Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-09-01
were meant to mean and always had

were meant to mean and always had
meant.
But now comes a political party and
nvows its distinct purpose to make q
dollar mean three distinct and widely
different things: % A gold dollar,
worth as bullion 100 cents anywhere in
the world; CD silver dollar. worth as
bullion only SO cents at the present
time; 90 all the paper promises of
dollars to be hereafter issued by the
government only redeemable in either
100-cent gold dollars, Scent Tor less)
silver dollars, or in new promises to
pay, at the option of the debtor or re-
deemer. You do not need to he told
that only the least valuable of these
dollars would remain in use. The in
variable experience of all the ages fixes
that fact beforehand.
Should this party so led come to
power upon this platform, the govern
ment dues. instead of being paid. rs
now, in gold at 100 cents, or in paper,
which it now redeems with such gold
and never with silver, would be paid in
silver or in paper redeemed in silver,
which silver we could use in trade At
only its bullion value of 80 cents on
the dollar. The greenbacks being then
redeemed in 52-cent dollars, the gov
eminent bonds and their interest be-
ing paid in 52-cent dollars, our national
bank currency, which rests on govern
ments bonds. redeemable in 52-cent
greenbacks and the gold gone from do
nestle circulation into international
trade. We shall be on the single 52-cent
silver dollar basis. One hundred-cent
gold dollars do not swap even for So
cent dollars of silver. iron or copper
Fifty-two cents worth of anything can
never buy more than J2-cents' worth of
anything else. Then the purchasing
power Of your policies will be cut in
two.
Coming upon silver basis would in
tensely stimulate again the production
OF silver. The ores are now easily ac-
cessible, in inexhaustible quantity, from
which silver can be put upon the mar
ket at profit of 10 to so cents an
ounce. at which price silver dollar"
would be worth 80 to SO cents. or less
than greenback was during the dark
est days Of 1864. Under that stimulus
and under such conditions there can
be no possible doubt that the price OF
silver would steadily decline on the
average toward the point at which II
can be produced. which in some min %
Is said to be already less than % cents
an ounce. and inventions and improve
ment have not ceased. Should we come
upon silver basis your policies would
for the present be paid in dollars"
worth to your families only about 30
cents, and the great hulk OF them
would probably be paid in dollars"
worth not more than from % to 35
cents.
1t is therefore our duty to warn you
chat by so much as it was your duty
to make this provision for the protec-
ton of your families, by so much is il
your present duty to see, so far as your
action can prevent it, that no part OF
that provision is lost to them by be-
ing paid in dollars which are worth
anything less than the 100 cents in
when you nave Deen paying your pre-
miums and in which. therefore, you and
we supposed you were making that
provision, trusting to the personal and
political integrity of the American
people TO keep their honor bright AMI
their money good. We have never sup
posed-and do not yet suppose-that
the money standard of this great coun-
try, producing for and trading with all
the great countries of the earth, is at
the mercy OF lot of people who have
lot of cheapening metal to sell TO us
TO use for new standard and who have
long been carefully and at great ex-
pense organizing their scheme politl-