The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1896-10-23
It Is a Mighty Change.

Their campaign literature of 1892 con-
tains the most powerful reasons that
eau be advanced to-day for the restora-
ton of the free coinage of silver, and II
the sentiment for white metal is SO
strong and SO widespread, the Repub-
licans may thank themselves for it.
In 1892 the principal text book Of the
Republican party was entitled line
Grand Old Party-Lincoln, Grant,
Hayes, Gar field, Arthur, Harrison; 1t
is True to the Flag" This book was
officially sanctioned by the Republic
can National Committee, aud 3,OOO,-
600 copies of the work were distributed
by the committee throughout the Uni
ted States Here is one extract from
this text book; it is found on page 81:
IF every voter in the United States
were called upon to-day to declare his
desire whether he wanted the use of
silver as well as gold in our monetary
system, Gel tainly as many as 80 votes
out of every 100 would answer in the
affirmative, and an equal proportion
would favor such legislation as tended
directly to bring about the free and ul-
limited coinage of both metals, if they
believed the two metals could be main
tanned at par"
This sentiment to-day would he
characterized by the Republican party
as the wild utterance of "A silver fanatic
if it had not appeared so recently I'M
der its own sanction. Yet it was the
accurate utterance of the Republican
party at that time. What influence
can have caused reputation of the
it is that of the Rothchilds, the Nor
gans, the Belmonts, the bond syndi-
Gates? Al the dictation Of these men
the Republicans are now spending
millions of dollars to undo the work
they did in 1892, and during many pre-
vlous years of the party's existence.
Here is another quotation from this
same text book:
Until the year 1873 tue United
States coiued both GOLD and silver free
| ly in unlimited quantities; that is you
could take it to the mintS of the Uni
ted States aud receive for it fixed
aud unvarying price; but III 1873, by
! the omission the silver dollar from
| the coinage law prescribing the silver
coins of the United States to be there
after coined, and Ivy the limitation of
| the legal tender of silver 10 s., silver
! was in effect demunetized, and it has
never since been restored fully to the
position it held in the earlier coinage
! system of this country. There has
| been much irrelevant controversy as TO
! whether this was done Intentionally
and after full discussion, or accident
ally, SO far as the majority OF Congress
was concerned, and by The arlful trick
OF certain persons Interested in bring
ing about a gold standard. Such "a
controversy serves 40 useful purpose.
AT that time both silver and gold were
at a large Premium, specie pay ments
not having been resumed, aud paper
money was the only currency. The
important fact, however. is that silver
Was demOnetized, aud IT Is Of little SER
vice in considering how it was done.
Ii the foregoing statement was true
in 1892, is it not true tO-day? What
has caused il to ba lie now, as the
Republicans claim? Didn't they know
what they were saying III 1892, or don't
they know what they mean now? IS
it not evident that some mighty infiu-
! ence ha: been brought to bear to
cause the change i'll attitude toward
silver, and that goli is that influence?
This Republican text book further
SAYS:
"The unlimited coinnge of both met
ais had prevailed from the foundation
of the government until that daie, and
a total image of 81 ,O4l 1913, 557 of gold
and OILY $l62. 425 900 of SILVER Unllm-
tied silver had not meant the deOase-
ment of the currency. The scarcity
OF the metal and its free employment
as money by all nations except Eug-
land had given it a value Ill conpari-
son with gold that removed all risk
of Its free use Ill our coinage.
There Is grave danger i'll the unqual-
flied adoption of the gold standard.
For, as silver has been taken out of Eu-
ropes coinage, the demand for gold
has enormously grown, and grown in
proportion much greater than the
supply. Measuring 10th metals by
the standard Of commodities, it is SUBJ
stantial y true to say that gold has ap
preclateu more than silver has depre-
GATED. In the silver-using countries
olANSi Will UlJ dlI1lOSI as IluCu Oh eN-
erythlng except gold as ii would ten
or dozen years ago, and this fact sus-
tains the demand for cheaper money.
The advocates of the gold standard al
lege that the value of gold is intrinsic,
aud that certain quantity of gold
bullion having fixed value should be
the standard o: exchange. This would
be all well enough if anybody were
able TO insure that the supply would
continually increase in ratio
with the increasing demand for it
caused 10y growing population and
commerce, but as Il matter of fact it is
decreasing i'm that ratio, and therefore
man who contracted "a debt ten years
ago, which might then have been dis
charged with 1000 bushels of wheat
tO'day must pay many more than 1000
bushels of wheat to get himself free.
Jast as it is true to say that the silver
dollar which was exchanged on all
equality with gold Is years ago is now
worth but so cents in gold, so it is true
to say that an amount Of wheat that
would exchange Is years ago for a gold
dollar is worth much less to-day.
-Four years ago the r. publican text
book said, it will be observed, that
'gold had appreciated more than silver
has depreciated;' to-day they deny
that gold has