The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-10-12
NOMAN'S POLITICAL COLUMN

Q.-Of what then do the arguments OF
| the goldites in favor of a gold standard
consist?
A.-Mainly of assumption, denunciatior
and prophesy They offer no valid argu.
ment for continuing the gold standard
because they have none. Their advocacy
| of the measure is purely selfish. based
/ on self-interest and greed. The discussion
| on the gold side. so far as it touches the
principles involved, is purely. one of mega
| ton. NO gold champion has ever at
| tempted to prove that the country has
| been benefited by the decentralization OF
silver or how the maintenance of the gold
American people. The gold party and its
! standard-bearer Mckinley, pirate about
honest money and call this campaign a
Campaign of morality, while they take
dollar, the most dishonest dollar in the
world, a dollar whose weight in pure
gold has been twice changed by coinage
laws and whose power over labor and
The money which preserves a stable
range OF prices is honest money. sound
money and money of the world. Measured
by that test gold is dishonest money"
by nearly 100 per cent. appreciation.
Q.-What assumptions" are made by
the goldites?
A.-They assume l. That the gold stand
ard is the infaliible test of value ,. That
any OtneT dollar the material Oh WHICH Is
not equal in value TO the present gold
dollar, is a dishonest one. g. That the
value of silver bullion excluded from the
minis and thrown upon the market as a
mere commodity is the same as it would
be with the minis Of the United States
open for it's reception and coinage. All
these assumptions are proved untrue by
human experience and the facts of his
tory and have no solid foundation to rest
upon.
Q.-How do they use "denunciation' as
argument?
A-The earliest movement made among
silver was called the silver craze. and
the terms fanatics, lunatics. idiots,
thieves. knaves robbers swindlers, re-
pudiators anarchists, are a few of the
choice epithets applied to those who be-
lieve it is wrong to compel a man to pay
taxes, debts and fixed charges of all kinds
in money that doubles in value every
twenty-five years. Such expressions are
very emphatic and to certain class of
minds may be conclusive, but they re-
mind one of q circumstance very often
met with. where the inmates of iunatic
asylum insist that they are the only sane
people in the institution, and are en-
ployed to control and take charge of al
the officials, whom they assert are
lunatics.
Q.-What are the prophesies made by
Ain 1878 when the Bland-Allison law
was passed over the presidents veto,
it was bitterly opposed by the moneyed
classes who prophesied that It would flood
us with cheap silver and drive all the
gold out of the country. Two hundred
million silver dollars were coined but
gold refused to eve the county, and rer-
sisted in coming in more rapidly than
ever. In 1890 370000.G00 of silver dollars
had been coined and $500 600 Geo had been
added to our stock of gold. Still no ruin
and the people demanded still more silver.
The Sherman law was passed providing
for the purchase of 4,500000 ounces Of
silver bullian by the treasury. In 1880
Barring Bros. failed and the Bank of Eng
land was lettering Millions of American
gold We're drawn off to relieve the neces-
stiles of Europe. The panic extended TO
the United States and the go}dites made
the Sherman law the scapegoat The
president, the bankers of Wall street and
Mr.. Sherman, the father of the law, all
prophesied that prosperity would immed-
lately return if this law was repealed.
How completely that prophesy and every
other emanating from Wall street has
failed of verification is well known to all.
Every time that gold won political VIC
tory confidence was to be restored, but
all failed to come true. Now the trouble
should succeed they prophesy such dis
tress and dire calamities as certainly will
be a repetition of all the country has
suffered in 1873 while they predict if
Mckinley be elected and the present gold
standard continued, the whole land viii
be a paradise flowing with milk and
honey AS prophets the gold champions
have been discredited and condemned by
the utter failure of every prophesy they
have made since the gold agitation be-
gan Truly a lying spirit has entered
into the mouths of their prophets and the
people are being led away by false teach.
ers. ELLEN B. FERGUSON.
ITO he COnfinued)