The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-09
COMPULSORY DISHONESTY.
Ex-President Harrison's Pertinent
Consideration of the Crime of 1873.
Forum for October.

Forum for October.
| The quotation have made from Mr. Bry-
| ans convention speech-and every other
| speech that have seen-seems to me to af-
| firm the legal and moral right of the United
| States to degrade its money standard, to
pay its obligations in the debased coin, and
/ to give to it's citizens the right to discharge
| their debts in the same way. He meets the
champion of the doctrine that the dollar OF
payment should be as good as the dollar
borrowed with a general denial and a coun-
| ter claim. The counter claim is presented in
behalf of the debtors of 1s73-who, he in
| Inmates, were injured by the dropping of
| the silver dollar from our coinage in that
year.
1t is the supposed injury TO the debtors OF
1873 that he proposes to recoup from the
creditors of 1896. He takes account of
the fact that the debtor and creditor classes
are not fixed classes in this country; that
the debtor of 1873 may be the creditor of
1896, and that the counter claim, pleaded in
behalf of the debtors Of 1873. would be levied
on their own goods in considerable part.
and be paid to the men, who are supposed
to have despoied them in 1878. About the
only bonds that run twenty-five years are
railroad and other corporate bonds. Farm
mortgages rarely run more than five years.
The railroads, the banks, the large corpora
tons and the United States are the great
debtors of 1879, who are still in the debtor
class, and among their creditors are the
thrifty poor, the widow, the orphan and the
disabled veteran. The proposition is that
these great debtors shall now be permitted
to discharge their obligations In dollars
worth one-half of the dollars now in use. 1
mt st qualify that statement-it is not that
hnxy hol1 he mar ffrH hr1f lad IN
pay in the debased dollar Dishonesty is
not made OPTIONAL but compulsory, for,
while the United States must receive its
taxes and customs dues and the banks their
loans in the new dollar, they cannot pay in
the old. And, more than all this, we are
promised legislation that shall prohibit US
from promising to pay IN gold the gold We
have borrowed. II the debtor Is too honest
to set up the defense, / suppose the court
will be required to appoint guardian ac
Item to file the plea for him.
But it is not true, as Mr.. Bryan seems to
Intimate, that the law of 1873 changed our
money standard to the injury of the debtor
class. The silver dollar was dropped from
our coinage but 1T was not then a cheap
pure silver contained in it were the full
equivalent. as bullion, of the 1922 grains of
pure gold contained in the gold dollar. The
recent Treasury Department circular (No.
1873 shows that the average bullion value
OF 371A grains of pure silver during the
ratio between silver and gold 1892 to
/, while our coinage ratio was 15.98S4 to 1.
1t is not fair, then, to liken the change in
our coinage laws made in 1873 to that now
proposed. The former involved neither dis
honesty nor oppression. The dollar that
was dropped and the dollar that was re-
tanned were commercial, as well as legal,
equivalents; and the change did not favor
the creditor class. nor injure the debtor
class. There had been coined from the be-
ginning OF the government up to 1873 only
S,031,2SS silver dollars; and if we may in
dulge the impossible suggestion that all
these dollars were in circulation in 1873,
the debtors then had only eight million
while now they have more than 43s, 900 900
of full legal-tender silver dollars to use in
that way.
The demand for more legal-tender green
backs in 1873 was the product of depressed
commercial conditions, as is the present
demand for free-silver coinage; but the
former was based upon the assumption
that our per capita circulation was too low !;
that we did not have enough money. The
latter is not based upon that assumption,
but upon the assumption that the money
we have is too good-not more dollars but
cheaper dollars is the denand-not a silver
dollar that will abide with the gold dollar,
but one that will exile the gold dollar.
What the red flag is to a bull, gold is to
the free-silver advocates. 1t excites their
rage; they want to gore and toss it,
Other nations that are upon a silver basis
and trade disadvantages that it entails. A
deprecated currency, with it's always pres
ent tendency to fluctuations, is, whether
judged by philosophy or history curse
content to use such a currency-except
under the severest necessity-nor to con-
tinue It's use beyond the time of possible
relief. 1t is easy to fall into the slough
and hard to get out Of it-but 1t is harder
to remain in it. This great people will not
consent to have a double standard-unless
lent of the other; and if they must have
a single standard they will have the best.