The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1896-09-17
watchman. What of the Nlght2

presentcontention of the classes against
the industrial masses. For more than
twenty years some of our public men of
both political parties have been in a
with European and Ameri-
can plutocrats in organizing trust to
control the gold of the world. When
this foul conspiracy eliminated by an
act of congress demonetizing silver, in
1878, one half of the legal tender money
of the world was wiped out at single
stroke The hundreds of millions of
the wealth of the world represented by
one half its legal tender money, like
Dead Sea fruit, turned to ashes on the
lips of its owners. And the very men
who destroyed one half of the wealth of
the world by closing the mints to silver
and depriving it of its legal tender
character as a money metal, now have
the cheek to say some body else wants
to debase our currency by using fifty
cent dollar, when they did it themselves
to double their already immense for
tunes. When we tell these cold blooded
enemies to the toiling masses of the
world, who produce all of its wealth by
their muscle and brain, that bimetallism
is better than the single gold standard,
instead of showing us by dispassionate
reason that gold alone is better than
gold and silver both, they call us silver
cranks, lunatics, anarchists, socialists,
repudiationists and all sorts of ugly
names. Silver was three per cent bet
ter than gold in 1878, before these
enemies of mankind debased it bv act
of congress and denied mintage to it,
and yet, they say we seek to debase it.
Could the serpent when he wriggled
into Eden have deceived mother Eve
by so bold an untruth?
But when the Chicago convention
demanded the restoration of silver to
its place as legal tender money in the
United States, all the plutocrats Joined
in one body to decry and denounce the
friends of honest government as an
archists. A cause that can only be
sustained by its advocates resorting to
vile epithets and ugly names must be
weak indeed, while at the same time
they modestly claim all the wisdom for
themselves and charge their opponents
with lunacy.
A government bond made payable in
coin-that is, in gold or silver, or both
gold and silver-is simply a debt
10000, 900 people promise to pay by
taxation to one man when it natures.
Ought this one man to have the power
to say to the 70, 900, 900, "It is true you
only obligated yourselves to pay in
coin at maturity, but don't want sill
yer coin, | want gold coin and will
not take silver coin, now that we have
got you in this hole by running silver
down to fifty cents ON the dollar" Il
that the Sound money" the gold stan
dard people advocate to preserve ma
tional honor Is that the "honest dol.
lar" John Sherman and Mr.. Cleveland
would have 70, 900, 600 of freemen accept
at the behest of single bond-holding
plutocrat? This would be complete
change of the contract on the face Of
the coin bond, and that is exactly what
the Harrison administration and the
Cleveland administration have botl
been struggling for eight years to ac
complish. Can we suppose for a mo
ment that Gen. Harrison or Mr. Cleve
land or any of the plutocrats woulC
thus seek to change the nations obi
cations from coin to gold to such al
immense loss to the tax payers if they
did not see where the lions share O.
the profits came into their own Golfers
It is absurd to draw any other con.
clusion, and hence, when Thomas
Jefferson said "a republic needs q re
bellion every twenty years to keep alive
the spirit of liberty among the people,
he must have been thinking of JUS
such patriots as Sherman and Cleve
land, Whitney and Harrison. To givl
one Shylock this immense power by
his money over 70, 900, 900 of the wealth
producers Of our country, is worse thai
Hamilton and his school of politicians
who favored an elective monarchy
when the government was organized b,
the Constitution in 1887. And this en-
ables us to appreciate the bitter hostili
ty of the gold standard plutocrats t,
the Chicago platform wherein it says
''we oppose life tenure in office
Can any honest man be in favor of re
publican government and at the sam
time advocate holding office for life
The two can not go together, and tn
man who believes in holding Office fo
life, as in kingly governments, can nc
be in favor of democracy and govern
ment by the people. Such a pretens
is q solecism in language.
By common consent for four thou
sand years gold has been regarded O
the money of the rich and well-to-d
because it was an object of desire b
every body and difficult to obtain. 0
the other hand, silver being harde
metal is better adapted to daily us,
not SO much coveted as gold, and nor
easily obtained Hence, it has bee
called the poor mans money, becauS
he needs some of it every day to met
his daily wants.
The Jewish talent of silver when +,
duced to our currency contained 81, ,90t
while the Jewish talent OF gold bein
one sixth lighter by weight than IL
silver talent contained So, 900 of OF
dollars. It may thus be seen that IL
established ratio between gold and 81
yer in the commerce of the Hebre
nation 5000 years ago was 13 of silv'
to of gold, and after struggling S,OI
years to enhance the value of the
money the rich men of the world ha'
only succeeded in raising gold thr'
points in the ratio over silver sim
David was king of Israel, 900 yea