Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-09-15
coinage at a ratio OF is to 1. It will oppose
the expulsion OF gold from our circulation.
DECEASED Money Destroys values.

coinage at a ratio OF is to 1. It will oppose
the expulsion OF gold from our circulation.
DECEASED Money Destroys values.
III there is any one thing which should
be free from speculation and fluctuation,
1t is the money of country. 1t ought
never to be the subject Of mere partisan
contention. When we part with our labor.
our products or our property, we should
receive in return money which is as stable
and unchanging in value as the ingenuity
of honest men can make 1t. Debasement
of the currency means destruction of val
ues No one suffers so much from cheap
money as the farmers and laborers. They
are the first to feel it's bad effects and tho
last to recover from them. This has been
the uniform experience OF all countries,
and here as elsewhere the poor and not
the rich are the greater sufferers from
every attempt to debase our money. 1t
would fall with alarming severity upon
investments already made, upon insurance
companies and their policy-holders. upon
savings banks and their depositors, upon
building and loan associations and their
members, upon the savings Of thrift.
upon pensioners and their families, and
upon wage earners and the purchasing
power Of their wages.
Cheap Money Experiments.
1.-THE silver question is not the only
issue Affecting our money in the pending
contest. Not content with urging the free
coinage OF silver. its strongest champions
demand that our paper money shall be
issued directly by the government of the
United States. This is the Chicago Demo-
cratic declaration. The st. Louis Peoples
party declaration is that Our national
money shall be issued by the general gov
eminent only without the Intervention OF
banks OF issue, be full legal tender Tor tho
payment of all debts public AID private.
and be distributed direct to the people
and through lawful disbursements of the
government. Thus. in addition to the free
coinage OF the worlds silver, we are asked
to enter upon an era of unlimited ire
deemable paper currency. The question
which was fought out from 1866 to 1879 is
thus to be reopened with all its cheap
money experiments OF every conceivable
form foisted upon us. This indicates a
most startling reactionary policy, strangely
at variance with every requirement OF
sound finance: but the declaration shows
the spirit and purpose of those who, by
combined action, are contending for the
control Of the government. Not satisfied
with the debasement of our coin which in
evitably follows the FREQ coinage of silver
at 10 to j, they would still further degrade
our currency and threaten the public
honor by the unlimited issue OF an ire
deemable paper currency. A graver menace
to our financial standing and credit could
hardly be conceived, and every patriotic
citizen should be aroused to promptly meet
and effectually defeat it.
Dividing the People Into Classes.
ut is cause for painful regret and So
licitude that an effort is being made by
those high in the councils of the allied
parties to divide the people OF this coun-
try into classes and create distinctions
among us which in fact do not exist and
are repugnant to our form of government.
These appeals to the passion and prejudice
are beneath the spirit and intelligence of
free people, and should be met with
stern rebuke by those they are sought to
influence. and believe they will be. Ev-
cry attempt to array class against class,
the classes against the Masses section
against section. labor against capital, the
poor against the rich or interest against
interest in the United States is in the high
est degree reprehensible. 1t is opposed to
the national instinct and interest and should
be resisted by every citizen. We are not
nation Of classes, but of sturdy, free, in
dependent and honorable people, despising
the demagogue and never captivating 10
dishonor. This ever recurring effort en-
dangers popular government and Is a
menace to our liberties. 1t Is not a new
campaign device or party appeal. 1t Is as
old as government among men. but was
never more untimely and unfortunate than
now. Washington warned US against 1t
and Webster said in the senate words
which / feel are singularly appropriate at
this time: L admonish the people against
the object OF outcries like these. / ad-
monish every industrious laborer of this
country to be on his guard against such
delusion. / tell him the attempt is to play
off his passion against his interest and to
prevail on him in the name OF liberty to
destroy all the fruits of liberty
Protection of Supreme Importance.
Another issue of supreme Importance
is that Of protection. The peril of free
silver is a menace to be feared. We are
already experiencing the effect of partial
free trade. The one must be averted, the
other corrected. The Republican party is
welded to the doctrine of protection and
was never more earnest In its support and
advocacy than now. IL argument were
needed to strengthen its devotion to the
American system or increase the hold OF
that system upon the party and people. II
is found in the lesson and experience OF
the past three years. Men realize In their
own daily lives what before was to many
Of them only report. history or tradition.
They have had a trial of both systems
and know what each has done for them.
Washington, in his farewell address
Sept. IL. 1896, 100 years ago, said: AS a
very important source Of strength and Sc
curity, cherish public credit. One method
OF preserving it is to use II as sparingly as
possible; avoiding the accumulation OF debt
not only by stunning occasions of expense
but by vigorous exertions in time Of peace
to discharge the debts which unavoidable
wars may have occasioned, not ungener-
ously throwing upon posterity the burden
which we ourselves ought to BEAR To
facilitate the enforcement of the maxims
which he announced, be declared 1t Is
essential that you should practically bear
in mind that toward the payment of debts
there must ne revenue; that to have reye-
nue. there must be taxes; that no taxes can
be devised which are not more or less in
convenient or unpleasant; that the in
trinsic embarrassment inseparable from
the selection Of proper objects (which Is
always a choice Of difficulties) ought to be
q decisive motive for a construction of the
conduct OF the government in making it,
and for a spirit of acquiescence in the
measures for obtaining revenue which the
public exigencies may at any time dictate.
Prompt Protective Legislation De-
manded.
Animated by like sentiments the people
of the country must now face the condi-
tions which beset them. The public ext
gency' demands prompt protective legisla-
ton which will avoid the accumulation OF
further debt by providing adequate reve-
nues for the expenses Of the government.
This is manifestly the requirement Of duty.
II elected president Of the United States, Ii