The herald., 1896-08-17

| withdrawn from circulation. to the end
| that its value may be increased and that
| the government may be forced TO issue
| bonds to prevent the establishment
| of bimetallism.
| Is this then, the situation to which the
| republican party is pledged? Does the
| success of Mckinley mean that the
| power of the government is to be used
| to maintain the gold corner and to pre-
| vent fall in the value of gold. now arti-
| ficially forced up to base that is oper-
ating to depress all other values to a
ruinous extent?
| We have an existing gold basis" at
| the treasury and at the counters of the
/, Wall street banks and the foreign bro
kerS who have cornered gold. who are
now attacking our national credit and
threatening us with bankruptcy if we
do not surrender the control of our
treasury and of our currency to them
and TO their principals in London, Paris.
Berlin and Vienna. But the business of
the country is being done almost wholly
in silver and If they succeed in discred-
itng it, the result will be unprecedented
disaster.
At the treasury this gold basis does
not mean that man with a silver GER
tificate can get gold for it-not at all.
1t means only that gold 'fll be paid on
demand to export brokers and to the
agents of foreign banks when they wish
to force additional bond issues at enor"
nous profits.
This is what il means and nothing
more. 1t does not mean that the treas
ury attempts to make ANY dollar as
good as every other dollar" On the
contrary. the whole power of the treas
ury. and of all the treasury's financial
hackers. from John Sherman to Russell
Sage and j. p. Morgan. is being used to
discredit the silver dollar and force 1t
"a
forced higher and higher
Neither at the treasury nor at any
sub-treasury will 800 in gold be given
on demand for 500 In silver. At the
treasury. as at every Wall street bank,
the attempt is made to hoard gold and
keep it cornered lin reserve" 1t is the
policy of the treasury not to allow it to
circulate and 1t is not circulating.
Neither are greenbacks. which are also
cornered to a very great extent because
the treasury treats them not as legal
tender notes. but as gold certificates of
deposit. calling for payment in gold and
gold only
This. then. is the existing gold basis
with gold certificates and greenbac cks
practically withdrawn from circulation.
The only national currency representing
cash value in actual circulation is sit-
Yer certificates and coin. These DO the
business of the country to so great an
money, we must have a most disastrous
collapsed collapse to which the panic
produced by the Cleveland gold basis
proclamation of three years ago would
be as nothing.
The existing gold basis means that
gold shall be cornered and out of circu-
lation; that greenbacks shall be treated
as gold certificates; that they. too. shall
remain out of circulation and that the
whole business of the country shall be
done in silver certificates continually
attacked by the federal administrati ton.
by its Wall street supporters and by the
foreign bankers whose agents are
chiefly responsible for the dangerous
condition to which the country has
been brought.
1t is to this that Mckinley is pledged
by his cuckoo platform. How can any
American who retains both his common
sense and his patriotism vote for such
a platform?