The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1896-07-30
THE NATIONAL SILVER PLATFORM
Unanimously Adopted In Conven-
ton ut st. Louis July 20.

money question. 1t is between the gold
standard, gold bonds and bank currency
on one side, and the bimetallic standard
no bonds and government currency on the
other.
"On this issue we declare ourselves to
be in favor of a distinctivey American
financial system. We are unalterably op-
posed to the single gold standard and de-
mand the immediate return to the consti-
tutional standard of gold and silver by
the restoration by this government. in
dependently of any foreign nation, of the
unrestricted coinage of gold and silver
as the standard money at the ratio of 16
to /, and upon terms of exact equality as
they existed prior 10 1S73-the silver coin
to be a full legal tender, equally with
gold for all debts and dues, public and
private; and We favor such legislation as
will prevent for the future the demone-
tization of any kind of legal tender mon
ey by private contract.
1--WE hold that the power to control and
regulate paper currency is inseparable
from the power to coin money, and hence
that all currency intended to circulate as
money should be issued and its volume
controlled by the general government
only. and should be legal tender.
I'VE are unalterably opposed to the is
sue by the United States of interest-bear-
ing bonds in time of peace, and we de-
nounce as a blunder worse than q crime
the present treasury policy incurred by a
republican house, of plunging us into
debt by hundreds of millions in the vain
attempt to maintain the gold standard by
borrowing gold, and we demand the pay
ment of all coin obligations of the United
States as provided by existing laws. in
either gold or silver coin al the option of
the government, and not at the option of
the creditor.
The decentralization of silver in 1873
enormously increased the demand for
rrs.I.1 Tt.l.. Ats
and lowering all prices measured by
that standard, and since that unjust and
ineXcusable act the prices of American
products have fallen, upon an average
nearly 80 per cent, carrying down with
them proportionatey the money value of
all other forms of property. Such fail
of prices has destroyed the profits of
legitimate industry, injuring the producer
for the benefit of the non-producer, in
creasing the burden of the debtor, swell
ing the gains of the creditor. paralyzing
the productive energies of the American
people, relegating to idleness a vast num-
ber of willing workers, sending the shad-
ows of despair into the homes of honest
toilers. filling the land with tramps and
paupers. and building up of colossal for
tunes at the money centers.
"In the effort to maintain the gold STAN
dard the country has within the last two
years time of profound plenty. been
loaded down with $262, 900 goo of interest
bearing debt under such circumstances
as to allow a syndicate of native and
foreign bankers to realize profit of
millions on Il single deal. 1t stands con-
fessed that the gold standard can only
be upheld by so depicting our paper cur
rency as to force prices of our products
below the European, and even below the
Asatic level, and enable us to sell in for
egn markets. thus aggravatng the very
evils of which our people so bitterly COM
/ MIA a nd
striking at the foundations Of our civ
| ilization itself. The advocates of the gold
standard persistently claim that the
cause of our distress is over-production,
that we have produced so much that it
| has made us poor which implies that the
true remedy is to close the factory,
abandon the farm. and throw a multi
tude of people out of employment, a
doctrine that leaves us unnerved and
disheartened and absolutely without hope
| for the future.
I'VE affirm to be unquestioned that
there can be no such economic paradox
as over-production and at the same time
tens of thousands of our fellow -citizens
remaining half clothed and half fed, and
who are piteously clamoring for the com
| mon necessities of life.
"Inasmuch as the patriotic majority oil
the Chicago convention embodied in the
financial plank of its platform the prin-
ciples enunciated in the platform of the
American bimetallic party, promulgated
at Washington. D. c., January %, 1896
and herein reiterated. which is not onl,
the paramount, but the only real ISSUE
in the pending campaign. therefore. rec
ognizng that their nominees embod,
these patriotic principles, we recommend
that this convention nominate william
j. Bryan of Nebraska for president ant
Arthur Sewall of Maine for vice presl
dent"
Second, that over and above all othe
questions of policy. we are in favor of re
storing to the people of the United STAGE
the time-honored money of the eonstitu
tion-gold and silver; not one. but BOTH
the money of Washington and Hamilton
and Jefferson and Monroe, and jackson
and Lincoln-to the end that the Ameri
can people may receive honest pay for al
honest product; that the American debto
may pay his just obligations in an homes
standard, and not in a standard that ha
appreciated 100 per cent above all tn
great staples of our country; and to tn
end further. that silver standard coun
tries may be deprived of the unjust ad
vantage they enjoy in the difference /
exchange between gold and silver-an ad
vantage which tariff legislation can re
overcome. We therefore confidently al
peal to the people of the United States I
leave in allegiance for the moment all otf
er question, however important and eve
momentous they may appear, to sunde
If need be all former party ties and afh
iations and unite in one supreme effort |
free themselves and their children froi
the domination of the money power
power more destructive than any whic
has ever been fastened upon the civilze
men of any age. And upon the consun
. nation of our desires and efforts we II
woke the gracious favor of divine prov
dence."