Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1896-08-21

Vote For Free Coinage and You Vote to
Cut Your Policies In Two-You Have Put
In 100 Cent Dollars and Should Get
Back the Same Kind.
Colonel Greene, president Of the
Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance
company, has addressed a letter TO the
$50, 900 policy holders Of the company,
in which he says:
We never supposed it necessary to
provide that you should pay your pre-
miums or that we should promise to-
pay your policies in any particular kind
or quantity Of dollars; both-with the
exception Of certain Canadian insur-
ances made during the civil war and
while gold was at a premium-are pay
able in lawful money only on the
confident assumption that the American
people are sufficiently honest to keep its
dollars meaning what they were meant
to mean and always had meant.
But now comes q political party and
avows its distinct purpose to make a
dc lar mean three distinct and widely
different things: (D A gold dollar,
worth as bullion 100 cents anywhere in
the world; (2) a silver dollar, worth as
bullion only 50 cents at the present
time; (S) all the paper promises Of dol
lars to be hereafter issued by the gov
eminent only, redeemable in either 100
cent gold dollars. 50 cent Cor less) silver
dollars, or in new promises to pay at
the option Of the debtor or redeemer.
You do not need to be told that only the
least valuable Of these dollars would re-
main in use. The invariable experience
Of all the ages fixes that fact before
hand.
Should this party so led come to pow
er upon this platform, the government
dues, instead Of being paid, as now, in
gold at 100 cents, or in paper, which it
now redcems with such gold and never
with silver, would be paid in silver or
in paper redeemed in silver, which sill
yer we could use in trade at only its
bullion value Of 50 cents on the dollar.
The greenbacks being then redeemed in
81 cent dollars, the government bonds
and their interest being paid in 90 cent
dollars, our national bank currency,
which rests on government bonds, re-
deemable in 80 cent greenbacks and the
gold gone from domestic circulation III
to international trade, we shall be on
the single - cent silver dollar basis.
One hundred cent gold dollars do not
swap even for 81 cent dollars Of silver,
iron or copper. Fifty-two cents worth
Of anything can never buy more than
50 cents worth Of anything else. Then
the purchasing power Of your policies
will be cut in two.
Coming upon a silver basis would in
tensely stimulate again the production
of silver. The ores are now easily acces-
si5le, in inexhaustible quantity, from
which silver can be put upon the mar
ket at a profit Of 40 to 30 cents an
ounce ut which price SILVER dollar"
would be worth 30 to 3S cents, or less
than a greenback was during the dark
est days Of 1864 Under that stimulus
and under such conditions there can be
no possible doubt that the price Of silver
would steadily decline on the average
toward the point at which it can be pro-
duced, which in some mines is said to
be already less than % cents an ounce,
and inventions and improvement have
not ceased. Should we come upon a sill
yer basis your policies would for the
present be paid in "dollars" worth to
your families only about 90 cents; and
the great bulk Of them would probably
be paid in dollars" worth not more
than from % to 30 cents.
1t is therefore our duty to warn you
that by so much as it was your duty to
make this provision for the protection
Of your families, by so much is it your
present duty 10 see, so far as your action
can prevent it, that no part Of that pro-
vision is lost TO them by being paid in
dollars" which are worth anything
less than the 100 cents in which you
have been paying your premiums and
in which, therefore, You and we sup
posed you were making that provision,
trusting to the personal and political
integrity of the American people to keep
their honor bright and their money
good We have never supposed-and do
not yet suppose-that the money stand
ard Of this great country, producing for
and trading with all the countries Of
the earth, is at the mercy of a lot Of
people who have a lot Of cheapening
metal TO sell to US to use for a new
standard and who have long been care
fully ard at great expense organizing
their scheme politically by bringing into
one camp all the discomfort, the jeal-
ousy, envy, and hatred which the unwise,
unthrifty, improvident, idle and self in |
dulgent are supposed to harbor toward |
the self restrained, industrious, careful, |
saving, thrifty and wisely prCvident