The Coconino weekly sun., 1896-09-03
His Sole Aim is to Reduce the Value of the Monetary
 Standard.
BASES HIS ARGUMENTS ON 1T
Claptrap by Which the Orator Seeks to Capture Foolish
 Voters.

Mir Bryan's informal" speech accept ing the nomination for the presidency was carefully written beforehand. and it took about two hours time to deliver it. It can hardly be necessary, therefore, to wait for his formal letter" in order to learn his views on the issues of the cam paign.
 The most of his long and prosy speech is devoted to what he calls ''the para mount question of the campaign-the money question:" And as this k in fact the real issue other parts of his speech may be disregarded, or at least comment on them may be postponed.
 In discussing the money question MT. standard dollar we now have is too valu- able. That assumption lies at the bot tom of the whole argument. He com plains that the dollar is too dear, and that it is growing dearer; and to this he attributes all our economic woes, real or imaginary.
 As remedy he proposes something which he calls bimetallism, but which, so far from that, is silver monometal- lism.
 He has much to say about bimetsllsm, declaring that no party opposes it, but what he really proposes is, in his own words, "the immediate restoration of the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1 without waiting for the aid or con- sent of any other nation."
 Ihas is to say, he proposes to permit anyone who has sixteen ounces of sil- yer to take it to the mint and have it made into as many dollars as are made from one ounce of gold, or $20.67.
 He proposes this when he knows, or tn hn tc1,n nA quotations, that sixteen ounces of sil- yer are worth only $11 in gold. He must know that an ounce of gold is worth in the market nearly twice six teen ounces of silver.
 What he really proposes, therefore, is to substitute the silver dollar for the gold dollar as our standard. and to make the substitution because the silver dol lar is cheaper.
 Indeed, he virtually admits this at al- most every step in his labOred argument. to men who work for wages, to holders of insurance policies and so on virtually admit that he proposes to substitute Q cheaper dollar as the standard.
 He tries to conceal the admission hy talking about rising standard" and talking about influences which are now operating to destroy silver in the United
 
 it will not succeed.
 We have no rising standard" We have the same standard that we have had in all coin payments for sixty-two years. An ounce of gold may exchange for more of commodities in general than it would twenty or thirty years ago. It may, and probably does, go farther in it will not go further in paying for labor.
 It's value measured by the labor stand ard is less than it was years ago. A man can earn more of it by working the same number of hours. If, then, he can buy more with the ounce of gold he is better off in two ways: He gets more gold for his labor and he gets more of the necessaries and comforts of life for his gold.
 There are no influences operating to destroy silver in the United States" We now have at least ten times as much silver serving as money, including actual coin, it's representative certificates and sherman notes. as we ever had when the coinage of silver was free.
 There are no influences operating to destroy one dollar of this mass of silver, amounting to about $550, ,O0O, ,O0O, or about $5O,000,000 more than gold esti- mated to be in circulation.
 The simple truth is, and there is no use in trying to disguise or hide it, that Bryan and the men behind him are en- gagged in desperate attempt to lower the valuc of tf.e dollar. If that is moi what they are after there is not gleam of sense in Mir. Bryan's speech.
 It is true that he says, I've believe that a silver dollar will be worth as much as a gold dollar" It is true that he says, "I am firmly convinced that hy opening our hints to free and unlimited coinage at the present ratio we can create demand for silver that will keen the price of silver bullion at Sl. 20 per ounce measured by gold"
 But if MT. Bryan is firmly convinced of that, what is he making all this ado about? The dollar would still be as dear as it is now, and it is the dear