The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-09-10
Of this country has now been nearly $780,
DOLLAR OF OUR FATHERS

DOLLAR OF OUR FATHERS
about which so much is said, was an
honest dollar, silver maintaining a full
| parity of intrinsic value with gold. The
fathers would have spurned and ridiculed
a proposition 10 make silver dollar worth
only 81 cents stand OF equal value with
| gold one worth 100 cents. The experience
| OF all nations goes to prove that any de-
probation, however slight, of another
standard from the parity with gold has
/ driven the more valuable one out of cir
culation and such experience in matter
OF this KIND Is worth more than mere IN
lerested speculative opinions. The fact
that few gold coins are seen in ordinary
| circulation for domestic uses is no proof
at all that the metal is not performing
most important function in business at
fairs. The foundation of the house IS not
always in sight, but the house would not
stand an hour if there were TO foundation.
There is now on deposit in the savings
banks of thirty-three states and territories
of this Union the vast sum of two billion
dollars; these are the savings of almost
five million depositcrs. In many cases
they represent the
LABOR AND ECONOMY OF YEARS.
Any depreciation in the value of the dollar
would defraud every man, WOMAN ssEu
child TO whom these savings belong. Every
| dollar of their earnings when deposited
was worth 100 cents in gold of the present
standard Of weight and fineness. Are they
not entitled to receive in full with interest
all they have so deposited? Amy legisla-
ton that would reduce it by the value
OF a single dime would be an intolerabe
wrong TO each depositor. Every bank or
banker who has accepted the earnings Of
these millions of dollars to the credit of
our citizens must be required to pay them
back N money not one whit less valuable
than that which these banks and bankers
received in trust. There are in this coun-
try nearly 5000 building and loan asso-
Citations with shareholders to the number
of 1,S00 900, and with assets amounting TO
of
holdings is nearly $500 per capita, and in
many cases they represent the savings of
men and women who have denied them
selves the comforts of life in the hope of
being able TO accumulate enough to buy
or
BUILD HOMES OF THEIR OWN.
They have aided in the erection OF over a
million Of houses, which are now affording
comfort and shelter for five millions of our
thrifty people.
Free coinage at the arbitrary rate of 16
ounces of silver TO one of gold, would be
equivalent to the confisca ton of nearly
half the savings that these people have
invested. 1t would be tantamount to a
war uron American hcme makers; IL would
be an invasion of the homes of the provi-
dent" and tend directly to destroy the
stimulus Of endeaVor and the compenSa-
ton OF honest toll. Every one of the
shareholders OF these associations is en-
titled to be repaid in money of the same
value which he deposited by weekly pay
ments or otherwise in these companies.
No one of them
SHOULD BE MADE HOMELESS
because a political party demands a.
change in the money standard of our
country as an experiment or as a conces-
sion of selfishnesS or greed.
Inc magnitude OF the disaster which
would overtake these and cognant inter
estS becomes the more striklngIy apparent
when considered in the aggregate. Stated
broadly the savings banks, life insurance
ana assessment companies and building
and loan associations of the country hold
the currency to g silver basis, as proposed
by the Chicago platform would wipe out
al one blow approximately 1883 504. $50 OF
TINS aggregate. According to the report of
the department of agriculture the total
value of the main cereal crops in this
country in 1894 was 1895, 43S, l07. So that
the total sum belonging to the people and
helo IN trust IN these institutions which
would be oblfterated by the triumph of
FREE AND UNLIMITED COINAGE
value OF the annual cereal crop Of the
United States. The total value of the
manufactured products of the country for
me census year OF 1e9e, was S5,5,z,o51, zo4. |
The establishment Of silver basis of
vaiue as now proposed, would entail a !
loss to these three interests alone equal to
80 per cent. of this enormous amount of
all the manufacturing Industries of the
Union and would affect directly nearly /
one-thlrd OF its whole population.
one hundred and forty millions of dol |
lars per annum are due to pensioners of
the late war That sum represents blood |
spilled and sufferings endured in order /
TO preserve this nation from disintegra-
ton. In many cases the sums so paid in |
pensions are exceedingly small; in few, IL
any, are they excessive. The spirit that |
would deplete these to the extent of a !
farthfng is the same that would orga nize (
seoluon, destroy the peace and security Of /
the country, punish rather than reward /
our veteran soldiers, and is not worthy
OF countenance by thought or vote by /
patriotic citizens. No party until that
which met in convention at Chicago has
ever Ventured to insult the honored sur
v1vorS Of our
STRUGGLE FOR THE NATIONAL LIFE
oy proposing to scale their pensions hori-
Zontafiy ana to pay them hereafter in de-
preclated dollars worth only 90 cents.
Inc amounts due in addition TO the in
terests already named to depositors in
trust companies, in national state and
private banks, to holders of fire and ac-
cldent insurance policies, to holders of
industrial insurance, where the money de-
posted or the premiums have been paid
in gold or its equivalent. are SO numer-
Gus, together with the sums due or to be-
come due for state, municipal and for
olher corporate debts, that If paid in de-
preclated silver or its equal, it would not
only entail upon our fellow countryI0en
loss IN money which has not been
equaled IN similar experience since the
Worid began, but it would at the same
time bring a disgrace to our country slch
as has never been eQualled by any other
nation which had the ability to nav its
honest debts. In our condition and con-
slderlng our magnificent CAPACITY for,
raising revenue, such wholesale repudi-
auon is without necessity or excuse
NO POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY
or party exigency. however pressing.
could justify so monstrous an act.
All these deposits and debts must Under
the platform of the Republican party be
met and adjusted in the best currency
the world knows and measured by the
same standard in which the debts have
been contracted or the deposits or pay
ments have been made.
Still dealing sparngly with figures. OF
which there is an enormous mass to sus-
tain the position of the advocates of the
gol0 standard OF value, l cite one more
case winch Is officially established, pre-
missed by the trulsm that there is no bet
ter test of the growth of a country's pros
perlty than It's increase in the per capita
holdings of it's population. In the decade
between 1880 and 1890, during which we
mad our existing gold standard and were
under the conditions that supervened
from the act of 1873, the capita ownineS
OF this country increased from $50 to
$lO35 In those ten years, the aggregate
increase OF the wealth of our country
was $zl,SS5, Qe0,U0, being so per cent. in
excess of the increase for any previous
ten years since 1850, and at the amazing
rate of over two billion of dollars a wear.
The trainers of the Chicago platform. in
the face of this fact, and of the enor-
nous increase over Great Britain during
the same gold standard decade of
OUR COUNTRY'S FOREIGN TRADE
and its production Of iron, coal and other
great symbols of national strength and