The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-06

out of their presence as a public nuis-
ance any one seriously advocating 1T.
Such things the free coinage agita-
tors tell the American people. assuming
them to be without intelligence. Far
worse are the appeals they address to
them, assuming them to be without
moral sense.
They have been teaching the people
that because the prices of wheat and
other things have fallen about one
half since the so-cal1ed decentralization
year, 1871 have shown why those
prices have fallen-it is not equitable
that debtors should be held to pay
more than half the amount of their
debts in gold, that they should be re-
leased in correspondence with the de-
cline of prices and that it would there
fore be right to reduce by free silver
coinage the value of the debt-payfng
money by onehalf.
If this were right as a general prin-
ciple, how would it apply to our debts?
OF our government bonds there are
very few that do not bear date long
after 1873. Many of them were sold
for the express purpose of bringing
gold into the treasury. Our CORPORA
ton bonds are, as a rule, also, quite
young. But all these obligations are
mere trifle compared with the immense
sums of debts contracted In the daily
transaction of business The average
life of real estate mortgage is only
five years. But probably nine-tenths
Of all our debts are those between firm
and firm or between man and man in
the form of notes, bills of exchange,
wage bills, and open accounts, the
amount of which is inealculable. How
old are these? From one hour to six
months. How would the principle APP
ply to them? Would there be any
equity, or any shadow, or pretenee or
bubble of equity in scaling them down
81 per cent, by sudden drop from the
gold to the silver basis?
Subject the principle itself to a SIM
pie test. When I contract a debt, /
owe what it is mutually understood
that / am to pay. Our whole business
life and social fabric, all human inter-
course, rests upon the binding force OF
such understandings Unless it be ex-
pTessly understood, has the debtor the
slightest right or reason to demand
that the creditor shall be satisfied with
less amount in payment LIZ wheat or
cotton or something else had mean
while declined in price? If so, would
not the creditor also have the right to
demand that the debtor should pay
more in proportion If wheat or cotton
or something else meanwhile had risen
IN price? If neither of them had
thought of proposing or of accepting
so adventurous contract, how can
such claims be justified If based upon
mere secret mental reservation or an
arbitrary afterthought? Is it not mon
strous that such an assumption should
be taken as warrant for the reduc-
ton at one sweep Of all debts by a
debasement of the standard of value?
You recognize such a principle and
carry it into general practice. and there
will be the end of all confidence be-
tween man and man. the cessation of
all credit and trust. the utter subver-
sion of the moral rules governing hui
man intercourse an unbridled reign of
fraudulent pretence and interruptions
greed-in one word, the overflow of
civilized life.
1T MEANS REPUTATION
And yet he who has watched the.
free coinage agitation knows that just
this appeal to- debtors is one Of it's
main allurements. Listen to their.
speeches, read their literature, and you
meet ever recurring, now in soft
spoken circumIocution, now in sly sag
gestion- now in the language of brazen
cynicissn. the promise that free coinage
will enable the debtor to get rid of his
obligations by paying only part OF
them. 1t is scheme of wantau re-
pudiation of private as we'll as public
debts, not as il we could not pay in
full, but because we would prefer not
to pay in full-tfle practice resorted TO
by the fraudulent bankrupt-and this
sanctioned by law, as part of our ma
tional policy.
Fellow citizens, think this out. 1t is
a grave Matter-a matter of vital i'm
port to the existence of this nation
The father who teaches stch moral
principles to his children educates them
for fraud. disheHor, and the penften-
tiary. The public men who teach such
moral principles to the people educate
the people for the contempt and abhor-
renee of mankind. The nation that ac-
eepts such moral principles cannot live
It will rot to death in the 1eathsone
spew of it's own corruption. If the ma
| ton accepting such moral principles
be this republic. 1t will deal blow to
the credit of Democratic institutions
from which the cause Of free govern
nlent will not recover for centuries.
But. thank God. the American people
will never accept such moral princi-
pies The American people will be-
1 fore election day arrives. have fully
! discovered what all this means They
! will Indignantly repel the unspeakable
insult offered to them by the pelitf-
clans, who have dared to ask for the
votes of honest men upon the offer of
such bait. They win know how to
resent the deep disgrace inflicted tipoE