Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-09-08
BRYAN CHEAP DOLLAR
His Sole Aim is to Reduce the
Value of the Monetary
Standard.
BASES HIS ARGUMENTS ON IT
Claptrap by Which the Orator Seeks
to Capture Foolish
Voters.

Mr.. Bryan's informal speech accept
ing the nomination for the presidency
was carefully written beforehand. and it
took about two hours time to deliver it.
1t can hardly be necessary, therefore, to
wait for his formal letter" in order to
learn his views on the issues of the cam
paign.
The most of his long and prosy speech
is devoted to what he calls 1.-THE para
mount question of the campaign-the
money question" And as this is in fact
the real issue other parts of his speech
may be disregarded, or at least comment
on them may be postponed.
In discussing the money question Mr..
Bryan assumes at every step that the
standard dollar we now have is too valu-
able. That assumption lies at the bot
tom of the whole argument. He COM
plains that the dollar is too dear. and
that it is growing dearer; and to this he
attributes all our economic woes, real or
imaginary.
As a remedy he proposes something
which he calls bimetallism, but which,
so far from that, is silver monometal-
lism.
He has much to say about llism,
declaring that no party opposes it, but
what he really proposes is, in his own
words, "the immediate restoration of
the free and unlimited coinage of silver
aud gold at the present legal ratio of IL
to / without waiting for the aid or con-
sent of any other nation"
Thas is to say, he proposes to permit
anyone who has sixteen ounces of sill
yer to take it to the mint and have it
made into as many dollars as are made
from one ounce of gold, or $20.67.
He proposes this when he knows, or
may know by referring TO the published
quotations, that sixteen ounces of sill
YER are worth only $11 in gold. He
must know that an ounce of gold is
worth in the market nearly twice six
teen ounces of silver.
What he really proposes, therefore, is
to substitute the silver dollar for the
gold dollar as our standard, and to make
the substitution because the silver dol
lar is cheaper.
Indeed, he virtually admits this ut al
most every step in his labored argument.
All his arguments addressed to farmers,
to men who work for wages, to holders
of insurance policies and so on virtually
cheaper dollar as the standard.
He tries to conceal the admission by
talking about rising standard" and
talking about influences which are now
operating to destroy silver in the United
States" But while the attempt is aIroit
IL VIII not succeed.
We have no ''rising standard" We
have the same standard that we have
had i'm all coin payments for sixty-two
years. An ounce of gold may exchange
for more of commodities i'm general than
it would twenty or thirty years ago. 1t
may, and probably does, go farther in
paying the necessary cost of living. But
il will not go further in paying for labor.
Its value measured by the labor stand
ard is less than 1t was years ago. A
man can earn more of it by working the
same number of hours. If, then, he can
buy more with the ounce of gold be is
better off in two ways: He gets more
gold for his labor and he gets more Of
the necessaries and comforts of life for
his gold.
There are no influences operating to
destroy silver in the United States"
We now have at least ten times as mach
silver serving as money, including actual
coin, its representative certificates and
Sherman notes. as we ever had when
the coinage of silver was free.
There are no influences operating to
destroy one dollar of this mass of silver,
amounting to about $3.50, 200, 900, or
about $5O,000,00O more than gold esti-
mated to be in circulation.
The simple truth is, and there is no
use in trying to disguise or hide it, that
Bryan and the men behind him are en-
gagged in desperate attempt to lower
the value of the dollar. If that is not
what they are after there is not CLEAN
of sense in Mr.. Bryan's speech.
1t is true that he says, "NVe believe
that silver dollar will be worth as
much as a gold dollar" 1t is true that
he says, II am firmly convinced that by
opening our mints to free and unlimited
coinage at tine present ratio we can
create a demand for silver that will keep
the price of silver bullion at $1.20 per
ounce measured by gold"
But If Mr.. Bryan is firmly convinced
Of that, what is he making all this ado
about? The dollar would still be as
dear as 1t is now. and it is the dear