People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1896-02-06


on the contrary, the mOnstrous schem
was conceived Of destroying the op
ton Of the debtor to pay in silver, b
destroying the coin unit of that meta
thus reducing the debtor-all debtors
Including the government of the Uni
ted States-to the necessity of payini
in gold only.
We will not only go to the length o
substituting a metallic dollar still
worth a premium of from thirty t,
fifty per cent for the current dollar O
the country. but we will 10 furthe
than that, and tamper with tn,
metallic dollar itself, SO that that alst
may ultimately, in some twenty years
be worth two for onel We will tax,
away. If we can, by some process, thu
optional dollar now constitutional fol
eighty-One years in the United States
and will place In Its stead a dollar in
one metal only-a metal that We
know, from its scarcity and from oul
ability to corner it in the markets Of
the world, must rapidly, under such
conditions, appreciate In its purchas.
Ing power, all the time hiding its OWL
fallacy, while at the same time the
discarded metal, being disparaged and
abolished, must lose Its quality as
primary money and be driven grad.
ually into the relation Of subsidiary
coin and mere merchandise. a.
Words are inadequate to describe
the profundity and criminality of this
scheme. 1t was carried into effect by
the Act Of Feb. IS, 1873. 1t was done
by a turn Of ShylOck's wrist, so adroit
and one might say devilish, as to be
indescribable in the phraseology Of
this world. 1t was an act on which
no king OF the seventeeth century
would have ventured without incur
ring the risk Of revolution. 1t was
an act which, instead of being mis-
represented by those who have found
it out and nailed it to the gibbet of
public contempt, has never been ade-
Quately denounced. 1t was an act
which has positively blackened the
honor of the American republic. 1t
was an act which though subsequent
ly defended, even to the present day,
by all the purchased ability of the
world, is nevertheless condemned by
the conscience and common sense Of
mankind as the most cold-blooded,
unjust. uncalled-fOr, unmitigated and
damnable outrage ever done in this
century to the rights and interests of
a great peopleI
The Act of 1873 abolished the stand.
ard unit OF money and account in the
United States. Until that time all
other coins In use under our constitu.
ton and statute had been made to do
obeisance to the silver dollar as the
unit OF money and account. That
dollar had never been altered by the
traction OF one grain in the quantity
Oh pure metal composing it from the
time when it was ordained in 1892 to
the time when it was abolished from
thelist Of coins to be henceforth struck
at the minis Of the United States.
Epery other coin whether Of gold or
silver had been altered and altered
again; the silver unit never. To that
unit all the rest, both gold and silver,
had from the arst been conformed. =
Not a single dictionary or CYCLIC
psdia in the English language before
the year l77S ever defined dollar in
any terms other than Of silver. In
that year the administrators Of the
estate OF Noah Webster, deceased, cut
the plates Of our standard lexicon and
inserted a new definition that had be-
come necessary in order to make the
bond intrigue. in congress and out Of
1t, consist
True 1t is that by the statute of
1872 the dollar was made to exist In
the gold coin also; but that dollar
was a dollar only by its conformity in
value to the silver coin which was the
one standard unit Of money and ac-
count. Our metal money existed in
both kinds, and the system was bi.
metallic to this extent that the
debtor might pay In either; but the
INIT existed In silver only. To abol.
sh that unit, to strike it down, TO
cancel it, and to substitute another
therefor WAS a crimel 1t has been
lightly so branded by the American
people, and 1t will be so written in
history. 1t makes no difference
whether it was done secretly or openly;
in the day or in the night:
whether by a committee or by the
louise in full debate; whether conf
'ress understood it or did not under. |
'tand It, 1t was crime all the same
-gainst the rights and iuterestsiof the
American people; aye, against the