The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-09-28

and all using certain kind of money,
is it subseryiency on the part of Mr..
4, who thinks that some other kind of
money might DO better to undertake to
get Mr.. B. G End D to agree to use the
Kind he suggests, instead of using it
himself without such agreementP
wouldn't every man say that Mr.. A was
fool to undertake to establish new
Kind Of medium of exchange between
hlmsalf and the people he was trading
With without previous agreement on
their part? Everybody would see that
such transaction would introduce
confusion and wrangling which would
be detrimental to all concerned them.
Maritime nations now have a code of
rules for the avoidance of collisions at sea.
Suppose one of them should be of the
opinion that some modification of those
rules would be beneficial, would 1T be
wise for that nation to order its YES
sells to follow the modified rules with
ont waiting for the other nations to
agree to them2 Suppose soma boy ora
tor from Nebraska should suggest that
to wait for an agreement was trucking
TO foreign nations, that the thing for
US to do was to adopt an A merican
system of sailing without reference to
what England and France might do,
what would be said of him? Everybody
would say il was a case Of national pride
gone Inai. The case under considera-
ton is parallel. There is no way to bring
about actual bimetsllism except by in
ternational agreement, and until that is
secured the only cafe thing to do is to
stick to the currency of the great part
of the civilized world any other oours5
N cans confusion and loss, and instead
Ct contributing to bring about bimetal-
lism will. in the opinion of all the most
prominent bimetallists only serve to
postpone it. The United States is big
and powerful, but it is not big and
civilized world.
Mr.. Bryan's most pretentious speech
was delivered at Bath. In bis recent
addresses he has given his attention
Chiefly to the, plutocrats, and said
paratively little about free silver. But
at Bath be reversed this programme
probably out of difference to Mr.. Sewall,
and confined himself chiefly to athe cur
rency question. There was in his ad
dress some very skilful misrepresenta-
ton, not brought about by stating
what was not sa, but by suppressine
some very important things that are SO.
His discussion of an honest dollar was
an instance in point. He puts into the
mouths of his opponents the definition
that an honest dollar ia one that is
worth as much in bullion as in coin.
With these words added-''for all pur-
poses, that is very fair definition
Mr.. Bryan proposes to max dollar
that shall be worth as much in bullion
as in coin for some purposes, but not
for all, and we fear that he clipped the
definition given him to meet the ext
genoies of bis case. If he proposed to
allow the silver dollar to always stand on
it's own merits, no charge of dishonesty
could be brought against either his dol
lar or himself. But he doesn't propose
any such thing. He proposes to compel
by Law the creditor to take it in pay
ment of existing debts for its face value.
on an equality with the gold dollar,
though he admits that its exchange
va lue will be less than that since it
will enhance prices. 1t is the legal tender
al hot i'll 10 ho oil dollar
q ishonest. but Mr.. Bryan made no al
lusion to that, leaving the impression
that the dollar is to stand entirely on its
merits. whereas he proposes to initiate
its debt paying power by legisla tive
enactment.
But while here he suppressed legal ten
der quality to he givento the silver dollar,
and pretended that it was to stand en-
tirely upon its merits, a subsequent
exigenoy compelled him to recognize it to
eXtricate himself from .'hole, " which
question asked by one of the audience
had but him inso. The question related
to the price Of silver when the minis
were open to free coinage, and he said
III reply:
4 Now let me ask. my friend, if under
free coinage you have that much silver
and take it into the mint yourself and
have 1T converted into money at dollar
and twenty mine cents an ounce, would
rou sell II to anybody for sixty-six cents?
Would you under that law, if you have
silver, sill it to nybody for sixty-six
cents when you could coin it at dollar
and twenty-nine cents? You would go
and have it coined, wouldn't you?
Now nobody knows how much the
FREQ coinage of silver twill enhance its
value, except for one purpose. The
legal tender clause which it is pro-
posed to attach to the act would unq