The herald., 1896-05-17
ROTTEN MONEY PLANKS

Probably no Republican state plat.
form has received more hearty and gen.
eral condemnation, both inside and out.
side of the Republican party, than the
one adopted by the late California state
Republican convention. The Chicago
Times Herald. Independent Republican,
pays its respects to the money plank of
the platform in most spirited way. Its
utteranceS are worthy the perusal, not
only of Republicans, but of Democrats
also, especially those Democrats who are
trying TO persuade their party to go chas-
ing after the silver phantom The Times
Herald says:
In contrast TO the currency plank
adopted 10y the Republicans of Indiana
the California and Michigan morey
plankS are rotten, squeaky and shaky.
There isn't sound timber in their con-
Struction. The California platform is
particularly tiimsy in rhetoric and shod-
dy in principle. 1t hasn't leg to stand
on. 1t lies Hat on the shifting sands of
tiatism and Reputation. The men who
framed it are clinging to the old delusiou
that a nation with 81 800 900, 600 of for
eign commerce can be a law unto itself
in commercial matters and that it is
easy for congress to create financial
conditions that Will cut us off from the
rest of the world.
They believe that our government can
stamp so cents worth of silver as worth
100 cents, independent of all the great
commercial nations of the world, and
that the lowering of the real value of
our money will not affect it's purchasing
or debt-paying power. They are hug
ging the absurd fallacy that an increase
of the circulating medium by this fraud
ulent device will make every man richer,
more prosperous and more contented,
and yet not one adherent of the free sill
Yer party has ever been able to prove
that a man receiving 800 a month in
wages under the present standard would
receive more than 100 ffty-cent dollars
under free coinage at the ratio of IL to /.
The abandonment of sound money prin-
Ciples by the Republicans of Michigan
and California was without shadow of
reasonable excuse. The Minneapolis
plank, adopted by the Michigan Repub-
licans as a compromise after rejection
of an honest money resolution reported
by the committee on platform, Is trim
mer, a dodger and a straddler. 1t salts
fled the politicians in 1892, but the bust
ness interests of the country demand
a more explicit expression on the cur
rency question in 1896. Unless we are to
have continued industrial depression and
financial confusion the winning party
in the coming campaign must stand
for sound money and the maintenance of
the present standard.
In the case of California the repudi-
alton of an honest money standard is
even more pronounced and more UNI us
tifable than that of Michigan. for Cali
fornia has always been a gold state.
What California expects to gain by this
Irritation with the populistic 50-cent sill
Yer fatists is not easy to understand.
II any state is more interested than all
other states in the preservation of the
integrity and stability of our medium OF
exchange that state is California.
Fortunately. however, neither Michi-
gan nor California will be able to prevent
the St Louis convention from making
firm and emphatic demand for honest
money. as GOOD as the money OF the most
enlichteued nations of the earth---money
ir which every dollar is equal in value to
every other dollar.