Evening star., 1896-09-10

political faith. No party. until that which
met in convention at Chicago, has ever ven-
tured to insult the honored survivors of our
struggle for the national life by proposing
to scale their pensions horizontally, and to
pay them hereafter in deprecated dollars
worth only SO cents EACH
No Necessity for Reputation.
The amounts due, in addition to the in
terests already named, to depositors and
trust companies in national. state and
private banks, to holders of fire and acci-
dent insurance policies to holders of in
dustrial insurance. where the money de-
posted the premiums have been paid
In gold or Its equivalent are so enormous,
together with the sums due, and to become
due, for state, municipal, county or other
corporate debts that if paid IN leprcci-
only entail upon our fellow .:ountrymen
loss in money which has not neen eqaaied
in similar experience since the world
began, but 1t would, at the same time,
bring disgrace to our country such as
has never befallen any other nation which
had the ability to pay its honest debts.
In our condition. and considering our
magnificent capacity for raising revenue,
such wholesale reputation is without
cessity or excuse. No political exped!ency
or party exigency. however pressing, could
justify so monstrous an act.
All these deposits and debts must, under
the platform of the republican party, be
met and adjusted in the best currency the
world knows. and measured ny the same
standard in which the deDts have been
contracted or the deposits or payments
have been made.
Still dealing sparingly with figures, Of
which there Is an enormous mass to sus-
tain the position of the advocates Of the
gold standard of value, / cite one more
fact, which is officially established. pre-
missed by the truism that there is no better
test of the growth of a country's pros
in ta
holdings of its population. In the deca &c
between 1880 and 1870, during which we
had our existing gold standard, and were
under the conditions that supervcEed from
the act of 1873, the per capita oHnings Of
this country increased from $50 10 81 ,O36.
In those ten years the Aggregate Increase
OF the wealth OF our country was s2I .3a5,
Gb,oO, being 80 per cent N excess of the
Increase for any previous ten years since
1850, and at the amazing rate of over two
thousand millions of dollars a year. The
trainers OF the Chicago platform, in TIE
face of this fact, and of the enormous
increase over Great Britain, during this
same gold standard decade, of our coun-
try's foreign trade and its production of
iron.coai and other great symbols of nation
al strength and prorgess, assert that our
monetary standard is mot only un-Ameri-
can but anti-Amerfcan," and that It has
brought us Into financial servituGe to
London. 1t Is impossible 20 asinc an
assertion more reckless and indefenslpie
The proposition for free and unlimited
silver coinage, carried to it's logical con-
| clusion and but one is possible, means, as
before intimated, legislative warrant for
| the reputation OF all existing indebted
ness, public and private, to the extent of
nearly fifty per cent of the face of all
such Indebtedness. 1t demaais an un,im-
| tied volume of fiat currency, irrcdeemaLle
and therefore without any standard value
| in the markets of the world Every con-
sideration of public interest and public
| honor demands that this proposition should
| be rejected by the American people.
Revolutionary Propaganda.
This country cannot afford to give its
| sanction to wholesale spoliation. 1t must
| held fast to its integrity. 1t must still en-
courage thrift in all proper ways. 1t must
| not cnly educate it's children to honor and
| respect the flag, but it should inculcate f.
deity to the obligations of personal and
natioral honor as we'll. Both these great
| principles should hereafter be taught in
the comon schools of the land. and the
lessen impressed upon those who are the
voters of today and those who are to be-
come the inheritors Of sovereign power in
| this republic, that it is neither wise patri-
otic nor cafe to make political platforms
the mediums of assault upon property, the
peace of society and upon civilza ton it
self
Until these lessons have been learned by
our Children and by those who have reach
ed the voting age, 1t can only be surmised
what enlightened statesmen and political
economists will record as to the action of
| party convention which offers an induce
ment to national dishonesty by premium
OF forty-seven cents for every fifty-three
cents worth of silver that can be extract
ed from the bowels of the whole earth
with a cordial invitation to all to produce
1t at our mints and accept for it full sill
yer legal tender dollar of one hundred
cents rated value, to be coined free Of
charge and unlimited in quantity for pri-
vate account
But vastly more than a mere assertion
OF a purpose to reconstruct the national
currency is suggested by the Chicago plat
1orE1. 1t assumes. In fact, the form Of a
revolutionary propaganda. 1t embodies
menace of national disintegration and de-
struction. This spirit manifested Itself in
deliberate proposition 10 repudia.e the
plighted public faith, to impair the sane
tity of the obligation of private contracts
to cripple the credit of the nation by strip
ping the government of the power to bor-
row money as the urgent exigencies Of the
treasury may require, and, in q word to
overthrow all the foundations of financial
and industrial stability.
Nor Is this all. Not content with q pron-
ositlon to thus debaUch the currency and
to unsettle all conditions of trade and COM
merce the party responsible for this plat
form denies the competency of the govern
ment to protect the lives and property of
its citizens against internal disorder and
violence.
1t assails the judicial munimcnts reared
by the Constitution FOR the defense of indi-
vidual rights and the public welfare and it
even threatens to destroy the integrity and
independence of the Supreme Court, which
has been considered the last refuge of the
citizen against every form Of outrage an5
| injustice.
Cause of Business Depression.
In the face Of the serious peril which
these propositions embody, it would seem
| that there could be but one sentiment
| among right-thinking citizens as to the
duty of the hour. All men, of whatever
| party, who believe in law, and have some
regard for the sacredness Of Individual and
| institutional rights, must unite in defense
| of the endangered interests of the nation.
W hile the financial issue which has been
| thus considered, and which has come. as
the result Of the agitation of recent years.
| to occupy peculiar conspicuousness, is
| admittedly Of primary Importance there is
another question which must command
| careful and serious attention. Our finau-
| ciai and business condition is at this mo-
ment one of almost unprecedented depres-
sion. Our great industrial system Is Sc
| riously paralyzed. Production in many
| important branches Of manufacture has al