Omaha daily bee., 1897-02-28

THE TYRANNY OF ALIEN STANDARDS
The manifesto issued by n congress
| slonal junta Of self-styled silver re-
p%ublicans invoking the cooperation Of
| all republicans who bolted Mckinley In
the formation OF a new national party
has for its keynote a revolt against
"the tyranny of an alien money system"
Americans take pride in being Ameri-
cans and every emotional appeal In be
half of anything that is declared to be
truly American touches a sympathetic
chord with the %unthinking multitude.
But when men prate about the tyranny
of alien money standards they either ex-
hibit their own lamentable Ignorance or
attempt to presume upon the Ignorance
OF others.
Where did Americas money standard
originate? Have we ever had an Ameri-
can money standard as distinguished
from alien money standards or American
standards of time, of weights or
measures? The first currency issued for
the United States was continental cur
rcncy rcdeemable in Spanish milled
dollars. SO Thomas jefferson, John Han.
cock and their %compatriots in the found
ing Of the republic committed their
country to the tyranny OF m alien money
system. The first money coined by he
| United States mint under the presi-
dency Of George Washington were cop
| per pennies fashioned after the pennies
of England, and later silver dollars
modelled on the Spanish milled dollars.
We're Jefferson, Hancock, Washington,
Hamilton and revolutionary patriots un-
American because they did not create
a purely American standard of money =?
Should they be branded as traitors to
their country for adopting alien money
standards?
Copying alien standards was, how
ever, not their only crime. If crime it
be. The first ngress of the United
States made Spanish, English and
French coins legal tender just as
Canada has made United States gold
coin legal tender, and up to 1861 the
greater part Of the silver in circulation
in this country came from Spain,
AItAl'o dhu IslSitiiu. Nhth 'hNh,
was the tyranny of an alien money
standard yoked upon the American
people? Was it in the crime year Of 1873
under General Grant, or was it in 1884
under Andrew Jackson, when he ratio
Of JIG to 1 was established for the
ayowed purpose of making gold the
American money standard?
If the American people must throw off
the tyranny of an alien money stand
ard, why should they longer submit to
the tyranny Of the Roman time stand
ard and the hateful British standard
of weights and measures? The stand
ard of American weights is a troy pound
made of brass imported from London
in 1927 by the American minister under
orders from President join Quincy
Adams and sacredly guarded in the
Philadelphia mint, double-locked and in
visible to any one except members of
the assay commission, and then only
once a year. BY this alien standard OF
weight all the American coins are
tested and yet no patriot in congress or
out of congress has eve denounced ii
or appealed to the American people to
vindicate their patriotism by discarding
it and adopting a truly American
standard as the ultimate foundation of
their money system.
1t has remained for the latter day sill
yer republican patriots to rouse the
nation to the peril to which it has been
constantly exposed since the declara.
ton of independence and which has so
long continued to menac American
prosperity. Shades of George Washing
ton, John Quincy Adams and Andrew
Jackson! To what lofty heights has
patriotism risen since your degenerate
days!