Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1896-02-07
CARLISLE'S WISDOM.
SUDDENLY SEES THAT SILVER
NEVER WAS GOOD MONEY.
The Man who. when He Was Honest,
Was the Greatest Champion of the
White Metal. Sees New Light-St
Louis Paper scores Him.

1t was fit and proper, perhaps, FOR
the Kentucky Democrat who is at the
head of the treasury department under
the present administration to follow the
example of his distinguished Repub-
lican predecessors and sit down in the
place OF honor at the recent annual ban
quet of the New York Chamber Of
Commerce 1t may be admitted that it
was fit and proper that he should make
the speech of the evening-a speech in
which. like his Republican predeces-
sors, he takes pains TO tell the New
York Chamber of Commerce that the
administration at Washington has no
money policy different from its own
that having accepted the Republican
plan OF forcing the people of the United
States to pay their fifteen or twenty
billion dollars of indebtedness in gold
and gold only. ii will pursue il pitiless-
~ TO the end.
But il was not expected that a man
of Mr. Carlisle's resources could betray
the weakness Of the policy by repeating
the old. threadbare and worthless as
free coinage at the ancient and estab-
lished ratio OF 10 TO would benefit the
owners of silver mines, but no one else.
There was a time. not very far back
when Mr.. Carlisle knew this to be false,
and if he enjoyed the same freedom of
speaking now that he enjoyed then, la
would say it is false today.
The free coinage Of legal tender sill
yer at the ratio of 10 to l." said Mr..
Carlisle, would be a forced loan from
the people to the owners of silver mines
and silver bullion without promise Of
repayment by anybody"
But suppose the act Of 1873 had never
been passed and the free coinage of
legal tender silver at The ratio of Is to
! had not been suspended. will the dis
tinguished secretary of the treasury
have the effrontery 10 say that that
would have been "a forced loan from
the people 10 the owners of silver mines
and silver bullion"
The free coinage of legal tender sill
yer at the ratio of l6 to is not a new
and untried thing 1t is an old thing.
a very old thing 1t was lawful and
allowable from 1890 to 1873. The sus-
pension Of it is a new thing. And it
has given us trouble from the start.
/ During the eighty-odd years that free
silver coinage at 10 to | was right Of
/ the peope-whether they always OK
/ ercsed IL or not-there was never a dis
pute. controversy or difficulty about our
metal money Both metals gold and
/ silver. enjoyed the same right OF coin
age. and all was peace. But the dis
/ turbance of the ancient relation in 1873
brought trouble, and that trouble is
with us yet.
The great wrong of the act of 1873
was and is that it deprived the people
of one of the two money metals in
which their debts were payable. This
practically reduced their money volume
one-half. or. i'm other words, doubled
all existing funded debts.
And now a United States secretary Of
the treasury tells the world that the
undoing of this wrong, and the rest0ra-
ton 10 the people Of their ancient right
Of paying their debts i'm two metals in
stead of one. would be Of no benefit 10
anybody but the owners of silver
mines and silver bullion'-St. Louis
Post Dispatch.
The man who fears God is not afraid
TO walk in the dark, but he fears TO