words.
In 1884 the party defined its position
on the silver question in these words:
We have always recommended the
best money known to the civilized
world, and we urge that efforts should
be made to unite all commercial ma
lions in the establishment of an inter
national standard which shall fix for
all the relative value of gold and sill
yer coinage.
In 1883 it's position was this:
The Republican party is in favor Of
the use of both gold and silver as
money, and condemns the policy of the
Democratic administration in its eff
forts to demonetiZe silver.
At Minneapolis in 1892 the party put
forth this famous plank:
The American people. from tradition
and interest, favor bimetailism, and
the Republican party demands the use
of both gold and silver as standard
money. with such restrictions and un-
der such provisions to be determined
by legislation as will secure the main
tenance of the parity of values of the
two metals, so that the purchasing
and debt-paying value Of the dollar,
whether of silver, gold or paper, shall
be at all times equal. The interests
of the producers of the country, its
farmers and it's workingmen, demand
that every dollar, paper or coin, issued
by the government shall be as good
as any other. We commend the wise
and patriotic steps taken by our gov
ernmen. 20 secure an international
conference to adopt such measures as
will insure parity of value between
gold and silver for use as money
throughout the world.
Here was a straddling and a hedg-
ing, and as every one can now plainly
see, a very marked preparation for
the adoption of a gold plank when it
became necessary for the party to face
the issue and declare its real position
on the financial question. The neces-
sity arose this year, and at ST Louis
one week ago today, it adopted this
plank:
The Republican party is unreservedly
for sound money. 1t caused the enact
ment of the law providing for the re-
sumption of specie payments in 1879;
since then every dollar has been as
good as gold. We are unalterably OPP
posed to every measure calculated to
debase our currency or impair the
credit of our country. We are. there
fore. opposed to the free coinage of
silver except by International agree
ment with the leading commercial ma
tions of the world, which we pledge
ourselves to promote, and until such
agreement can be obtained the exist
ing gold standard must be preserved.
All our silver and paper currency must
be maintained at parity with gold, and
we favor all measures designed to
maintain inviolably the obligations of
the United States and all our money,
either coin or paper, at the present
standard-the standard of the most en-
lightened nations of the earth
And yet there are people in Utah
who profess to believe that the Re
publican party will yet adopt free sill
yer as a cardinal tenet 1t possibly
may, and the devil may possibly adopt
holy water as a daily drink