Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-04-05
FOR SOUND MONEY.
Wisconsin Is Strongly in Favor of Honest
 Currency.

The republicans of Wisconsin adopt ed the following at their state conyen- ton:
 "The republicans of Wisconsin are un~ yielding in their demand for honest money. We are unalterably opposed to any policy that will give to this country depre- eiatea or debased currency We favor the use of silver as currency to the extent only and under such restrictions that it's parity with gold can be maintained"
 The financial plank in the platform of the Wisconsin republicans is not a slippery one. It is a straightforward declaration in favor of honest money," not an equivocal utterance capable of being construed to suit the views of the free silver extremists. 1t comedies nothing to the 16 to l heresy, the ob- ject of which is debasement of the cur reney unit.
 Nor does the declaration favor the exclusion of silver from use as money It is not q gold bug utterance, though doubtless it will be denounced as such by those who hold that everyone who is not for silver monometallism is an enemy of the white metal. 1t is "gold- ite" only to the extent of demanding
 
 reney in such quantities and in such a way as to destroy the present parity by which the purchasing power of 371H grains of silver in the United States dollar is maintained at equality with that of 23.22 grains of gold. It does not intimate that we have too much silver money on hand now, that the quantity ought to be diminished, that it might not be increased under proper restrictions, or that it would be unsafe to agree on the free coinage of silver provided that the two metals were accorded precisely equal terms at the mint, the standard coins made from each being intrinsically worth their nominal value as expressed on the face of the coin. So this financial plank is not, in any proper sense of the term, declaration against silver or demand for discrimination against it.
 The republicans of Wisconsin do, however, stand pledged in opposition to the demand by the free silver ex- tremists that the United States shall adopt free coinage at ratio so very far away from the commercial ratio between gold and silver that only the silver would be coined and circulated, which would plunge the American peo- pie into the abyss of silver monometal- lism, with an abandonment of the pres ent currency unit and the taking up with one of only half it's value They object to such a change because they know the consequences would be de- l plorable, and they have the courage to state their conviction and resolve i'll terms which have no uncertain sound This declaration in favor of honest money, and of honesty in dealing with the money question, is all the more praiseworthy as it is in strong' contrast with some other state utteranees, which seem to have been framed on the plan of catering to both sides in the hope of obtaining support from both the friends i of honest money and the advocates of debased silver monometailism. This declaration of principle should be fol- lowed by the republicans of many oth- er states. There is no use in trying to dodge the issue. The free-silver ex- tremists are declaring fatty for free coinage at sixteen to one, with all the debasement, repudiation, and other consequences which the term implies. Their intention is to have such q plain l definition of their demand as to catch the votes of all who are sufficiently un-. wise to wish for currency debasemcnt. There is nothing to be gained by dubi- ously worded affirmations of desire for "sound money" which can be in- terpreted to read in some other way. It were far better to come out emphat- ically, as the republicans of Wisconsin have done, for maintenance of the parity without depreciation or dcbase- ment of the currency from the present standard of unit yalue.--Chicago Trib- | une