The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-09-10
SCRANTON. PA. THURSDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER TO- 1896

| platform of sound money and loyalty
to our institutions, and are proceeding
with the double purpose in view of aid
| ing in the election of Mckinley and al
the same time attempting to preserve
the organization of the true Demo-
| cratic party" They prefer Mckinley.
| the apostle of Protection. sound money
| and national honor. to Bryan, free sill
Yer, Fopulism and national dishonor.
They know where Mckinley and his
party stand on the money question. and
every other issue that is now or has
been heretofore brought before the peo-
pie Mr.. McKinley's letter of accept
! ance. while it could not clear the at
mosphere any more than it has been.
! has sounded bugle note which is lift
ing the national debate upon n higher
| plane. Nobody can misunderstood
what he is doing when he votes for Me
| Kinley, and | am beginning to think
that nobody who knows what he is do
ing win vote against him. 1t is equally
clear that nobody can tell what VIII be
The eject of his ballot if he votes for
Bryan. excepting that the country VIII
be placed on free silver basis.
Bryan has not yet made ii clear to
anybody what the real effect of his elec-
tion will be. I say this with all respect.
because | do not think that he himself
knows. His speeches indicate that he
does not. or that If he does he has up to
this time successfully concealed his
purpose. This has been Il disappoint-
. ment to those who rejoiced in his nomi-
nation. but have had time for reelection
since the convention. When he started
from Lincoln on his journey east his
shadow extended from Nebraska to
New York. When he reached the latter
point the shadow was gone. aud the
substance, from much speaking and
wrestling with the great problem. had
largely diminished in the scrutinizing
examination to which he was sub
jected.
CHICAGO MONEY PLANK.
The searcher for truth when he turns
from Bryan to the declaration of the
| Chicago convention finds the money
plank fully as unsatisfactory. 1t is
filed whit that which disregards truth
and patriotism. When it invites atten-
ton to the fact that the constitution
names silver and gold together as the
money metals of the United States it
asserts that which the author of the
statement will search the constitution
in vain for verihcation of the reckless
statement.
The second proposition is equally inn
aginative. 1t declares that the Act of
1873 demonetiZng silver without the
hIl'NltNSt VI dDIi'Ndl VI tIt
people has resulted in the appreciation
of gold and corresponding fall in the
prices of commodities etc" The state
ment that the Act of ~ was passed
without the knowledge or APPROVAL of
the American people" is made in the
| face of these facts 1t was printed
thirteen times by the treasury depart
ment and congress. 1t fills l45 columns
of the Congressional Globe: il was con-
j
five sessions of the senate and house: it
is quoted in the treasury reports of 20,
| n, -: every member of both houses
had ii in the files upon his desk. and
the fact that the gold dollar was the
only standard recognized in the bill, as
the record shows. was the subject of
considerable debate. This is rather a
remarkable way If Withholding "knowl-
edge" from the American people. The
same sentence charges that the Act of
I3 "demonetiZed silver" "Demoneti-
| zation." accoi ding to the free silver die
| tionary means the "depriving of cur
rent value: the Withdrawing from use
as money. As IA matter of most absu-
| lute fact, there was no dcmonetiza zion
of silver by the United States in 1873,
nor at any other time, for there has
| never been an hour in the history of
| the government when silver was not
ftlbiltN Ill inc nlltu
States In 1876 there was demOneti-
zaton of the Trade dollar a coin of
| special issue for the Chinese trade
| which had inadvertently been made n
| le2al-tender, and the decline of the
| value of that coin as soon as the act
demonetizing it went into effect, shows
| beyond all sane controversy that no
other silver coins we"e ever demOne-
| tiZed, else they also would have as sud-
I 4.
There was no thought of dcmOnetiZ-
| ing silver by the Act of 10 no serious
contention between the noltical par
| ties on the subject. Besides. Senator
Jones was there-not Jones, the chair
man of the Populistic national commit
| tee, but Jones, who now pays the free
silver freight: Jones, the ablest apostle
OF free silver: Jones' the then bright
and ambitious Napoleon of finance.
from the young and growing state Of
Nevada. was there and voted for the
bill and afterward. when he had six
teen months of time To reflect upon his
rash act. senator Jones. now the real
| leader and backbone of the POpulist
| hosts. in the senate of the United
| States on June IL, 1874. declared: u
| am opposed to any proposition. coming
| in whatever form it may. that attempts
to override what God himself made for
! money. I ntlltNt lNt sooner We come
| down to a purely gold standard the bet
ter it will be for the country
After ~ there were issued SO OOO, 900
| trade dollars. and each one of them
| contained seven and one-half more
| grains Of silver than the old dollar.
| and. in addition thereto. there were is
| sued l3t 00O 600 silver dollars under the
| Hland-Allson act, making a total of
i67 900 silver dollars. In other words,
| during the twenty years following '13
| there were issued fifty-four times as
| many silver dollars as in the cighty-one
| years previous. Surely senator Jones
must have lost faith in his original con-
| ception of the purpose for which gold
| was created.
A PIECE OF BUNCOMBE.
The next pronosition in this remark
| able plank is that the gold standard is
un-American and anti-American and "it
can be fastened on the United. States
| only by the stiiling of that indomitabie
| spirit and love oS liberty which pro-
! claimed our political independence in
| 171G and won ii in the War Of the Rev
| olution." The utterance of this peace
| If buncombe calls to mind the fact that
| President Andrew Jackson. who with
! jefferson shares the honor of being
1 the founders of the Democratic party,
signed the Act of 1884 making gold the
| standard. Thomas II. Benton and
| Daniel Webster were leaders i'm con-
gress and champions of the bill.
The question fraught with greatest
concern to all our people relates to the
proposed placing of our currency upon
a free silver basis. The opportunity to
| pass uDon this question comes before
the country for the first time. Bryan's
election means that the United States
will go into the column of free silver
countries. McKinley's election will
! guarantee a continuation of the pres
ent gold standard. The American peo-
pie will be guided by the light of his
tory, reason, experience and national
,and self-interest. The verdict will be
| for or q, oo I'M nt,rcaIyaa t;,, nd