Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1896-01-16

the gold dollar was based upon and
regulated by 1t. Was there any
reason, justifiable cause, for this
damnable act? Was the silver dol
lar then as now worth only City
cents in the dollar At that very
time, and / think / am correct. the
bullion or commercial value Of sill
yer equalled and exceeded a little
that Of gold at the ratio of sixteen
to one. What excuse then can this
party, the boasted champion of the
poor and q sound monetary sys-
TEN. give for striking down one
half Of the monetary wealth of the
country? To this act OF Repub-
lIcan Congress. for which our peo-
pie should hold them responsible.
are we indebted. more than for any
thing else, the grinding poverty of
the people, the wholesale shortage
of values.
From this time can we date the
steady decline of the white metal,
arrested temporarily only by the
enactment of that ''cowardly make
shift" known as the Sherman bill.
But its steady decline was resumed,
until in round numbers it stands
at about fifty per centum Of its face
! value.
/ Such is the condition of affairs 40
it confronts US today. And such
was the condition in 1892 when q
! long suffering people with such an
smosity hurled them from power.
Then was the Democratic opportu-
nifty. Unfortunately they only re-
allied it in part. They repealed
the purchasing clause of the Sher-
man bill, that "cowardly make
shift" They gave us half tariff
bill; but they never struck at the
root of our financial trouble. They
should have undone at the earliest
possible moment this objectionable
crime against the tcilers of the land.
They sh0uld hare remOnetized silrer
placed it where it was before the
uncalled for crime of characterization
crushed out it's life, and left it no
more money in its true sense than
is the silver certificate based upon
it, or any other issue of our paper
money. Every form of our money,
be it metallic or paper, is based upon
the gold dollar alone. The mon
ey of our "daddies "-the silver dol.
LARS a thing of the past. True
The country is flooded with its spu
rious counterfeit, but it represents
nothing of itself. 1t is not money
in its true sense, for it is only dol.
lar as long as the government is
able and wiH give gold dollar fol
it. And paradoxical as it may seem
the only true money. the gold dol
lar, is never seen. Should it By
any accident or cratic motion ap.
pear in the financial heavens, it,
presence, like q meteoric display
startles the incredulous observer,
and hurriedly passes athwart oul
monetary sky, and in the pocket Of
the first, or nearest hoarder, il
sinks to rise no more forever.
Such is the history Of the gold
dollar today in all the marts Of trade
and such, under present conditions,
will it continue to be. Had the
Democratic party, upon Its advent
to power, burst the bonds that
crushed it, it is my firm conviction
it would have rebounded in great
measure from its depressed condi
ton; and the country today would
be in its hey-day of prosperity.
But says the sound (gold) money
man are you afflicted with the silver
craze ?" Do you prefer debased,
deprecated currency to cur present
sound and stable one? answer
by denying emphaticaIly that We
have either a sound or stable cur.
rency. IL our currency be sound,
what of the financial ills so rathet-
ically depicted in the President
message? And il our currency be
stable. how is ii that the average
purchasing power of our dollar to
day (since u dollar is only . medi.
urn of exchange or a measure oil
value) is double what il was TWEEN
~ years ago. The truth is the gold
dollar has gradually but surely en-
HANGED in value since the demoni
tization act; and it takes consider
ably more. sweat and labor i'm pro,
/ ka