Evening star., 1896-06-16
THE MONEY PLANK.

Proposed by the West, but Satisfac-
tory to the East.
A press dispatch from st. Louis sent last
night seys:
The money plank of the platform has
been agreed upon. It Is victory for the
middle west. but Is perfectly satisfactory
to the extreme east. The New England
contingent, headed by Senator Lodge of
Massachusetts and backed by the Platt and
Quay forces in New York and Pennsyl-
vania, urged the adoption Of short en-.
phatic declaration. and their plank was
finally formulated at the conference held
last night. That plank was: I'VE favor a
maintenance Of the existing gold standard.
and are opposed to the free coinage of sill
yer, except by international agreement for
bimetallism with the leading commercial
nations of the world"
This was to be the offer Of the east, and
upon 1t they were to stand.
The leaders in the middle west states,
Ohio In6iana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minneso-
Ia and Nebraska, were equally strong in
the insistence upon a declaration that
would not be open to the charge of equivo-
cation.
Michigan. Iowa and South Dakota. three
declaration favoring in terms the pres
ent gold standard" They rather favored
something distinctively friendly to silver.
while affirming their opposition to free
COuldSS 0AlStlIlS ClTCuluStdHCSS luc
plank agreed upon by the Iowa delegation.
after a four-hour struggle. and which is
understood to have the Endorsement of
Senator Allison. fully sets forth this idea.
That plank was as follows:
We favor the use of gold, silver and pa
per as the money of the United States, all
to be kept on parity of value, and the
enactment of necessary laws to accomplish
the purpose; we also favor the use of silver
as international money. either through in
ternatfonal agreement to secure common
ratio with a free coinage at such ratio by
the agreeing nations, or by concurrent
legislation of the leading nations 10 accom-
plish the same purpose. Pending such an
arrangement, which should be prompted by
the power of the United States 1t is un-
wise and inexpedient for the United States
aICne to adopt a free coinage of silver at
the ratio Of 10 to 1. and therefore we op-
pose such free coinage of silver"
The leaders In the middle west offered the
plank which follows.
This plank was submitted to Senator
Lodge and other eastern men rs a suhsti-
tute for the plank prepared by them, and
has been accepted as completely satisfac-
tory. This. 1t Is believed, ends the long
form.
Senator-elect Foraker, who is the chair
man Of the resolutions committee, will pre-
sent it to the committee. This is the reso-
luton:
The republican parry is unrese-vedly for
sound money. It secured the enactment Of
the law providing for the resumption of
specie payments in 1879; since then every
dollar has been good as gold. We are
unalterably opposed 20 every measure cal
culated to debase our currency or impair
ing the credit Of our country. We are
therefore. opposed to the free and unlimit-
ed coinage Of silver. except by international
agreement. which we favor. and until such
agreement can be obtained, the existing
gold standard Is to be preserved. We favor
the use Of silver AS currency, but to the
extent only that its parity with gold can
be maintained. and we favor all measures
designed to maintain inviolably the money
of the United States, whether coin or paper,
the standard Of the most enlightened ma
t.ons Of the EARTH