The Portland daily press., 1896-09-11
WOULD BE A NATIONAL CALAMITY.
What @ Democrat Says of Bryan's
Election,

br8oDuTy Ok aug" Sr
The following letter from ex-senator ].
W. Bradbury. a lifelong Democrat, was
read at a Republican meeting in Au-
gusta, Wednesday night;
Augusta, Maine, Sept. 9. 1885,
Mr.. william n. Williams, Chairman
City Committee, Augusta, Maine.
NY Dear Sir: I should accept with
pleasure your Invitation to preside at a
sound money meeting OF our citizens
if felt that my health and strength
would warrant 1t; but as l do not. l will
send to you brief suggestions upon one
or two points on the pending subject,
which you are at liberty to uee at your
discretion.
I have already given to tho public
sufficient reasons for my refusal, as
Democrat. to support the ticket standing
upon the Chicago platform, which is in
the time honored principles of the Dem.
ocratic party.
As ! thoroughly believe that the sue
cess OF That ticket would be national
calamity, deem 1t my duty as citizen
to oppose 1T on every suitable occasion.
The free coinge scheme proposes to
change the long established gold basis of
the currency to a new silver basis 80 per
cent. below the former and to make the
new coinage and the bills issued and to
be issued, by the governments legal ten
der Tor the payment Of all debts contract
ed under the old basis where the debtor
received gold or it's equivalent.
Only So cents worth Of silver is to be
put into the new silver dollar, while the
dollars of the fathers was an honest dol.
lar, always having 100 cents worth of
silver In it, and made equal in value to
the dollar i'll gold.
1T proposes by this measure to rSpudl-
ate and strike out of existence nearly 80
per cent. of kind of property held more
largely by colleges and savings banks
and people of moderate means, and by
larger number Of persons, than any 9th
er kind, amounting to millions of dol
lars and far exceeding the expense of
four years war.
This property to be destroyed at a
blow, by single act of Congress, is as
deserving and as much entitled to the
protection of the government as. your
horse, your goods, your house.
1t is the duty Of the government to
protect the property OF it's citizens.
Where does Congress get the ght to de.
stroy it. or to impair the obligation of
contracbsp
What moral right has one citizen to
destroy the property of anotherP
How can a man honestly aid III de-
stroying the property of his neighbour
If this scheme Of destruction should be
sanctioned by the people. what is there
kind of property And where is the
point at which the theory stops until IL
reaches the doctrine promulgated during
the French Revolution, that Property
is a orime.
10 Is urged in defense of the scheme
that the country is heavily in debt and
that the poor farmers are suffering I'M
der mortgages on their farms, and that
the business depression has been caused
by the gold currency.
What constitutes this vast mass of
indebtedness? 1t is made up largely by
the bond debts of the States, municipali-
ties and railroad corporations. in COM
parison with which the mortgage debts
Of the farmers would be small. As it is
the property of the States, municipalities
and corporations issuing the bonds that
Is responsibl for their payment, large
part of the 30 per cent. reputation relief
would 40 to wealth and not to the poor
farmer.
1t is the agitation Of the silver ques-
iton, and not the appreciation of gold
that has been the cause of theHbusiness de-
preston. Gold has not appreciated az
the price of labor, the best test, will
show. A given amount of gold will not
pay for as much labor as the same
amount did twenty-five or fifty years
ago.
I he free coinage of silver instead of
restoring prosperity must inevitably de-
lay, and for long time, if not perma
nently, prevent its return.
The reduction in the value and
amount of the present currency, by the
expulsion Of the gold and the fall from
gold to q silver basis. would be SO great
it could not fail to bring about such
business disaster as this country has
never known.
Let this agitation cease and business
will revive and prosperity return.
The great beneficiaries of the free coin
age sheme, are Its originators-a small
number of rich owners of the silver
mines. They have been moving in it for
years with mntohless energy and skill,
and they have indoctrinated large sec
tions Of the country with their fallacious
theories. They furnish the brains and
the money, and they have their advocates
IN every part of 1T.
They act in concert and thus consti-
tute a rich, powerful and dangerous
trust They demand that the product of
the currency. 1t is now fully one-third
of the product of all the silver mines of
the world.
Forty years ago their annual product
was worth fifty thousand dollars. In 1895
1t had reached at tbs ratio of IL to l,
66F6DGy-GWO 1nlil1On uOllara!
Who can estimate what it will be in
the future; and what kind of basis
it co uld be made, with so large per-
centage of the annual supply in the
hands of an INSCRIPTIONS trust, with
power to increase or diminish it as its
Interest should require?
commend it for the business men and
the producers OF the great crops so make
the estimate. and consider how stable
basis silver would be likely to prove.
The scheme also provides that the
silver which the mine owners should
have on hand, now worth trifle more
than 80 per cent. could be taken to the
government minis and coined into the
new 80 cent dollars. Last year their
product was~worth $36, 445.o 90, in gold.
This amount would be coined into sew
enty-two million dollars and give mod
est bonus to the trust of thirty-six mil
lion dollars of the new coinage.
But it does not stop here. The govern
ment by free coinage would furnish an
annual market for the proauct of the
mines Whenever the trust wanted it
ooiDed.
We Gan now see the motive at the bot
tom of the wicked scheme of reputation,
dishouor and wide spread obstruction of
Oronartv amorIutin no to thousands of mil