The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1896-08-22
All for the Creditor.

Hon. Bourke Cochran made his well ad-
vertised speech in New York on Tuesday
night. As an answer TO Mr.. Bryan. which 1t
WIS intended. it was flat failure. As an
argument for the gold standard it was as good
rs anybody can make, for there Is no sound
argument on that side. Here is an extract
from his speech
Mr.. Bryan leads the van in saying that it is the
creditor he is after. In order that you shouiu un-
ticrsand lust how change in the standard OF fale
enables men to cheat their creditors you nave 10
consider the function which money plays In meas
urng debts II had paid $40 for ten yards OF cloth
IN he delivered 10 me next week and in the interim
the government should pass law declaring tiht
hereafter the yard measure shona eohsish ~ 70 IN an
ches and that all existing contracts shond " set
tied in that system ofmeasure, would Dc ehealteu
out of half the cloth for which had paid II, on
the other hand, owed a cloth merchant ior yen
Yards Of cloth which he had delivered to me ana
which was payable next week, ana in the mean
lime the government would change the standard
Of value and cut down the unit of coinage one- half
then would settle that debt in 81 ana the cloth
merchant would have cheated
Mr.. Bryan is after no one. lie is tor right
and Justice. and for relieving the masses from
the iron grip of The money power. de Is Tor
an honest dollar of one hundred cents, for
gold and silver as standard money. He is
for restoration of the money of the Consttu-
ton. as it existed from 1892 until 1873. He
favors an ample currency for the needs of the
country.
Mr.. Cochran is much afraid that some one
will be cheated 1t has not occurred to Mr..
Cochran that the whole farming community
has been cheated by the contraction of the
currency. and that labor is only employed
part of the time for the same reason. Nor
has he observed that manufactures and COM
merce are depressed because agriculture is
depressed Like all gold standard men he
has looked at the financial question only from
the standpoint of the moneyed class, and he
has not even eomprehended that. There is
no purpose to cheat any one in the restoration
of silver as Il standard money. 1t is only
designed to get back that which has been UNI
lawfully taken. The purpose is to increase
the volume of money to a proper amount, and
10 have gold and silver on parity, and each
redemption money. 1t is the purpose to
enable debts to be paid in the dollar that was
borrowed.
Dir. Cochran believes that the halving of
The yard stick would be dishonest. but doub
ling the bushel that measures the farmers
corn. wheat and oats aud doubling the pound
that weighs his cotton and tobacco is all right.
Cutting off one-half of the money, by demone
iizing silver has sent gold to a pFemium-or
rather has nearly doubled its purchasing
power BY its appreciation it takes twice as
much of farm products to get a dollar as it did
before silver was cut off. This virtually
doubles the bushel measure and doubles the
pound.
Mr.. Cochran knows, or ought to, that con
tracing the currency means falling prices and
increasing the volume means higher prices.
Every other interest depends upon agricul-
ture. The contraction of the currency has so
lowered the price of farm products, that it
takes nearly three times rs much 10 get dol
lar ms it did twenty years ago. This means
that taxes are virtually three times as high
aud that interest and debts are thrilled But
all this does not interest Mr.. Cochran and
the gold combine whom he represents. He
wants the il-gotten gains TO be retained, and
has not enough of foresight to see that there
must be an end to this Agriculture cannot
stand the strain much longer, and when it is
completely crushed the creditor, for whom he
so earnestly pleads, is certain to suffer. The
holder of mortgages on farm property goes
against self-interest when he votes to retain the
present financial policy of the country, for
unless the condition of the farmer is re-
Iiavad nv highar nrieas thera Is not much
prospect of mortgages being paid. The
holders of railroad bonds do the same, and
the holders of United States bonds must see
that the government cannot stand continual
additions to the public debt by issuing bonds
10 preserve the 500, 900, 900 of gold reserve.
Mr.. Cockrans speech, so far as sound ar
gument goes, was failure, because there is
nothing sound in the contentious of the ad-
vocates of the single gold standard.