The herald., 1896-09-10

money standard of our country as an
experiment or as a concession to self
| ishness or greed.
The magnitude of the disaster which
would overtake these and cognate in
terests become the more strikingly ap-
| parent when considered in the aggre-
| gate. Stated broadly, the savings
| banks, life insurance and assessment
companies and building and loan asso-
| Citations of the country hold in trust
| SIS, 800, H. 1881. The debasement of the
| currency to silver basis as proposed
| by the Chicago platform would wipe out
at one blow approximately s7,963, 540.S56
| of the aggregate. According to the re-
| port of the department of agriculture
| the total value of the main cereal crops
! in this couAtry in 1894 was 1895, ,43S 107.
| So that the total sum belonging to the
| people and held in trust in these insti-
tutions, which would be obliterated by
the triumph of free and unlimited coin
age of silver would be seven and a half
times the total value of the annual
cereal crop of the United States. The
total value of the manufactured prod
ucts of the country for the census year
1890, was S9,372, 537 ,2S3. The establish
ment of silver basis of value as now
proposed, would entail a loss to these
| three interests alone equal to So per cent
of this enormous output of all the man
ufacturing industries of the union and
would affect directly nearly one third
| of it's whole population.
One hundred and forty millions of dol
lars per annum are due to pensioners of
| the late war. That sum represents blood
| spilled and sufferings endured in order
to preserve this nation from disintegra-
! ton. In many cases the sums so paid
in pensions are exceedingly small; in
| few, if any, are they excessive. The
| spirit that would deplete these to the
! extent of a farthing is the same that
would organize sedition, destroy the
peace and security of the country, pun
| ish rather than reward our veteran SOL
diers and is unworthy of the counte-
nance, by thought or VOTE of any pa
| triotic citizen of whatever political
faith. No party, until that which met
| in convention in Chicago, has ever VEN
tured to insult the honored survivors
| of our struggle for the national life by
proposing to scale the pensions hori-
zontally and to pay them hereafter in
| deprecated dollars worth only So cents
each. The amounts due. in addition to
I the interests already named. to deposit
tors and trust companies in national,
state and private banks, the holders of
fire and accident insurance policies, to
holders of Industrial insurance, where
the money deposited or the premiums
have been paid in gold or its equiva-
| lent, are SO enormous, together with
the sums due and to become due, for
state, municipal or county or other cor
pirate debts. that if paid in deprecated
silver or it's equivalent, it would not only
| entail upon our fellow countrynien
| loss in money which has not been
| equaled in similar experience since the
world began, but it would at the same
| time bring a disgrace to our country
| such as had never befallen any other
nation which has the ability to pay its
| honest debts. In our condition and con-
| sidering our magniflcence capacity for
| raising revenue, such wholesale re-
pudiation is without necessity or excuse,
| No political expediency or party eX-
| igency, however pressing, could justify
| such a monstrous act.
These deposits and debts under the
| platform of the Republican party would
be met and adjusted in the best currency
the world knows and measured by the
same standard in which the debts have
been contracted or the deposits or pay
ments have been made.
Still dealing sparingly with figures,
| of which there is an enormous mass to
sustain the position of the advocates of
the gold standard of value, / cite one
more fact, which is officially establish :
ed, promised by the truism that there
, is no better test of the growth of
country's prosperity than its increase in
the per capita holdings of its popula-
| ton. In the decade between 1880 and
1920, during which we have our exist
, ing gold standard and were under the
conditions that supervened from the act
of 1873, the per capita ownings of this
country increased from $50 to $40 SO. In
those ten years the aggregate increase
in the wealth of our country was $21,-
395, 10000. being so per cent in excess
of the increase of any previous ten
years since 1850, and at the amazing rate
of over two thousand millions of dollars
per year. The trainers of the Chicago
platform in the face Of this fact and of
the enormous increase over Great Bri-
tain during this same gold standard de-
cade of our country's foreign trade an
it's production of iron, coal and other
symbols of national strength and prog
ress, asserts that our monetary stand
ard is mot only un- American, but anti
American" and that it has brought us
into financial servitude to London" IT
is impossible to imagine an assertion
more reckless and indefensible.
The proposition for free and unlimited
silver coinage. carried to its logical con-
clusion, and but one is possible. means
as before intmated, legislative war
rant for the reputation of all existing
Indebtedness, public and private. to the
extent of nearly so per cent of the ia 'e
of all such Indebtedness. 1t demands
an unlimited volume of fiat currency
irredeemable. and therefore without
any standard value in the markets M
the world. Every consideration of pub
lie interest and public honog demands
that this proposition should be rejected
by the American people. This country
cannot afford to give its sanction rc
wholesale spoilation. 1t must hold fast