Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1896-09-10
THE SILVER QUESTION.
Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler Discourses
Its Moral ASPECTS.

Its Moral Aspects.
| Unless / mistake the signs of the
times, the principle of universal suf-
! frage will be subjected to a more severe
| strain this year than at any previous
| time during the present generation. The
| Civil war imposed but slight strain;
slavery was sectional institution, which
| went down under the superior forces of
| the free states; and the preservation of
| the nations life appealed to all classes,
rich or poor, educated or ignorant. The
humblest hodcarrier in an Eastern city,
and the toughest miner in Western
camp, could understand why the flag
should be fought for and the Rebellion
distinct and simple.
| The great, burning question which is
| to be submitted to the SURFACES of thir-
| teen millions of voters this year is one
| that requires some study and intelligence
| to comprehend it, and an honest con-
| science to decide the moral issues in
| volved. The currency question is far
more vital than high or low tariff, or any
| policy towards foreign nations. It fixes
the value of every dollar that the shop
keeper puts into his till, every dollar
| that the housewife carries to market,
and every dollar that is put into the
contribution box on the Sabbath. Dis
honesty in the currency taints every
business transaction in the land. I'm
happily there is no question on which
there are more plausible sophistries cur
rent and more demagogueish appeals to
unreasoning prejudice. The silver in
terest, also, is immensely powerful, and
it's propaganda have sown it's specious
| literature broadcast. There is hardly
barroom or grocery in the South. or a
saloon in the vast West, in which tracts
or papers cannot be found in advocacy
of ''cheap money! or ''the dollar of
our fathers or "the poor mans coin,"
or some kindred financial farrago. 1t is
not surprising that the free silver lun-
acy is widely extended and deeply seat
| ed.
Politics and finance belong to the do
main of ethics, and there are some moral
aspects of this free silver agitation for
all good citizens. One of them is the
current delusion that there can be dou-
BILE standard of values. This is as alb
surd and as immoral as the use of two
yard sticks in a dry goods store, or two
| kinds of a multiplied ton table in a count
ing room. Yet thousands of ignorant
voters in every Southern and Western
state are made to believe that both a
| gold and silver standard are possible
and are desirable.
| (2) Another immortality connected with
this free silver crusade is the temptation
which it offers to the debtor class to dis
charge their debts in a Cheap currency
1t is very attractive idea to a man who
is heavily in debt that he may pay off
| his obligations in a dollar that is only
worth 50 or 60 cents. That the same
sort of deprecated currency may be
passed off on to himself does not seem
| to enter his thick skull. An unstable
standard of values is a constant incen-
tive to dishonesty. 1t bases the credit
| system on Qulcksand.
(3) One of the worst features of free
silver demagoguery is it's attempts to ex-
cite hostility between classes. According
to the lingo of these crossroads poll
ticians. gold is the money of the rich,
the silver is the money of the poor la
borer; therefore, silver should be thrown
into the most enormous circulation, what
ever be its value. Whereas the most
cruel fact connected with this delusion
is, that under deprecated currency and
in time Of financial panic or depression,
the poor laboring classes are uniformly
the severest sufferers If the reckless
experiment of free coinage of silver
| should be carried out, and widespread
panic should ensue. should not feel half
| as much pity for the so-called "goldbugs
of Wall street. as 1 should for the poor
negro on a cotton plantation or poor
carman in the streets of ST. Louis. If
anyone wants to see the incendiary at
tempts to array one class against an
other, let him read the recent address
of the Populists, issued from st. Louis
after the Republican convention had
wisely declared for the existing gold
standard. That address mingles it's eulo-
gies of Senator Teller with the shame
less statement that the existence of a
gold standard is "a tyranny more grind
ing than that of czars or emperors," and
that "the common people will be in no
better condition than that of the black
slaves before emancipation" During the
next four months we may expect del
uge of this misunderstanding nonsense
among the more ignorant classes in all
parts of the land. Universal suffrage
puts ballot alike into the hands Of the
Intelligent and the ignorant, of the wise
and Of the foolish, and this fact involves
the necessity of the most constant pa
| tient and thorough enlightenment of the
| masses of our countrymen on the simple
| A, e, G principles of honest currency.
One of the most dangerous symp-
toms just now is the rapid spread of the
| Populistic heresies in regard to the
| standard of values, the functions of gov
eminent, and the sacredness of national
honor These immoral ideas have in
fected many members of both the old
doctrines of the new party. We had
a melancholy exhibition of this in the
! United States Senate when a senator
from North Carolina introduced a bill
that really involved the reputation of
national obligations! This measure was
| "WlNy VI I'm
necticut as the ''most iniquitous and dis
graceful measure he had ever known to
be introduced into that body" Yet this
same disgraceful bill actually passed the
Senate, receiving the unanimous votes
of the free silverites in the Republican,
Democratic and Populist parties! That
| the highest legislative body of our land
which once echoed to the lofty patriotic
eloquence of Clay, Webster, Wright,
Seward, Sumner and Edmunds--s should
stoop to such an ignoble travesty of legis-
| lation is enough to make every American
| blush for his country.
We hear great deal about the duties
/ of Christians in purifying municipal gov
eminent. and about the application of
sChristian citizenship" to the role of the
ssEndeayor society" and not one syllable
too much in either direction. | submit
| whether this free silver mania, which
/ is oyerrunning the land and rupturing
everyone of the parties mot excepting
the Prohibitionists), ought not to be put
under the keen lens Of Christian con-
science, and looked at squarely as
question of Christian ethics. An intel
/ ligent democracy, ruled by reason and
/ conscience. may be the best of govern
/ ments. But universal suffra ge-under
the pressure of ''hard times and sub
| iect to the gales of popular delusion and
| the appeals of denagogues-rnay send