Semi=weekly graphic., 1896-03-04
MISSOURI SOUND
N0NL4sa RElAOGRATS.


The sound money" Democrats of
Missouri held a conference in st j
Louis last Saturday which was at
tended by a large number Of the
leading Democrats Of that State and
at which It was decided to make a
determined effort to secure part of
the delegation to the National Dem
ocratic Convention and to issue an
address to the people The address
protests agaiss the intolerance of
the free silver forces in that State,
and among other things says:
The reputation OF the only Dem
.ocrat elected and inauguratedt the
Presidency within forty years, and
the lowering Of the existing stand
ard of values upon which public ana
private credit and all business pros
perity arc based, are sought To be
made the tests of State and National
Democracy, and every Democrat
who refuses to submit thereto is to
be prescribed.
Those who propose this policy of
rule or ruin assumed the direction
of the party at the last election and
their leadership eliminated in over
whelming disaster. The last cleo
ton gave us for the first time in more
than twenty years Republican State
officials, a Republican Legislature
and a Republican delegation to Con
gress.
The same policy, if adopted by
the National Democracy, will be at
tended by the same results. The
Democratic party is bound by all its
traditions, by the teachings and eX-
ample of its great leaders, Jefferson
Jackson and Benton, to the principle
of freedom of trade with all Nations
of the world and, as an indispensi-
BILE condition of such commercial
freedom, to money that will pass
current at It's face value in every
quarter of the globe.
The free coinage of silver at ratio
above its market value is but
another phase of that paternalism
and favor to the few at the expense
of the many against which the Dem
ocratic party has always struggled.
The threat of the Senators of the
Republican silver mining States to
/ oppose any further extension OF the
protective policy unless they are
supported in their demand for free
isilver by sthe manufacturing States
attests the selfish interests and IN
democratic motives which prompt tC
the debasement of the National
currency To fix by law value on
silver which it does not command in
the open market is to do for the sill
yer barons of the Rocky Mountains
what has so long, under the speeious
guise Of protection to home indus
try. been done for the iron barons oil
the Alleghanies.
The farmers of the great central
valley Of the Union sell the fruits OIL
the fields they till at prices fixed by
free and unlimited competition in
the markets Of the world and they
are entitled to have the price oil
what they buy or receive in eX-
change fer those fruits fixed in like
manner, whether that be the prod
uct Of the forest or of factory, of sill
yer, gold or iron mines.
The constant teaching of Democ-
racy TO the laborers of this country
has been that legislation could not
increase the real rate of then
wages and that in proportion as
that which they received in eX-
change for their toll was by law en-
HANGED in price above its intrinsic
value they We're deprived of their
earnings. The laborer is worthy OF
his hire. Honest work should be
recompensed with honest money,
with money whose value is stable
and will not lessen, however long it
may be saved, with money as good
when drawn from the savings bank
as when deposited there.