The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1897-01-22
COME MORE BRYAN DOCTRINE.

The belief is universal amongst Mr.
William J. Bryan's friends land we are
compelled to admit that they are very
numerous), that he is a sincere and we'll
meaning man, in spite of some occur
rences during the recent Presidential
contest, such as his avowal at Madison
Square, New York, that he believed free
coinage would make The silver dollar as
valuable as the gold dollar, though his
whole public career had been built upon
the proposition that free silver would
make a cheap dollar. that would enable
debtors TO pay their debts easily. and
would initiate the prices Of everything
We are disposed. therefore. to put down
the extraordinary statements that he is
constantly making to ignorance rather
than duplclty. For instance. he made
speech at Houston, Tex, day before
yesterday, in which he said:
Bmetallism would help everybody. and
he had arrived at this conclusion after
much STUDY and research. lie wanted a
dollar as honest as one could be made.
fully realizing that none could De made
perfectly honest.
While the creditor got advantage from
the dear dollar, and the debtor from the
cheap one. society, he said must bee bene-
fitted by the one which robbed neither.
1t is an ignorant and not a bad man
who says this. lie means well. but he
knows no more about what he is talking
OF than one OF the subjects Of the King
Of Dahomey knows OF constitutional civil
liberty.
Mr.. Bryan talks OF an honest dollar"
as though a dollar were a sentient living
thing, that could think. tank, eat, and
sleep. OF course. he has no such idea
as this in his mind. and his language is.
therefore, to be understood as metaphor
cal. But the idea that he actually has
In his mind is just as absurd as that IN
dcated by the language he uses.
The word dollar" when properly I'M
derstood. means nothing but piece Of a
given metal. Of a certain weight. that has
taken certain amount of labor to dig it
from the earth. refine it, and fashion it
into its then shape. It is that much
and, though commodities may grow
scarcer, or more abundant. and. therefore
command for themselves more or fewer Of
these dollars, the dollar remains fixed and
Interchangeable all the time Mr.. Bryan
things the dollar changes in its value.
and that is the idea he has in mind
when he uses the word honest" But
1t does not. II remains all the time
piece OF metal Of a given weight. neither
more nor less
For long time. while we had very i'm
perfect rethods of transportation and
communication of intelligence. we had
dollars composed OF two different metals.
gold and silver. In that period il took
somewhere about the same labor TO pro-
duce the metal in our silver dollar as in
our gold dollar, and the two served meas
urably well as dollars. But improvements
OF one sort and another caused the labor
necessary TO produce the silver in a silver
dollar 10 be far less than the labor ne
cessary to produce the gold in a gold dol
lar, and then every man wanted TO pay
out silver dollar when q payment was
to be made, and TO sell for silver dollars
any gold dollars That came into his hands.
IL no limitation had been put upon the
manufacture OF silver dollars. II is OBJ
vious that in time the only dollars used
would have been silver dollars and silver
dollars worth only half as much as they
had been thirty years before, or as gold
dollars then were.
Mr.. Bryan thinks condition like that
would have been "bmetallism," and that
such a condition would have "helped
everybody" How a thinking man can see
In it anything but "monometallism" and
the single metal silver, with the dollar
reduced one-half in its value. we cannot
understand
Mr.. Bryan and millions Of his fellow