Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1897-10-08
WHEN. WHERE ANp HOW.
Questions Regarding the LegisistinG
Away OF the Timetable Standard


Questions Regarding the LcgIsIsting
Away OF the Timetable Standard
We have been asked "yvhen and where
and how were the people deprived of
bimetallic standard?" To answer the
first question when" il is only neces-
sary TO refer once more to the crime
OF 1873, when this country was using
greenbacks exclusively as u circulating
medium with few national bank notes
on the side, and greenbacks were legal
tender for all debts, public or private.
Afterwards it was proposed to return
to the specie basis. The fact was then
overlooked that in 1873 Il law had been
/ passed suspending the coinage of sill
yer, so that when the country came
down to n specie basis the people
/ found to their sorrow and dismay
/ that they only had one kind of metal
/ to rest upon instead OF two kinds, as
/ they had supposed. The consequence
was irretrieyable ruin to many of the
business houses and manufactures,
strikes, lockouts and bioOdshed in al
most every state in the union, the
great railway strike that spread over
the entire face of the country, the
| formation of that nOn-Amcrican insti-
tutions, the ''tramp-army." The eff
feet of this legislation spread like a
hot wave of destruction over the en-
tire country, and, as Mr.. Carlyle pre-
dicted, did more damage than war, pes
thence or famine could have done. This
was followed by unfair and unfavorable
Legislation against silver which has con-
tinued almost without interruption by
q
Sherman bill and the repeal Of the same,
and other acts of discrimination against
silver and in favor of gold, until gold is
to-day apparently worth twice as much
as silver On the sixteen to one basis.
This answers the question as to when"
it was done.
AS to "how" it was done is beyond
the ability of anyone except some of the
| cOnSpirators who were connected with
the conspiracy to explain. 1t is said that
the first act in the characterization of
silver cost several millions of dollars
all in gold. 1t was done by chicanery,
misrepresentation, bribery, fraud, in
timidation and bulldozing, by ridicul-
ing those who were right on this ques-
ton, by threatening and cutting down
wages, and by undtrhand tricks known
in politics, and by the elections carried
on by the most wonderful contributions
by those who received the benefits of q
single gold standard. This is partial
answer as TO how" it was done. No
body could answer in detail how it was
done nor how it has been kept from
being undone.
AS to the other proposition of the
| hnr h.t l,n L. Ho<
deprived of II bimetallic standard, we
would answer, from Maine TO San Fran
cisco, from the northern line of the
state of Minnesota to the southernmosi
e1tremities of Texas and Florida, anC
every acre of ground within the con
fines of the boundary of the United
States has suffered the blight of the
single gold standard. From 1878, wher
the first act was passed discriminating
against silver and in favor Of gold there
was n commencement Of what has beer
known as these hard times" Nearly
all of the railroads of the United State.
between that time and the present time
have been in the hands Of receivers
nearly all of the great manufacture.
of the country have suffered from
strikes and falling prices, nearly ever,
large city in the United States ha.
suffered from tramps and men out o
employment. Every farmer has fel
the effects of the blight OF the gol,
standard in the lowering of the prtc
of his products, and every working
man in the United States has suffere,
with the balance of the people OF thi
country. The answer to where" tn,
DeODlc have Lppn dpnrived Of 4ba Il;
metallic standard is rs broad us tn
= confines of this country. The effectSo
this deprivation of Il bimetallic stand
ard have been as fatal TO business us
wave of poison sweeping over the coun
try would be to human existence.-uli
nois State Register.