The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1896-09-25

nnarntlOn
80 s the bl od of the east and the west
ysnjngled ON the common battlehelds or the re-
nubiio. And now comes this young man, as II
we had not suffered enough from sec'ionai
strife. and talks of "eneIny's country
They seek to excite what they cali tne
nooru AGAINST what they call "the rich In
tbis land OF great opportunities for all, where'
NOW as ever SO many of the poor or yesterday
are among the rich OF today ana 80 many VI
the rich of today may be among the poor Oh 10
morrow. Their candidate Tor the presiuenoy
presented q characteristic spectacle wneh SONS
time ago he was kindly shown over tne tarm
OF the governor of New York, who Is hlmseir
an example of the poor country boy risen ny
able and honest effort to affluence ana oiseinc
ton and when that candidate tnen serasno-
way in public speech drew invidious com
narisons between tho elegant houses ON the
Hudson and the poor cabins IN the west
teaching not the true American lesson OF sue
cess won by honest industry, thrift ana eneer-
prise, but the lesson that those who have sue
ceeded less should hate and fight those VINO
have succeeded more-a lesson utterly I'M
American, unpatriotic and abominable!
They tell the farmer-most cruel deception
that he must and will be made independents
of the world abroad, while year after year
from $500, 900, 600 to SOO,OOOOOO worth OF our
agricultural products must seek the foreign
market to find purchasers and While nothing
will hurt the farmer moro than,a serious I'M
pairnnent Of the great home market ny q ousi-
False Friends Of Labor.
They uroolaim themselves the special cham
pious of the telling masses, while their policy
would rob tho laboring man OF half OF his saw
ings and gricvously curtail the value or ms
wages. Am asked, If the silver standard
will relatively reduce wages, why SO many
EMPLOYERS of labor are opposed to itf The
reason is obvious because, aside from all con-
siderations Of sentiment, the prudent employ
ers OF labor know that they would lose vastly
more through the disastrous disturbance OF
business sure to be caused by n free coinage
victory than they could possibly gain by the
cheapening of labor. And would not the tolllng
masses suffer most from that disturbance OF
business? He is traitor to the laboring man
who tells him that he can profit by the ruin
of his employer.
The agitators denounce the gold standard as
the device OK Inonarchs and aristocrats,
while the history of the world teaches that
from time ilnmemorial it was favorite trick
of unscrupulous despots to fleece their subjects
by debasing the coin Of the realm, and that
| those who out of the monetary CONFUSION
| evolved fixed standards of values and money
| that would not cheat have always been rank
ed among the most meritorious benefactors or
| mankind and especially Of the poor and weak.
They seek to inname the vanity of the Amer
| lean people by telling them that we are great
| and strong enough to maintain any monetary
system we like and to keep up the value or
| our money without regard to all the world
| abroad-while our own history teaches us that
| a century ago the American people were
| strong enough to shake off the yoke OF Great
| Britain, but not strong enough to save their
continental money from declining in value to
| nothing; that in recent times the American
people were strong enough to subdue glgan-
| tic rebellion, but not strong enough to keep
an indefinite issue of greenbacks at par, and
| that this republic may be able to conquer the
world but it will not be able to make twice
| t1vo or IN nnlxa itself richer hy Watering
| its currency.
| They speak of the silver dollar as the money
| of thu constitution, while they must know
| that there is not one single word I the con-
| stitution which, honestly interpreted, could
| Justify such a claim.
| They invoke for their cause the names of
jefferson and Jackson, while every reader OF
| history knows that Jefferson and jackson
would have stood aghast at their wild scheme
of creating by law false value and would
| have kicked out of their presence public
nuisance any seriously advocating it,
Such things the free coinage agitators tell
without intelligence. Far worse are the APP
peals they address to them, assuming them to
be without moral sense
! Immoral Pleas.
They have been teaching the people that
| because the prices of wheat and other things
have fallen about one-half since the so called
| demonstration year, 1871 have shown why
those prices have fallen-it is not equitable
| that debtors should be held to pay more than
| half the amount of their debts in gold that
| they should be released in correspondence
| with the decline of prices and that it would
| therefore be right to reduce by free silver
| coinage tho value of the debt paying money
| by one-half
| Subject the principle to simple test. When
| I contract debt ] owe what it is mutually
understood that am to pay. Our whole bust
| ness life and social fabric. all human inter
course, rests upon the binding force of such
understandings. Unless it be expressly under
! stood, has tho debtor the slightest right or
| reason to demand that the creditor shall be
| satisfied with less amount in payment II
| wheat or cotton something else had mean
| while declined in price? If 80, would not the
| creditor also have the right to demand that
| the debtor should pay more in proportion If
| wheat cotton something else meanwhile
| had risen in pricep If neither Of them had
| thought of proposing or of accepting so adven-
| turous o contract, how can such claims be JUS
| titled IL based upon a mere secret mental res
| ervation or an arbitrary afterthought? Is it
not monstrous that such an assumption should
be taken as warrant for the reduction at
| one sweep Of all debts by debasement of the
| standard Of valuep
And yet he who has watched tho free coin
age agitation knows that just this appeal to
debtors is one of it's main allurements Listen
to their speeches, read their literature, and you
| meet ever recurring-now in soft spoken cir
| cumlocution, now in sly suggestion, now in
the language Of brazen cynicism-the promise
| that free coinage will enable the debtor to get
rid of his obligations by paying only part Of
them. 1t is scheme Of wanton reputation
| of private as well as public debts not as if we
| could not pay in full, but because we would
| prefer not to pay in full-the practice resorted
| to by the fraudulent bankrupt-and this sane
| toned by law, as part of our national policy.
The Coming Verdict.
Fellow citizens, think this out. II is a grave
| matter-a matter of vital import to the exist
| ence of this nation. The father who teaches
such moral principles to his children educates
| them for fraud, dishonor and the penitentiary.
| The public men who teach such moral princi-
| pies TO the people educate the people for the
| contempt and adherence of mankind The
| nation that accepts such moral principles can
| not live. 1t will rot TO death in the loa.hsome
stew of its own corruption If the nation
cepting such moral principles be this republic,
It will deal a blow to the credit of democratic
institutions from which the cause of free gov
| eminent will not recover for centuries.
But, thank God, the American people will
never accept such moral principles, The
American people will, before election day ar
rives, have fully discovered what all this