The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-01-30
THE RESOLUTIONS CALL FOR
THE SETTING ASIDE OF PAR
TY ALLEGIANCE.
NATIONAL CONVENTION IN ST. LOUIS
To BE Held July 22-Republican Silver
Senators Will Demand Silver
Plank in National Platform.
Money Nominated.

discussion of the financial situation and
the policy to be pursued by the friends
of silver. During the discussion con-
siderable feeling was aroused by some
of the remarks made by General Hatch
of Missouri, in which he stated in effect
that if the Populists of Kentucky had
done their whole duty the election of Mr..
Blackburn to seat in the United States
senate would not be matter of doubt.
General Field of Virginia and others
made heated replies. Mayor Turner of
Lansing, Mich, and Mr.. Stewart of Ne
vada addressed the convention. The COM
mittee on resolutions, OF which Senator
Jones of Nevada is chairman, submitted
the following report:
THE paramount issue at this time in
the United States is indisputaby the
standard, gold banks and bank currency
on one side and the bimetallic standard,
no bonds and government currency on the
other. On this issue we declare ourselves
to be in favor of distinctive financial
system. We are unalterably opposed to
the single gold standard and demand the
immediate return to the constitutional
standard by the restoration by this gov
eminent independent of any foreign pow
er; of the unrestricted coinage of both
gold and silver into standard money at
tht iuNiO VI III ~ l. anu uDOH lpGIllS VI
exact equality as they existed prior to
1873; the silver coin to be full legal ten
der, equally with gold, for all debts and
dues, public and private.
we hold that the power to control and
regulate paper currency is inseparable
from the power to coin money, and hence
that all currency intended to circulate as
money should be issued and its volume
controlled by the general government
only and should be legal tender.
I'VE are unalterably opposed to the
issue by the United States of interest
bearing bonds in time of peace, and we
denounce as blunder worse than Il
crime the present treasury policy, con-
Cured i'll by Republican house, of plung-
ing the country in debt by hundreds of
millions in the vain attempt to maintain
the gold standard by borrowing gold,
and we demand the payment of all coin
obligations of the United States as pro-
vided by existing laws in either gold or
silver coin at the option of the govern
ment, and not at the option of the cred
itor.
Whereas, The demonstration of silver
in 1873 enormously increased the demand
for gold, enhancing its purchasing power
and lowering all prices measured by that
standard; and
Whereas, Since that unjust and indie
feasible act, the price of American pro-
ducts have fallen upon on average Of
nearly oO per cent, carrying down with
1t proportionately the money value of
all other forms of property except in pc
cullarly favored localities; and
Whereas, Such fall of prices destroyed
the profits of legitimate industry, injur-
ing the producer for the benefit of the
non-producer, increasing the burden of
the debtor and swelling the gains of the
creditor, paralyzing the productive ener-
gles of the American people, RELOCATING to
idleness vast numbers of willing workers,
sending the shadows of despair into the
homes of honest toilers, filling the land
with tramps and paupers and building up
colossal fortunes at the money centers
and
Whereas, In the effort to maintain
the gold standard the country has with
IN the last eighteen months, in a time of
profound peace and plenty, been loaded
terest-bearing debt, under such circum-
stances as to allow a syndicate of native
ana foreign bankers to realize q net profit
OF SlOOOO,OOO on a single deal; and
whereas, Another call is now pending
for further gold loan of 100000, 900.
which, but for an outburst of popular
indignation, would also have been nego-
tlated in the same secret manner and
through the same syndicate; and
Whereas, 1t stands confessed that the
gold standard can be upheld only be de-
pletlng our paper currency as to force
the prices of our products below the Eu-
ropean and even below the Asiatic level
in order that we may sell in foreign mar
kets, thus aggravating the very evils of
which our people so bitterly complain,
degrading American labor and striking
Mt the very foundation of our civilization
itself: and
Whereas, The advocates of the gold
standard persistently claim that the real
cause of our distress is over-production,
that we have produced so much that it
has made us poor, which implies that
the true remedy is to close the factory,
abandon the farm and throw multitude
of people out of employment, a doctrine
that leaves us absolutely without hope
for the future; and
Whereas, The difference of exchange
between silver standard countries and
gold countries is equivalent to bounty
equal to the difference between the value
of gold and silver in favor of the pro-
ducts of silver standard countries eX-
ported to gold standard countries, and
corresponding tariff against the product
of gold standard countries exported to
silver using countries: and
Whereas, The costof production other
wise in the old world, and particularly
in China and Japan is far less than the
cost at which similar products can be
produced or manufactured in this coun-
try by American labor without reducing
our farmers. miners, mechanics. manu-
facturcrs and other industrial workers
to the level of Chinese coolies: therefore
be Il
Resolved, That over and above allother
questions of policy we are in favor of
restoring to the people of the United
states the time-honored money of the
constitution-gold and silver. not one.
but both, the money of Washington and
Hamilton and Jefferson and Monroe and
Jackson and Lincoln-to the end that
American people may receive honest pay
IN honest standard. and not in a standard
that is appreciated 100 per cent above
the great staples of our country. and TO
the end, further that silver standard
countries may be deprived of the unnat-
nral advantage they now enjoy in the
difference in exchange between gold and
SILVER, an advantage which the tariff
legislation alone can not overcome.
we therefore confidently appeal to the
people of the United States that. leaving
IN allegiance for the moment all other
questions, however important, even mo-
mentous they may appear. and sunder-
ing, If need be, any former party affilio-
Mons, they unite in n supreme effort to
Tree themselves and their children from
the domination of the money power, n
money more destructive than any which
has ever been fastened unon +bo oiv;l;,o1