The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-10-30
OLD PARTY DECLARATIONS.
Some Planks of Political Platform
Which Seem Odd Nowadays.
From the Sun.


The prominence. as the supreme and
overshadOwipg issue of the present pO-
ltical canvass of the honest money
question, menaced by the agitation for
a deprecated dollar. has led this year
to thorough discussion of the finan-
cial question in all it's phases. 1ntelli-
gent voters are able to understand
where and for what each of the parties
stand, and this is the result of the CAM
paign of education which has been go
ing on for some time and in which hon.
est money Republicans and honest
money Democrats have WED with each
other in energy and argument. But
such questions have not always been
clearly understood or inquired into by
political parties i'm the past, and some
of the declarations that have been made
even i'm national conventions of former
years, seem now, in the light of pres
ent knowledge to be somewhat primit-
i've.
In 1872 the Democrats did not regard
the financial question as worth any at
tention whatever, though what has
since been called "the crime of 1879
was then impending over them. The
Labor Reform party of that year, which
put in nomination David Davis, of Illi-
nois, for president, laid down this pc
culiar rule: TT is the duty of the gov
ernment to establish a just standard of
distribution of capital and labor" and
the currency of the government. 1t was
asserted, should be based on the faith
and resources of the nation" In the
presidential election of 1876. the Pro-
hibtion party declared that the gov
ernment should issue paper money eX-
changeable lin gold and silver, the only
equal standards of value recognized by
the civilized world" The Greenback
party, which put in nomination Peter
Cooper for the presidency in that year.
declared in favor of interest at the rate
of one per cent. They were for money
to he issued directly by the government.
and the volume of such currency was to
fit the requirements of the people.
In the convention of 1880 two of the
national parties ignored the currency
question. The. Democrats declared for
honest money" consisting of gold and
silver and paper convertible into coin.
The Greenback party which nominated
General Weaver for the presidency. de-
clared that the volume of all money.
whether metallic or paper, should bo
controlled by the government" ire
spectiveof any reserve fund of coin for
the redemption of the paper and unse-
cured greenbacks. and gold and silver
coin were to he equally and inter-
changcably legal tender. In 1884 the
Prohbitonists came cut for govern
mental regulation of the currency and
declared that "all money" should he le-
gal tender for all debts, public and pri-
vate. BY "all money" was presumably
meant all money of the United States,
for the Prohibition statesmen of that
period. who did not have the excuse
sometimes urged in eXtenuation of the
strange acts of liquor drinking states
men of other parties. could not have
intended to make the deprecated and
repudiated currency of some other
countries a legal tender for all debts.
public and private.o of the United States.
In the presidential election of 1883 the
Union Labor party, which nominated
Brother Strecter of Illinois for the
presidency made a declaration on the
money question which deserves to be
preserved as polished gem of political
philosophy. Here it is while We have
free coinage of gold, we should have
free coinage of silver" This was more
in the line of a casual opinion than of a
deliberate demand. and it is now inter-
esting as showing how some of the fin
ancal reformers of few years ago re-
lieved their minds from trouble over the
ratio of coinage.