The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-08-26
Free Silver, Pensions and Insurance.

Followers Of the cheap-money delusion
have not yet been able TO point to any
probable benefits to result therefrom to the
people Of the United States, but they are
buoyed up by the hope of the retroactive
effect which a sweeping change in the
money standard of the country may have
upon their debts. They welcome an oppor-
tunity TO repudiate their own obligations
and invite the people to discredt theirs.
Such step means nothing else than ma
tional disgrace. In fostering this delusion
they are unmindful Of their own best inter-
ests, because apparently unconscious Of the
fact that Is to l dollar, whether honest or
not, If offered for debt can serve the pur-
pose OF its payment only once. Thereafter
their credit will be subject to discount and
the cheap dollar, like burnt powder, will
have lost its force. The Free-Silver Sea
will reseek its level and all things will
speedily have to readjust themselves to that
level. Do the people of this country wish
to repeat their experience with readjust-
ments Of prices and wages from a basis OF
self-imposed initiation? Before, it was forced
upon them by the unusual demands OF a
great civil war. Under the readjustment Of
values upon gold standard, after the war,
we have seen wages rise, with a concurrent
fall in the costs OF the necessaries OF life and
at the same time the countrys capacity for
satisfying the demands upon our exports
has largely increased. Shall we now ex-
change certainty for a mystical expert
ment and retrace our steps to a condition
from which the country has been so hap
PLY delivered?
THE CREDITOR CLASS.
II is granted that free silver will benefit
the mine-owners and silver-producers, and
it may be granted, also, that it will benefit
the debtors, provided, under free silver,
they can more easily secure and use it in
any considerable amount. But they here
make serious error as to the extent and
personality of the debtor and creditor class,
for the great body OF our people are credit
ors. Every daylaborer, every wage
Garner, every salaried clerk, every man,
woman or child who is self-supporting by
work, is a creditor Every pensioner, every
bank depositor, every member of build
ing loan association, every holder of a life,
fire, accident or other contract of insurance,
is creditor. To debase the value-that is,
the exchange or buying power of legal ten
der MONEYS crime against wages and
provision, and will, therefore, work an in
calculable injury to those who work for
wages, or who, having worked in the past,
have, by economy and forethought, saved
something set to their credit in "A life office,
a trust company, in an investment, or
bank. For the purchasing power OF the
money in which their credits will be paid,
whether after days work, on demand, or
at the close of life, will be diminished to the
extent Of such debasement A proposition
TO debase the dollar is threat to debase
not only future labor but the savings of
past labor made possible by our system of
protection TO industries and now variously
credited TO the people
THE DOLLAR WILL BE DEBAsED.
Quoting directly from Mr.. Bryan's New
York address, we learn that THE Chicago
platform presents clear and emphatic de-
mand for the immediate restoration Of the
free and unlimited coinage Of silver and
gold, in the present legal ratio of l6 to l.
.,rit for tha aid Or N
any other nation" Admit this proposition
to the laws of the United States and, under