The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-09-02

We have much more silver in use
than any country of the world except
India or China-S500, 200, 900 more than
Great Britain; S650,000,000 more than
France; S400,000,000 more than Ger
many: 1926 100000 less than India and
S125,000,000 less than China. The re-
publican party has declared in favor of
an international agreement, and, If
elected president, it will be my duty to
employ all proper means to promote it.
The free coinage Of silver in this coun-
try would defer, if not defeat, interna-
tional bimetallism, and, until an inter-
national agreement can be had, every
interest requires us to maintain our
present standard. Independent free
coinage of silver at ratio of sixteen
ounces of silver to one of gold would
volume of our currency. 1t would
drive at least five hundred millions of
gold dollars, which we now have, per-
manently from the trade of the country
and greatly decrease our per capita cir
culation. 1t is not proposed by the re-
publican party to take from the circu-
lating medium of the country any of
the silver we now have. On the con-
trary, it is proposed to keep all of the
silver money now in circulation on
parity with gold by maintaining the
pledge of the government that all of it
shall be equal to gold. This has been
the unbroken policy of the republican
party since 1878. 1t has inaugurated
no new policy. 1t will keep in circula-
ton and as good as gold all of the silver
and paper money which are now in
cluded in the currency of the country.
1t will maintain their parity. 1t will
preserve their equality in the future as
it always has done in the past. 1t will
not consent to put this country on a
silver basis, which would inevitably fol-
low Independent free coinage at ratio
of 16 to l. 1t will oppose the expul-
sion of gold from our circulation.
The letter shows that the farmer and
laborer would suffer most from a de-
based currency. The unlimited, ir-
redeemable paper proposed by the
Chicago democratic platform, and the
national money demanded by their al
lies, the populists, in their st. Louis
platform, constitute graver menace
to this country's financial standing and
credit than can hardly be conceived,
and every patriotic citizen should be
aroused to promptly meet and eff
fectually defeat it."
The attempt of the allied parties to
array class against class, I" the classes
against the Masses" section against
section, labor against capital, the
poor against the rich," interest against
interest, in the United States, is de-
nounced as in the highest degree
reprehensible."
THE TARIFF.
Another issue of supreme importance
is that of protection. The peril of free
silver is a menace to be feared; we are
already experiencing the effect of par
tial free trade. The one must be
averted; the other corrected. The re-
publican party is welded to the doc
trine of protection and was never more
earnest in its support and advocacy
than now. If argument were. needed
to strengthen its devotion to the Amer
lean system or increase the hold of that
system on the party and people, it is
found in the lesson and experience of
the last three years. Men realize in
their own daily lives what before was
to many of them only report, history or
tradition. They have had a trial of
both systems and know what each has
done for them.
The tariff issue is deliberately dis
cussed. The prosperous condition OF
the country under the act of 1890 is COM
pared with the disasters that followed
the victory of the democratic party in
1892 and the passage of the Wilson
bill, with the resulting loss of revenue
and the widening gap between the
value of the country's exports and its
imports. Major Mckinley would open
the mills, not the mints. In his judy
ment,
The first duty of the republican
party, if restored to power in the coun-
try, will be the enactment of tariff
law which will raise all the money nee
essary to conduct the government,
economically and honestly admins
tered, and so adjusted as to give pref
erence to home manufacturers and
adequate protection to home labor and
the home market. We are not com
mitted to any special schedules or rates
of duty. They are, and should always
be, subject to change to meet new con
ditions, but the principle upon which
rates of duty are imposed remains the
) same. Our duties should always be
high enough to measure the difference
, between the wages and labor at home
and in competing countries, and t.
adequately protect American invest
: ment and American enterprises.
Our farmers have been hurt by the
: changes in our tariff legislation al
severely as our laborers and manufac
; turers, badly as they have suffered
The republican platform wisely de
clares in favor of such encouragement
, to our sugar interests as will lead to thu
production on American soil of all thu
sugar the American people use.
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