The Green Forest tribune., 1896-07-30
SUCKER STATE SlLVERjTES.
Impudent Claim of Sixteen to One Shout
ers at Peoria.

ers at PEORIA
The Illinois democratic state conven-
ton added hypocrisy and double deal
ing to the silverite doctrine of repudia-
ton and dishonest dollars when it de-
clared in its platforms: I'VE favor the
soundest and safest money known to
man. We demand the repeal of
that republican and plutocratic legisla-
ton which demonetized silver and re-
duced it to the level of token money,
destroying by one-half the stock Of real
money. We demand the i'm
mediate restoration of the free and
unlimited coinage of both gold and sill
Yer as a standard money at the rate of
sixteen ounces of silver to one of gold
OF equal fineness, with full legal tender
power to each metal This declaration
Of free silver was termed the "bimet-
alllsTn which was made the basis of our
monetary system by Hamilton and JEFF
ferson."
OF all kinds of fraud the canting
humbug is the worst. The sincere but
mistaken silverite, who admits that
tree coinage at sixteen to one would
put this country on the silver basis, are
deserving of far more respect than the
men who have the impudence to talk
Of sound and safe money" in connec-
ton with their 50-cent-dollar scheme
Livery man who is old enough to vote
knows that free silver, with the bullion
value of the two metals at ratio Of
thirty to one, means silver monometal-
ism pure and simple. This is the
standard of Mexico, China and India.
where its frequent and violent fiuctua-
tions and decreasing purchasing power
testify to its "soundness and safety"
Is that the kind of money the American
people want?
1t will be somewhat difficult to secure
the repeal of ''the legislation which de-
monetized silver and reduced it to the
basis Of token money" since there is
no such legislation on the statute
books. What the Sucker state 1inan-
ciers referred to was probably the legs-
1ation which since 1873 has given us
$55o,o00,o0oz of full legal tender silver
money, not one dollar of which is token
money, and $75,OOO,OO0 of subsidiary
coinage. AS there was not $So,000,00O
of silver money of all kinds in the coun-
try in 1873 and less than $8,000,000 full
legal tender silver coins, it is hard to see
how "the stock of real money has been
destroyed one-half." Since an increase
of $540,ooO,o0o is considered a contracA
ton of the currency, it is easy to nlder-
stand how the cross-eyed silverites can
believe that forcing $625 100000 in gold
out of circulation would give us more
money.
"The bimetallism of Hamilton and
jefferson" was the coinage of gold and
silver at ratio which was as nearly as
possible the commercial ratio between
the values Of the two metals. In ex-
perience 1t was found that whenever
one of the metals was overvalued it
disappeared from circulation. the
cheaper money only being used. so that
the country was always on either the
gold or the silver standard. Under
present conditions, with the bullion
value of silver 30 times that of gold. il
would be impossible to keep gold in
circulation, and the country would go
at once to a silver basis. Americans
who favor real bimetallism, under
which an almost equal value of gold
and silver money is now kept in circu-
lution, must work and vote against free
silver mOnCpoetn lliSn