Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1896-10-05

ulated our monetary system At the COM
menccment OF our government, that has
fostered 1t all along the years since. aud
that by special efforts has within the last
quarter of a century coined and put In cir
many millions Of the white metal.
and that has so provided that every dollar
of 1t is as good as gold.
Even the legislation Of '73, which Bryan
and his coadjutators call a great crime, was
for the betterment Of silver as money,
than Its destruction. as falsely now
claimed. That law made silver q part Of
the STANDARD" money Of the country pro-
vided a dollar Of greater value than the
one we had b~efore-the "trade dollar Of
400 grains Troy"-reduced the expense OF
coinage from Il Of ] per cent. to 10. and
thus by friendly Legislation to silver sought
to strengthen IL, instead Of killing IL, Is
now claimed.
The man who could have deliberate
ly have written the foregoing must be
an escaped lunatic OF George Wards
home for the insane. Either he is q
fool or he thinks the people Of Las
Vegas are.
The St. Louis platform, on which
Mckinley stands, unequivocally de-
clares for maintaining the single gold
standard, until foreign nations will
permit our return to bi-metallism. Il
that the s.policy that formulated our
monetary system at the commence
ment Of our government" Bi-metal-
ism was our monetary system"
The single gold standard was not
dreamed Of; and The man who should
have suggested the waiting for foreign
consent, would have been drummed
out of the country by the victorious
patriots of that day.
Then, too. this Munchausen declares
that the single gold standard, or the
s.policy" which Mckinley stands for,
sshas SO provided that every dollar of
it (the silver in circulation) is as good
as gold" II he does not know, the PEG.
pie certainly do, that from the begin
ming of the government down to 1878.
or for nearly 100 years before the sim
gle gold standard was iuaugurated by
John Sherman, every silver dollar was
as good as gold. In fact, when the
crime of 1873 was committed, silver
was at a premium. This was not Sc
cured, by especial Efforts" as he as
serts, such as the Bland bill and the
Sherman purchasing law, but by the
original enactment of bi-metallism, by
which both silver and gold were made
primary money, or money OF redemp-
ton. Under bi metallism no especial
efforts" had to be made; silver pur-
sued the same course and occupied tbs
same place with gold and the friends
of silver now propose to drop the hypo-
critical make shifts of especial efforts -
and return to bi-metallism, the none
tary system of our fathers.
But the acme of asinine assertion
is reached in the statement that the
crime OF 1873 "was for the betterment
OF silver as money! that it made sill
YER 'a part of the standard money of
the country" and that 1t s'provided a
dollar OF greater value than the one
had before" Three greater un.
truths could not be combined IN one
'entence. Silver needed no better
nent, either as bullion or money. The
after was at parity with gold and the
ormer wa at a premium over the yell
ow metal. How could it then be bet |
eredP And how could any but the
whose bray we are comment
ng on, imagine the way to better sil-
'er was to demonetize it-deprive it Of
ts greatest use in the worldp The re-
ult showed that characterization was,
md was intended to be, the deadly en-
my of silver. Yet Republican"
laims the act to have been for the
'etterment of silver. He also asserts
hat silver was made a part OF the
money Of the country.
What that means, it is doubtful If he
Iimself could tell. We know that sill
'er had been one of the two moneys
+ redemption, n of the two prima-
y moneys de .facto; and that the
rime CT 1873 demonetized silver and
nade it a commodity. All the brazen-
aced assertions of "Republican" can
OF alter or annul these facts.
But, finally, he declares the act Of
873 gave us a silver dollar s'of greater
alue than the one we had before"
urely the man is mad. The value OF
le dollar was, had been and Is,
cents. Such had always been
value of the silver dollar. Such is
} value to-day. 1t is impossible to
crease or decrease the value of a dol
r. The "trade dollar" so-called, (.
as certainly not worth more than 100 !
nts, and it soon ceased TO be worth
at much. The reasonsWas that it was
t the American donaf, the dollar Of J
.metallism, and its parity could not !
maintained with tho American. dol. =