The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1896-09-10
ex.MlNIsrER PHELPS.


ter, in which he urges oil true demo-
Gratis to join in defeating the candidates
who stand on the un-democratic plat
form adopted at Chicago:
regard the pending presidential
election as presenting the most danger
GUS crisis that this country has ever en-
countered. It does not, in my judgment,
involve any political controversy nor
any question of the supremacy of party,
for such considerations are lost sight Of
in the far greater gravity of the situa-
ton. The real issue is one upon which
all patriotic men and all who are in
terested in the prosperity and welfare
of the country should find themselves
upon one Side and opposed to common
enemy The attack that we have to
resist is not upon the policy but upon
the life of the nation, for they would
take its life who destroy the means by
which it lives--the business of many
thousands and the industry of millions.
On these we are all, whether rich Or
poor, high or low, alike dependent.
Those who are independently rich are
very few in proportion to the 100000
of American people, the vast majority
of whom gain their living by some form
or other of useful employment. That
there should be prosperity in some Of
these employments and not in others, or
among one class of people and not
among others, is impossible, for they all
rest upon a common foundation and are
affected by the same considerations.
Business" is a generic term and COM
prehends all lawful industries. When
it is stimulated all profit: when it is de-
pressed, all suffer. No part of the body
sis or fail to get the benefit of general
good health. When business flourishes,
the laborer is in demand; when it de-
clines, he stands idle in the market
place.
Business of whatever sort in a coun-
try like ours, rich in resources, full of
energy and vitality, with all harvests
everywhere ready for the sickle, rests
chiefly upon two factors-public conf
dence and sound and stable currency.
| When either is-and much more when
both are-impaired or even gravely
| threatened, business suffers, general de-
preston comes, labor declines, and the
| wolf approaches many door. Without
| confidence there can be no credit, no
| enterprise. Capital is boarded, sent
| abroad or lies idle, and all industries
| diminish or cease, and the surest way
the world has ever seen to destroy con-
| 4idence is to debase the currency and to
make it uncertain from day to day how
much a dollar is worth and how much
it is going to count for in the near fu.
ture-to take away, as is now proposed
one-half its value to begin with and tc
set the other half to fluctuating to ar
indefinite extent, with the rising an6
the setting of the sun and the approach
Of every storm.
There is, therefore, in my judgment
no man more criminal or who is a worse
public enemy than he who engages il
CT countenances that infamous and de
structive attempt because the less I
man has, or the less he earns, the more
necessary it is to him that the value o
that little should be maintained ant
made sure, and that the few dollars il
his pocket should be as good dollars a!
there are. AS we'll might the steeragt
passengers in a vessel in midocean
weary of their privations. be melted by
some mischief maker to scuttle the ship
in order to drown the inmates of the
more luxurious cabins, unconscious thai
they themselves must be equally the vic
tins of the common calamity.
The party is already hopelessly dis
rupted on the issue presented. We can.
not follow both it's divisions at the same
time, however desirable it might be
since they are moving in opposite direc
tions. On the one side are the oldtime
honored principles of the party, under
which all it's great traditions have beer
generated, and which all it's illustriou:
leaders have advocated. Chief and fore
most among these principles always il
times past has been the maintenance ot
sound and honest money, of dollars thai
are dollars, of national stamp upor
them that does not lie.
On the same side are its most trusted
present statesmen and leaders, and {
very large proportion at the last of it!
better and most instructed element
Which way shall we GO, then, since we
cannot go both ways? With its states
men or with its camp followers? Will
it's principles or with it's organization
stampeded and graded by its enemies
In which direction lies the future Of thu
party if it is to have any future? Ant
who are they who will control it here
after, when this tyranny shall be over
past?" Let no man be afraid to be righ
on this question, for it is the right tina
will triumph in the end, whether it re
forms the party or destroys it.
What 16 to 1 Has Never Done.
1t has never kept gold and silver at I