The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-07-14
SPREAD OF FREE SILVER IDEAS.


vor of silver. But things are changing.
The Boston Post, Democratic paper,
has opened its columns to the discus
sion of the financial question by gold
bugs" "silver bugs, and ''straddle
bugs" as it puts it. Its issue of Thurs
day last had number of letters on
the subject. The first letter is from a
follows:
Travelling the New England states,
visiting mos of the small cities and
villages, 1 have had occasion to sound
popular feeling to a great extent-far
greater than one would by talking to
Bostonians. Observation has proven
conclusively, to my mind, that the sill
Yer craze is lar more extensive than
even the most sanguine New England
advocate would believe. If you talk
with political leader. you get the
views of his party. If you listen to the
country and village merchant, you get
the most popular sentiment of his GUS
toners.
After transacting my business with a
merchant in a Connecticut village a
few day ago, the subject of the COM
ing campaign came up. He said that
many years, but could not vote the
ticket this year because it had turned
traitor to the poor people since its pur-
chase by a syndicate which con-
trolled its nominations, and will shape
its destinies if successful in election.
With a syndicate Of capitalists in the
white house the taxpayers would be
drained worse than they have been by
Cleveland's gold and bond policy,
ialo Cd lNoH 1crio
us.
At this juncture. an OLD farmer came
in and I asked him whether he was a
gold bug or a silver bug. Replying that
he was in favor of silver, l asked him
why he thus believed. Here is his re-
ply:
I'VE poor folks have been voting for
the party and supporting our favorite
politicians in the past, and are now
upon the verge of a financial crisis. 1t
is time we did something for our own
interest. All the bankers, money len
ders, capitalists, monopolisits, syndi-
Gates, Wall street operators, million
aires, railroad owners, and politicians
who have run the government in debt
and oppressed the working people IA
vor a gold standard. That's why 1 am
in favor of silver"
And it's clincher, too. 1t struck my
gold argument dumb, and since then
] have favored silver, and lose no oc-
casion to tell others of this logical ar
gument.
Could a person possibly go to a bet
ter source to learn the sentiments of
the people than to the village mer-
chants and the farmers? 1t will take
the shrewdest of sophists to explain
away the answer of this Connecticut
valley farmer.
Another correspondent writes to the
Post that the present crisis reminds
one of the attitude of the English
press during the agitation caused by
the Ubiquitous corn laws, and the peo-
pie had to be reached by pamphlets,
leaflets and outdoor meetings, for the
New England press, with the same fat
uity, has shut off discussion, present.
ing but one side of the question, even
the "Pith of Opinions being the
opinion CD of the gold monometal-
lists. He ends his letter as follows:
If the readers of the Post who only
read the single standard editorials of
the Boston papers, will go to the pub
lie library and read United States Sen
ator Marion Buffers article, why the
South Wants Free Silver" in the
Arena for March, and why. the West
Wants Free Silver" by c. S. Thomas,
in the Arena for May, they will see
the silver side of the shield, and may
be come to think all the wisdom and
patriotism are not on the side Of the
advocates of sound money''-their
way of spelling scarce money. Also
read the great western papers, that adj
vocate both gold and silver, and their
reasons why an ounce of gold. should be
worth sixteen times as much as sill
yer. instead of thirty. 1t does no harm
to turn the light on, and your course
deserves the gratitude of all lovers of
justice.
This writer lives in Cambridge I'M
der the shadows of Harvard univers-
ity; so that it cannot be asserted, from
the sections of country in which he
lives, that he is a dull, ignorant man.
Still another correspondent, hailing
from Somerville, writes criticizing a re-
cent article of Edward Atkinson's
which, we believe, has just been is
sued in pamphlet form by the Sound
Money league of New York. He writes:
In a letter to the IBoston] Herald,
Edward Atkinson made an effort to
educate the voters of Massachusetts
who will figure so largely in the coming
struggle between the bondholding
classes and tfle producers of this
country. The gentleman is evidently
laboring under the deluSion common
among monometalllsts, that the aver
age man Of today is totally ignorant
of finance. No greater mistake could
be made by the learned gentleman, I'M
less, possibly, the line of argument
which he presents in his article. 1t is
not flattering 10 the intelligence of the
average reader, whether in favor of
free coinage or not, to have presented
to his judgment such a remarkable
mixture Of abuse and sophistry. He
tells US with the utmost sang froid
that the wicked silver baron" wishes
to have his silver coined into dollars
worth fifty cents. He utterly ignores
one of the most commonly known facts
of finance, that the money function
added to the commercial demand would
advance the value of silver so that it
would be on par with its now favored
rival. By the way, how about the gold
barons, mostly foreign, about whom he
is so discreetly silent? Doesn't he think
1t about time to give American miners
and mine owners a chance? The solicit
tude he betrays lest Germany should
relieve her overlooking money Golfers
by emptying them upon us, is truly pa
thetic. How interesting this is to the
student of European finance. who
knows how deeply Germany regrets her
unfortunate venture into monometal-
ism, and the eagerness with which she
clings to her rapidly decreasing stock
of coin, whether gold or silver. AS for
Mexico, Japan. and China, as they coin
all their own silver it is pretty hard to
scare even with the lurid if somewhat
lfe-ia 49,. l.