The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1896-07-22
The Crime Of 1873. "
From the Philadelphia Record DEN,

Il
From the Philadelphia Record Dem.l
Candidate Bryan announces that he
will open his Free Silver campaign in
New York, and that ii will be an ag-
gressive campaign from the start.
This implies great courage ON the part
of Mr.. Bryan; for there are in New
York some people who are quite cap
able of thoroughly exposing his Free
/ Silver fallacies, while there are few
! people in that city, or in any other
part OF the east, who are likely to lose
their heads in listening to such rhetor-
ical fiourishes as the "crown of thorns
upon the brow of labor and ''the cru
cifying OF mankind upon cross Of
gold" Measured by the standards of
good taste and persuasive speech such
/ tropes and metaphors are, like Silver
ite coinage, worth less than 30 to l in
solid worth.
But in opening his campaign in the
East the Populist candidate will have
an opportunity. to correct some fatal
assertions and admissions in the Chi
cago speech by which he won a nomi-
nation for the Presidency from a con-
ventiOn that was swayed by emotion
and passion throughout It's proceed
ings rather than by common sense.
The false rhetoric of the "0rator of
the Platte" was shivered in fragments
when it came into contact with the
solid logic of Senator David B. Hill.
In undertaking to reply to the argu-
ment Of Senator Hill that free silver
coinage would be a violation of the
rights Of creditors Mr.. Bryan asked
the unfortunate questions: "Where in
law or morals he Hill can find au-
thority for not protecting the debtors
when the Act of 1873 was passed,
when he now insists that We must pro-
tect the creditors"
This is the ''Crime of lS73'' which is
cited as justification for all the ex-
travaganees and wrongs with which
the Silverites threaten the country.
The crime consisted in dropping the
standard silver dollar from the coinage
by universal consent in the revision Of
the laws of Congress that year. Now,
if to this act demonetizing the silver
dollar can be traced the slightest
wrong to any man, woman or child in
the land Mr.. Bryan and his supporters
may find in it some excuse for threat
ing 10 remOnetiZe the silver dollar
when it has fallen to nearly half its
bullion value in 1873. If such wrong
can not be discovered, then is Mr..
Bryan left without pretext for what
he indirectly admits to be an attack on
the rights of creditors in the attempt
to change the standard of value.
Now, when the silver dollar was
dropped from the coinage, with every
body's consent, the metal in il was
worth l03 cents, or three cents more
than the gold dollar. Who, then,
would have taken silver bullion to the
mint TO have it converted at loss into
this coinage? What person on earth
could have been wrOnged by emitting
the coinage Of the undervalued silver
dollar? By melting down the silver
dollar in 1873 the metal in it was
worth lO3 cents. By melting down
the silver dollar now the metal in it is
worth IS cents.
That is the difference between the al
legged "Crime of lS7S' and the colossal
crime in full contemplation of the Sill
verites in lSJ6. 80 innOcuous was the
demonetization of the silver dollar in
1873 that the representatives of the
Pacific coast were in favor Of it, every
man of them. They said that they
wanted the gold standard; that they
knew no other money than gold, and
that there was no use in keeping in the
coinage the old silver dollar when il
was never coined. The cry for the re-
coinage Of the silver dollar did not
arise until the silver metal in it had 50
much deprecated as 10 be worth about
% cents in gold, and the elamor has
grown louder and louder the lower sill
Yer has fallen i'm the market.
While the demonstration of the sill
yer dollar harmed no man, its remon-
citation would cause sweeping con-
| fiscatiOn of values the enormous extent
of which would be incalculable Every
holder of a deposit in savings bank
or of railroad share, every person
drawing a salary for services, every
wage-winner and every veteran PEN
/ sioner would be defrauded of half his
money. Mr.. Bryan dimly perceIves
the dreadful effect of free coinage, as
his Chicago speech betrays; and he
seeks an excuse for it in the ''Crime of
ls73,n which is mere figment of the
/ imagination. In the ears of those who
consider all the evil which would flow
from the success of the Populist policy
the cOniiscatiOn and loss, the nation
al reputation and dishOnOr, and the
/ desolation and woe that would be
/ brought to the hearths Of millions of
| innocent people-the "crown of thorns
I ON the brow of labor and the ''cross
/ of gold rhetoric Of the Populist can
didate has in it ring Of frivolous pro-