San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-06-22
GERMAN-AM ERICANS.
They Are Almost Unanimous for Sound
Money.

They Are Almost Unanimous Tor Sound
Money.
Mr.. Gustav II. Schwab is president Of
the German society of New York city
and is therefore in touch with Germans
and German-Americansi in this country.
Being also a prominent business man,
he is familiar with the views of Ger
mans on the financial question. In an
interview on May IA he said:
1 am convinced from my knowledge
of my German-American fellow citi-
zens and their ways of thinking that
the vast majority of them in the coming
political contest will entirely disregard
party ties and will vote for that party
which declares for the maintenance, be-
yond a possibility of doubt, of the gold
standard of value, and that they will
not give their suffrage to any candidate
who may be suspected of a leaning to-
ward free silver coinage or toward any
compromise with the silver people.
They consider that the paramount
question before the country at present is
the integrity of our monetary system,
and their votes will go to that party
which they believe will uphold the
country's financial honor, regardless of
what their views may be on other polit-
ical questions. Previous experience has
shown that German voters on questions
relating to or affecting the standard of
value have always stood for common
honesty, and that they have uniformly
opposed all forms of financial heresy.
When, 20 years ago, the paper money
initiation question was agitated in Mis-
souri,, the Germans of that state were
arrayed on the side of sound money.
The Germans of Illinois are on record
as always having been on the right side
of the money question, and as never
having been led astray by cheap money
propaganda at any time. A German
business man, cashier in a large bank in
Chicago, who has a wide acquaintance
with the small bankers and merchants
throughout the west, tells me that he
has had occasion to hear expressions
from his German countrymen for years
past on the question of monetary
standard, and that he has never yet
found one who was not in favor of the
gold standard and opposed to the free
coinage of silver.
His opinion is that the German citi-
zens Of Illinois are unanimously opposed
to any impairment of the present gold
standard.
1t is a fact, universally known, that
the sound-money victory in Ohio in the
gubernatorial campaign of 1875, in
which Rutherford B., Hayes ran on a
republican hard money platform
against William Allen on q democratic
paper-money imitation platform, was
due to the firm stand taken by the Ger
mans, who, disregarding party lines,
turned the scale in the election in favor
of honest money. This fact was con-
ceded at the time by the republican
press of the state, and the democratic
candidate voiced the sentiments of his
party leaders when he gave uttersnce to
his lacerated feelings after the election
by exclaiming: "The Dutch are ID
unreliable" The German voters are
certainly not to be relied upon when
they are asked to prostitute the coun-
try's financial honor at their party's
bidding. In the state of Wisconsin the
Germans have taken the same united
stand in favor of sound money, and the
same may be said of Michigan, Iowa and
Minnesota.
The entire German newspaper press
In this country, with few exceptions, Is
emphatically for sound money, as it has
been in the past, and can be depended
upon to pronounce in favor of the main
tenance OF the presentstandard of value
and for the parity that represents this
principle, regardless of previous party
affiliations. Several important German
democratic papers in the western states
have already threatened to bolt their
ticket if free silver plank should be
adopted. AS an indication of the gen.
eral sentiment of the German press 1
refer to the position taken by the largest
and Oldest German newspaper in the
south, the Democrat, of Louisville, in
the last state election in Kentucky. AL
though always democratic up to that
time, this paper bolted the democratic
free silver candidate and urged the cleo
ton of the republican sound money can
didate for governor.
The Importance of the German vote
will be apparent when the numerical
strength of the German-American popu-
lation in the pivotal states is consid-
cred. The returns of the census of 1890
show that the state of New York then
contained 972,6O3 German-Americans,
Ohio, 541, 4O7; Illinois, 6sO,5Ss; Penn
sylvania, 472,423; Michigan, 276,25s;
Wisconsin, 1854; Minnesota, 2i4,634;
Iowa, 5000; and Missouri, 2s7,O95.
Whatever may be the decision of the
national conventions on the money ques-
ton, this issue will be fairly, squarely