The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1896-08-01
THE NATIONAL SILVER PLATFORM
Unanimously Adopted in Conven-
tion at st. Louis July ID.

ing declaration of principles:
First, the paramount issue at this time
in the United States is indisputably the
/ money question. 1t is between the gold
standard gold bonds and bank currency
on one SIDE and the bimetallic standard
no bonds and government currency on the
other.
ION this issue we declare ourselves to
be In favor of a dstinctively American
financial system. We are unalterably op-
| posed to the single gold standard and de-
mand the immediate return to the consti-
! tutional standard of gold and silver by
| the restoration by this government. in
] dependently Of any foreign nation, of the
unrestricted coinage of gold and silver
as the standard money at the ratio Of IS
| to l. and upon terms of exact equality as
they existed prior to 1S73-the silver coin
to be a full legal tender, equally with
! gold, for all debts and dues, public and
| private; and we favor such legislation as
will prevent for the future the demone-
tization of any kind of legal tender mon
ey by private contract.
1--WE hold that the power to control and
regulate paper currency is inseparable
from the power to coin money. and hence
that all currency intended to circulate as
money should be issued ana its volume
controlled by the general government
only, and should be legal tender.
I'VE are unalterably opposed to the is
sue by the United States of interest-bear-
nounce as a blunder worse than a crime
the present treasury policy, incurred by a
republican house, of punging us into
debt by hundreds Of millions in the vain
attempt to maintain the gold standard by
borrowing gold, and we demand the pay
ment of all coin obligations of The United
States as provided by existing laws, in
either gold or silver coin at the option of
the government, and not at the option of
the creditor.
THE decentralization of silver in 1873
enormously increased the demand for
gold, enhancing the purchasing power
and lowering all prices measured by
that standard, and since that unjust and
inexcusable act the prices of American
products have fallen, upon an average.
nearly so per cent, carrying down with
them proportionately the money value of
all other forms of property. Such fall
of prices has destroyed the profits of
legitimate industry, injuring the producer
for the benefit of the non-producer, in
creasing the burden of the debtor swell
| ing the gains of the creditor, paralyzing
the productive energies of the American
| people, RELOCATING to idleness a vast num-
Der of willing workers, sending the shad-
ows of despair into the homes of honest
toiers, filling the land with tramps and
| paupers, and building up of colossal for
| tunes at the money centers.
in the effort to maintain the geld stan
| dard the country has within the last two
years. a time of profound plenty. been
| loaded down with 1852 900, 900 of interest
bearing debt under such circumstances
! as to allow a syndicate of native and
foreign bankers to realize a profit of
millions on a single deal it stands con-
fessed that the gold standard can only
be upheld by so depicting our paper cur
rency as to force prices of our products
! below the European, and even below the
Asiatic level, and enable us to sell in for
eign markets, thus cgGravating the very
| evils of which Ous people so bitterly COM
| plain. degrading American labor and
| striking at the foundations of our civ
! ilization itself. The 2...-ocates of the gold
standard persistently claim that the
cause of our distress is reproductions
! that we have produced so much that it
has made us poor, which implies that the
! true remedy is to close the factory
abandon the farm, and throw a multi
! tude of people out of employment, q
doctrine that leaves us unnerved and
disheartened and absolutely without hope
for the future.
I'VE affirm to be unquestioned that
there can be no such economic paradox
as Over-productiOn and az the same time
tens of thousands of our fellow-citizens
remaining half clothed and half fed. and
| who are piteOusly clamoring for the com
mon necessities Of life
"Inasmuch as the patriotic majority Of
! the Chicago convention embodied in the
| clpes enunciated i'm the platform of the
| American bimetLllic party, promulgated
at Washington. ID. c., January p, 1896.
and herein reiterated, which is not only
the paramount, but the only real issue
| i'm the pending campaign, therefore, rec
ognizing that their nominees embody
these patriotic principles, we recommend
that this convention nominate William
/ j. Bryan of Nebraska for president and
Arthur Scwal of Maine for vice presi-
dent"
Second, that over and above all other
questions Of policy. we are in favor of &c
storing to the people of the United STAGES
the time-honored money of the cOnstltu-
| uon-gold and silver; not one. but both
the money of Washington and Hamilton.
and jefferson and Monroe, and Jackson
! and Lincoln-to the end that the Ameri-
| can people may receive honest pay for an
honest product; that the American debtor
| may pay his just obligations in an honest
standard, and not in a standard that has
! appreciated 100 per cent above all the
great staples of our country; and to the
end further, that silver standard coun-
tries may be deprived of the unjust ad-
vantage they enjoy in the difference in
exchange between gold and silver-an ad-
vantage which tariff legislation can rot
overcome. We therefore confidently APP
peal to the people of the United States to
leave in allegiance for the moment all 9th
| er question, however important and even
| momentous they may appear. to sunder
| II need be all former party ties and affil-
lations and unite in one supreme effort to
free themselves and their children from
the domination of the money power-a
| power more destructive than any which
has ever been fastened upon the civilized
men of any age. And upon the consum-
| nation Of our desires and efforts we in
woke the gracious favor of divine provi-
| dence."