The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-08-28
MkINLEY's LETTER OF ACCEPT
ANCE.


thereby showing that he accepts it as
as all now accept it. That he did so
voluntarily and without any urging by
the leaders of his party is not at all
probable. But all this is immaterial,
seeing that he officially recognizes the
financial question as the issue Of the
campaign. Having recognized it, he
meets it fairly and squarely and in a
manly way.
He truly says that for the first time
since 1868, if ever before, there is pre-
scented 10 the American people this year
q clear and direct issue as to our none
tary system. In his opinion the. mere
declaration by the Democratic party
in favor of free coinage of silver is a
menace to the financial and industrial
interests of the country. That assertion
is matter of opinion, but we believe it
can be truthfully said that the Demo-
cratic party never made a declaration
upon any matter, whether financial,
economic or other, that the presidential
nominee of the Republican party did
not call it menace to all our indus
tries" But this menace" this year
more than half of the American peo-
pie believe to be the surest way of restor-
ing our financial and industrial interests
to their normal condition of prosperity.
II the people do not fear the menace
where is the danger? So impressed with
this idea of a menace" is Major Nc
Kinley that he says conservative men
everywhere are breaking away from
their old party associations and uniting
with other patriotic citizens IN emphatic
protest against the platform of the
Democratic national convention. He
sees but one side of the picture. Con-
servative men everywhere are breaking
away from their old party associations
and uniting with other patriotic citizens
in emphatic protest against the gold
platform Of the Republican national
convention. And that whieh prompts
conservative men to do this is the fnan-
cial question.
How could Major Mckinley ever
have made, in so deliberate and digni-
fed a document as a letter of accept
ance, the really puerile statement that
free silver would not mean that silver
dollars were to be freely had without
cost or labor"
We deny emphatically his statement
that free silver would not start a fac
tory or make a demand for an addi-
tional days labor. To this it is sufic-
lent to say that the Increase of capital
always means the increase of industries
and the demand for labor.
He declares that free silver would not
increase the wealth of the country. He
must have a very curious notion of
what constitutes wealth It would GER
tainly increase the output of silver in
this country, and that of itself would
be an increase of the country's wealth.
So much for the statement that free
silver would not add 20 the wealth of
the nation
Major Mckinley is very adroit in his
use of words He says that the mean
ing of the coinage plank adopted at
Chicago, is that any one may take a
quantity of silver bullion now worth
f1fty-three cents TO the mints of the
United States, have it coined at the
expense of the government, and re-
ceive for it q, silver dollar, which shall
be legal tender for the payment of all
debts, public and private. But he is
very carefully not to say that the same
amount of silver bullion-371A grains
would only be worth ffty-three cents
under free coinage. Right there is the
very kernel of the whole question. He
knows that the fall in the value of bull
lion in a silver dollar from $1.0O4 in 1873
to SO cents in 1896 has been since silver
was demonetized, and that from the in
stitution of the mint in 1892 until 1873 the
value of the silver dollar was always
slightly in excess of one hundred cents
measured in gold
He lays great stress on the fact that
since 1878 the government has kept its
gold and silver dollars at a parity be-
cause il purchased the silver bullion
and coined it into dollars, and that it
was under both legal and moral OBJ
legation to do so, but that it would be
entirely different under free coinage.
From 1892 to 1873 the American silver
dollar was just as good in every res
pect as it has been since the latter
date. If during that period there was
no moral or legal obligation resting
upon the government to maintain the
parity between the two dollars-gold
and si1ver-still the parity was main
tanned. The government was not con-
cerned to maintain it, because 1t MAIN
tanned itself. This fact that it MAIN
tanned itself was coincident with the
other fact that there was free coinage
OF silver during all those years Since
1873 the government has maintained the
parity between the two kinds of dol
lars, although the value of the bullion
in silver dollar has steadily declined.
Taking all these facts, is it not a
logical inference that it was the fact
of free coinage that maintained the
parity between the two kinds of dol
lars and that it was the fact of the
absence of free coinage that threw
upon the government the obligation of
maintaining the parity?
Major Mckinley asserts that free
coinage means the debasernent of our
currency, and against such a policy
he is unalterably opposed. He is no
more opposed to debasfng our currency
than are the advocates of free silver,
but they deny that free coinage would
debase It. And when he says that BIZ
metallisgr cannot be secured by indie
pendent action on our part he should