The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1896-06-04
GER MAN AMERICANS.
THEY ARE ALMOST UNANIMOUS
FOR SOUND. MONEY
Ready to Break Party Ties to Vote
Against Free Coinage--They Form q
Large Percentage of the Voters of
This Country.

Mr. Gustav H. SchWab is president of
the German society Of New York city
and is therefore in touch with Germans
and German-Americans in this coun-
try Being also prominent business
man, he is familiar with the views of
Germans on the financial question In
an interview on May IA he said:
am convinced from my knowledge
of my German-American fellow citi-
Zens and their ways Of thinking that
the vast majority of them in the coming
political contest will entirely disregard
party ties and will vote for that party
which declares for the maintenance be-
yond possibility of doubt of the gold
standard of value, and that they will
not give their suffrage to any candidate
who may be suspected of leaning to-
ward free silver coinage or toward any
compromise with the silver people.
They consider that the paramount
question before the country at present
is the integrity Of our monetary sys-
tenn, and their votes will go to that
party which they believe will uphold
the country's financial honor, regard
less of what their views may be on
other political questions. Previous ex-
perience has shown that German voters
on questions relating to or affecting the
standard of value have always stood for
common honesty, and that they have
W. oil IF Gr0 io1
heresy.
When, 20 years ago, the paper money
imitation question was agitated in Mis-
souri,, the Germans of that state were
arrayed on the side of sound money.
The Germans of Illinois are on record
as always having been on the right side
of the money question, and as never
having been led astray by cheap money
propaganda at any time. A German
business man, cashier of large bank in
Chicago, who has wide acquaintance
with the small bankers and merchants
throughout the west, tells me that he
has had occasion to hear. expressions
from his German countrymen for years
past on the question of monetary
standard, and that he has never yet
found one who was not in favor of the
gold standard and opposed to the free
coinage of silver.
His opinion is that the German citi
zens of Illinois are unanimously op-
posed to any impairment of the present
gold standard.
It is a fact, universally known, that
the sound money victory in Ohio in the
gubernatorial campaign of 1875, in
which Rutherford B. Hayes ran on
Republican hard money platform
against William Allen on a Democratic
paper money imitation platform was
due to the firm stand taken by the Ger
mans, who, disregarding party lines,
turned the scale in the election in favor
of honest money. This fact was conced-
ed at the time by the Republican press
of the state, and the Democratic candi-
date voiced the sentiments of his party
leaders when he gave utterance to his
lacerated feelings after the election by
exclaiming, The Dutch are ID I'M
reliable" The German voters are GER
tainly not to be relied upon when they
are asked to prostitute the country's
financial honor at their party's bidding.
In the state of Wisconsin the Germans
have taken the same united stand in
favor of sound money, and the same
may be said of Michigan, Iowa and
Minnesota.
The entire German newspaper press in
this country, with few exceptions, is
emphatically for sound money, as it has
been in the past, and can be depended
upon to pronounce in favor of the main
tenance Of the present standard Of value
and for the party that represents this
principle, regardless of previous party
Affiliations. Several important German
Democratic papers in the western states
have already threatened to bolt their
ticket if free silver plank should be
adopted. AS an Indication Of the gen
refer to the position taken by the larg-
est and oldest German newspaper in
the south, The Demokrat of Louisville,
in the last state election in Kentucky.
Although always Democratic up to that
time, this paper bolted the Democratic
free silver candidate and urged the cleo
ton of the Republican sound money
candidate for governor.
The Importance of the German vote
will be apparent when the numerical
The Silver Politicians Double Standard.