The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1896-09-04

| their real value. If the free and unlimit-
| ed coinage of silver at a ratio Of sixteen
| ounces of silver to one ounce Of gold would.
| as some of its advocates assert, make IS
| cents in silver worth ID cents, ard the
| silver dollar equal to the sclG dollar, then
| we would have no cheaper money than now,
| and il would be no easier 10 get. But that
| such would be the result is against reason
| and is contradicted bv experience in all
/ times and in all lands. 1t means the de
/ basement of our currency to the amount of
| the difference between the commercial ard
| coin value of the silver dollar, which is ever
| changing, and the effect would be TO re-
/ duce property values, entail untold fran
| cial loss, destroy confidence, impair the
| oblieations of existing contracts, further
| imDoVerish the laboreTs and producers of
/ the country, create panic of unparalleled
severity and infiict upon trade and COM
merce a deadly blow Against any such
| policy, am unalterably opposed
Bimetallism.
"Bimetallism cannot be secured by in
| dependent action on our part. 1t cannot
| be obtained by opening our minis to the
| unlimited coinage OF the silver of the
| world, at the ratio of sixteen ounces OF
| silver to one ounce Of gold, when the
| commercial ratio is more than thirty ounces
| of silver to one ounce of gold. Mexico and
China have tried the experiment. Mexico
| has free coinage of silver aEu SCld at
ratio slightly in excess of sixteen and one
| half ounces of silver 10 one ounce of gold
| and while her mtnts are freely open to
| both metals at that ratio, not a single dol
| lar in gold bullion is coined and circula ted
| as money. Gold has been driven out of
| circulation in these countries, and they
are on a silver basis alone. Until internal
| tionaI agreement is had, 1t is the plain
duty of the United States to maintain the
| gold standard. 1t is the recognized and
| sole standard of the great commercial ma
tions of the world, with which We trade
more largely than any other. Eighty
four per cent. of our foreign trade for the
fiscal year 1895 was with gold standard
countries, and our Nade with other coun-
tries was settled on a gold basis.
We Now Have More silver Than Gold.
Chiefly by means of legislation during
and since 1878 there has been put in Circu-
latiol more than $s2i ,JrG,GyG of silver, or
its representative. This has been done in
the honest effort 70 give to silver, If pos
Siblc, the same bullion and coinage value,
and encourage the concurrent use of both
tire there had been less than 100000 of
silver dollars coined in the entire history
CT rho United States. o period Of So years.
This legislation secured the largest use
of silver consistent with financial safety.
and the pledge to maintain its parity with
gold. We have to-day more silver than
gold. This has been ACCOMPLISHED at times
with grave peril to the public credit. The
so-cailed Sherman law sought 70 use all
the silver product Of the United States for
money at its market value From 1890 to
ounces of silver month. or 81. 200 900 ounces
2 year. This was one-third of the product
Ct the world erd practically all Of this
country's product. 1t w2s believed by
age that such use Of silver would advance
frs bullion value to its coinage value. but
this expectation was not realized. In a
few months. Notwithstanding the 'lrprece-
6ented market for the silver produced in
tho United States. the Price Ct silver went
down very rapidly. reaching lower point
than ever before Their, rpnn the rec
ornroendation Of President Cleveland both
Dnrt'as united in the roDoal Of the p"r-
chasing clause Of the Sherman lew. We
caruOt with safety enCa &c IN further ex-
pertinent IN Tits direction.
The Double Standard.
ION the 22d of August, 1891, in a public
address, said: If We could have an in
ternational ratio, which all the leading
true relation be fixed between the two
metals, and all agree upon the quantity of
silver which should constitute dollar,
then silver would be as free and unlimited
in its privileges of coinage as gold is to-
day. But that we have not been able to
secure, and with the free and unlimited
States at the present ratio we would be
still further removed from any interna-
tional agreement. We may never be able
to secure it if we enter upon the Isolated
coinage of silver The double standard
implies equality at a ratio, and that equal
ity can only be established by the concur
law of nations that made the double stand
ard: ii will require the concurrent law of
nations to reinstate and sustain it
FavOrs the Use of Silver Money.
1.-The republican party has not been, and
is not now, opposed to the use of silver
money, as its record abundantly shows. 1t
has done all that could be done for its in
creased use, with safety and honor, by the
United States acting apart from other gov
ernments. There are those who think that
il has already gone beyond the limit of
financial prudence. Surely we can go no
further, and we must not permit false
lights to lure us across the danger line.
I'VE have much more silver in use than
any country in the world except India or
hnr n IRON Tlrif In
S150,OO0,0OO more than France: $4O0OOO,O0O
more than Germany; 1925, 600 less than
India and 10000 less than China.
1.-The republican party has declared IN
favor of an international agreement and If
elected president II Will be my duty to
employ all proper means to promote It.
The free coinage of silver in this country
would defer, If not defeat, international hi
metallism, and until an international
agreement can be had every interest re-
quireS us to maintain our present standard.
Independent free coinage Of silver at a
ratio of sixteen ounces of silver to one
ounce of gold would insure the speedy con-
traction of the volume of our currency. 1t
would drive at least 500, 100000 of gold.
which we now have, permanently from the
trade of the country, and greatly decrease
our per capita circulation.
1T is not proposed by the republican
party to take from the circulating medium
of the country any of the silver we now
have. On the contrary it is proposed to
keep all of the silver money now in circu-
lation on a parity with gold by maintaining
the pledge OF the government that all of 1t
shall be equal to gold. This has been the
unbroken policy of the republican party
since 1873. 1t has inaugurated no new
policy. 1t will keep in circulation and as
good as gold all of the silver and paper
money which are now included in the cur
rency of the country. 1t Will maintain their
parity. 1t will preserve their equality in
the future as it has always done in the past.
1t will not consent to put this country ON
a silver basis which would inevitably fol-
low independent free coinage at a ratio of
sixteen to one. 1t will oppose the expul-
sion of gold from our circulation.
Farmers and Laborers Suffer Most.
IF there is any one thing which should
be free from speculation and fuctuation
it is the money of a country. 1t ought never
to be the subject of mere partisan conten-
ton. When we part with our labor, our
products, or our property, we should re-
oeive in return money which is as stable
and unchanging in value as the ingenuity
of honest men can make II. Debasement
of the currency means destruction of val
ueS. No one suffers so much from cheap
money as the farmers and laborers. They
are the first to feel its bad effects and the
last to recover from them This has been
and here, as elsewhere. the poor and not
the rich. are always the greatest sufferers
from every attempt to debase our money.
1t would fall with alarming severity upon
investments already made; upon insur-
ance companies and their policy-holders;
upon savings banks and their depositors:
upon building and loan associations and
their members; upon the savings of thrift;
upon pensioners and their families and