Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1896-09-18

limited silver coinage, would be seven and
one-half times the total value of the an
nual cereal crop of the United States. The
total value of the manufactured products
was $9,372, ,537, ,2s3. The Establishment
of q silver basis of value, as now proposed,
would entail loss of these three inter-
ests alone equal to S5 per cent. of this
enormous output of all the manufacturing
industries of the Union, and would affect
directly nearly one-third of its whole pop
ulntion.
Pensions Also in Danger.
One hundred and forty millions of dol.
lars per annum are due to pensioners of
the late war. That sum represents blood
spilled and sufferings endured in order to
preserve this nation from disintegration.
In many cases the sums SO paid in pen.
sions are exceedingly small; in few. If
any, are they excessive. The spirit that
farthing is the same that would organize
sedition. destroy the peace and security
of the country, punish rather than reward
our veteran soldiers, and is unworthy of
the countenance, by thought or vote, of
any patriotic citizen of whatever political
faith. No party, until that which met in
convention at Chicago, has ventured to in
for the national life by proposing to scale
their pensions horizontally and to pay
them hereafter in deprecated dollars
worth only 50 cents.
The amounts due, in addition to the
interests already named, to depositors and
vatc banks. to holders Of fire and accident
insurance policies. to holders of industrial
insurance. where the money deposited or
the premiums have been paid in gold or
| Its equivalent, are SO enormous, together
with the sums due and to become due, for
State. municipal, county or other corpor-
ate debts. that If paid in deprecated sill
yer or its equivalent it would not only
entail upon our fellow-countrymen loss
In money which has not been equaled In a
similar experience since the world began.
but 1t would at the same time bring dis
grace to our country such as has never
befallen any other nation which had the
condition and considering our magnifi-
cent capacity for raising revenue such
wholesale reputation is without necessity
or excuse. No political expediency or par
ty exigency, however pressing, could justi-
fy so monstrous IN act.
=, All these deposits and debts must, under
the platform of the Republican party, be
met and adjusted in the best currency
the world knows and measured by the
same standard in which the debts have
been contracted or the deposits or pay
ments have been made.
Facts Officially Established.
Still dealing sparingly with figures, of
| which there Is an enormous mass to sus-
tain the position of the advocates of the
gold standard of value, cite one more
fact. which is officially established, pre-
vNx,< Al,nA g..
ter test of the growth of q country's pros
perity than its increase in the per capita
holdings of its population. In the decade
between 1880 and 1890, during which we
had our existing gold standard, and were
under the conditions that supervened
from the act of 1873, the per capita own.
ings Of this country increased from $3.50
to S1,OS In those ten years the aggre.
gate increase of the wealth of our coun.
try was $21 1886, ,0O0,O 900, being SO pei
cent. in excess of the increase of any pre-
vious ten years since 1850, and at the
amazing rate of over two thousand million
dollars year. The framers of the Chi
cago platform, in the face of this fact
and OF the enormous increase over Great
Britain, during this same gold standard
decade. of our country's 3 foreign trade and
its production of iron, coal and Other
great symbols of national strength ani
progress, assert that our monetary stan
uolu - AOI only un-Amerlcan, but anti
American" and that it has brought u.
into financial servitude to London" /,
is impossible to imagine an assertion more
reckless and indefensible
me proposition for free and unlimited sill
yer yer coinage. ; carried to its logical conclusion
ana put one is possible :.eans, as before in
timated: legislative warrant for the repudi
alton Of an all-existing Indebtedness, publ,
ana prystSe to the extent Of nearly so pc
It demands an unlimited volume of nat cur
rency, irredeemable, and, therefore, wlthou
any standard value in the markets Of th,
world. Every consideration Of public inter
est and public honor demands that this prop
osition should be rejected by the American
people.
Cannot Sanction spoliation.
This country cannot afford to give 1T,
SANCTION to wholesale spoliation. it mus
hold fast to Its integrity. It must still en-
courage thrift In all proper ways: It mus
respect the flag, but 1t should inculcate fidel
ity to the obligations Of personal and nation
a honor as well. Both these great princi
mon schools Of the land, and the lesson i'm
pressed upon those who are the voters Of
today and those who are to become the in
heritors Of sovereign power in this repub
to make political platforms the mediums ol
assault upon property. the peace Of society
ana 1.t9 upon % civilization itself;
our children, and by those who have reach
ed the voting age. 1t can only be surmised
what enlightened statesmen and politica
economists will record as to the action Of .
party convention which offers an inducement
to national dishonesty by premium Of ii
cents for every SO cents worth Of silvei
that can be extracted from the bowels oi
the whole earth, with cordial Invitation t.
all to produce It at our mints and accept fo1
1t q full legal tender dollar of 100 cents rated
value. to be coined free Of charge and unlim
tied in quantity for private account.
But vastly more than a mere assertion Of
rency is suggested by the Chicagos platform
tionary propaganda. 1t embodies menace
Of national disintegration and destruction
proposition to repudiatc the pllghted public
faith. to impair the sanetity Of the Obligation
Of the nation by stripping the Government,
Of the power to borrow money as the urgenr
in word, to overthrow all the foundation,
Of financial and industrial stability.
Nor is this all. Not content with a propo
sitlon to thus debauch the currency and II