The new North-west., 1896-07-31
THE NATIONAL SILVER PLATFORM
Unan animOuSIy Adopted in COnven-
tiOn at St. Louis July 25.

The national silver party, in conven-
| tion assembled, hereby adopts the follow
ing declaration Of principles:
| First, the paramount issue at this time
| in the United States is indisputably the
money question. It is between the gold
standard, gold bonds and bank currency
| on one side, and the bimetallic standard,
no bonds and government currency on the
| other.
"On this issue we declare ourselves to
| be In favor of distinctively American
| financial system. We are unalterably op-
posed to the single gold standard ana de-
| mand the immediate return to the consti-
tut1onal standard of gold and silver by
the restora ton by this government. in
dependently of any foreign nation, of the
unrestricted coinage of gold and silver
as the standard money a the rat Of 16
to J., and upon terms of exact equality as
they existed prior to 1873-the silver coin
to be full legal tender, equally with
gold, for all debts and dues public and
private; and we favor such legislation as
will prevent for the future the demone-
tization of any kind of legal tender mon
ey by private contract.
1--WE hold that the power to control and
regulate a paper currency IS inseparabe
from the power to coin money, and hence
that all currency intended to circulate as
money should be issued anu irs volume
controlled by the general government
only, and should be legal tender.
We are unalterablS opposed to the is
sue by the United States Of interest-bear-
ing bonds in time of peace and we de-
nounce as a blunder worse than a crime
the present treasury policy, incurred by
republican house, of piunging us into
debt by hundreds Of millions in the vain
attempt to maintain the gold standard hy
borrowing gold, and we demand the paw
| ment of all coin obligations of the United
States as provided by existing laws, in
either gold or silver coin at the option Of
the government, and not at the option of
the creditor.
The demonstration Of silver in 1874
enormously increased the demand for
gold, enhancing the purcha sing power
and lowering all prices measured by
that standard, and since that unjust ana
ineXcusa Bile act the prices of American
products have fallen, upon an average,
nearly SO per cent, carrying down with
them proportonately the money value of
al other forms of property. Such fall
of prices has destroyed the profits of
leeltimate industry, injuring the producer
for the benefit of the non-producer, in-
creasing the burden Of the debtor SWELL
ing the gains of the creditor, paralyzng
the productive energies of the American
people, relegating to idleness a vast num-
Der Of willing workers, sending the shad-
oWs OF despair into the homes of honest
toilers filling the land with tramps and
paupers, and building up of collossa. for
tunes at the money centers,
In the effort to maintain the gold STAN
dard the country has within the last two
years, time of profound plenty been
loaded down with s262, 00O, 900 of interest
bearing debt under such circumstances
as to allow a syndicate of native and
foreign bankers to realize a profit of
millions on single deal It stands con-
1essed that the gold standard can only
be upheld by SO depicting our paper cur
rency as to force prices OF our products
below the European, and even below the
Asiatic level, and enable us to sell in for
eign markets, thus cggravat!ng the very
evils of which ou1 people so bitterly com
plain, degrading American labor and
striking at the Foundations Of our civ
llization itself. The 2::-CGates of the gold
standard persistently claim that the
cause of our distress IS over-producton,
that we have produced so much that it
has made us poor. Which implies that the
true remedy is to close the factory,
abandon the farm, and throw 4 multi
tude of people out of employment, a
doctrine that leaves us unnerved and
disheartened and absolutely without hope
for the future.
We affirm to be unquestoned that
there can be no such economic paradox
as over-production and at the same time
tens OF thousands of our fellow-citiZenS
remaining half clothed and half fed, and
who are piteously clamoring for the COM
mon necessities of life.
lnasmuch as the patriotic majority of
the Chicago convention embodied in the
financial plank of its platform the prin-
clples enunciatet in the platform of the
American bimetalhc party, promulgated
at Washington, d. e.. January %, 1886,
and herein reiterated, which is not only
the paramount but the only real issue
in the pending campaign, therefore, rec
ognizing that their nominees enhody
these patriotic principles, we recommend
j. Bryan of Nebraska for president and
Arthur Sewall of Maine for vice prcsi-
dent.
Second, that over and above all other
questions Of policy, we are In favor of &c
storing to the people of the United Stales
the time-honored money of the constitu-
tlon-gold and silver; not one but both
the money of Washington and Hamilton,
and jefferson and Monroe, and jackson
and Lincoln-to the end that the Ameri-
can people may receive honest pay for an
honest product; that the American debtor
may pay his just obligations in an honest
standard, and not in a standard that has
appreciated 100 per cent above all the
great staples of our country; and to the
end further. that silver standard coun-
tries may be deprived of the unjust ad-
vantage they enjoy in the difference in
exchange between gold and siver-an ad-
vantage which tariff legislat ton can rot
overcome. We therefore confidently APP
peal to the people of the United States to
leave in allegiance for the moment all 9TH
er question, however important and even
momentous they may appear to sunder
II need be all former party ties and Attil-
lations and unite in one supreme effort to
free themselves and their children from
the domination of the money power-a
power more destructive than any which
mas ever been fastened upon the civilized