Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1897-10-22
WHAT JACKSON DID.
CRUSHED BANKS IN ORDER TO re.
STORE GOLD TO CIRCULATION.

OnLnktu AAAANAo ENoAN NAANltn 70 ElANttn 10
One TO Bring Gold Back-was One who
Thought That All Mankind Had Pred
nection Fur ocid-siiverStes who EuIo-
gine Jackson shouid Read History.
The silver Democrats have been un-
usually profuse this year in euloeies of
Jefferson and Jackson. They have at
tempted TO make IL appear tn those
with Democratic instincts that it has
been the regular thing for 100 years for
Democratic statesmen to champion sill
yer and cheap money Jefferson's oppo-
sition to cheap money and Reputation
of debts and his advocacy of a coinage
ratio which should always be kept close
10 the natural OF market ratio has been
made clear during the last few months.
The appeals of the silver Democrats
TO General jackson are meeting with
the same fate. In recent speech
ex-Congressman Josiah Patterson of
Tennessee, after calling attention TO the
fact that previous to 1875 no American
statesman Of any party approved of the
absurd doctrine that government can
maintain bimetallism regardless of nat
ural ratios, spoke at some length upon
Jackson's position on money and cur
renoy. Here Is what be said:
Nothing within the range of po-
htical absurdity could equal the spec
tacle presented by the followers of Bry-
an when they met ON the 9th of Janua-
ry to eulogize jackson, who courageous
ly restored the gold currency.
Have these gentlemen ever paused
long enough in their assault on the pros
perity of the country to inquire why il
was during Jackson's administration
the ratio was changed from IS to 10 to
n If, as they teach the people, we had
the concurrent circulation of gold and
silver from the passage Of the act Of
1903 down TO the suspension of the coin
age of the silver dollar in 1878, why
was this change madep Are they igno-
rant, or do they disguise the fact that
after the act Of 1909 gold relatively to
silver was undervalued and went out Of
circulation because IL was worth lit
tie more as bullion than as money? Do
they forget or do they suppress the fact
that gold remained out Of circulation
for more than 30 years prior to 1884?
''Are they uninformed, or do they
conceal the fact that statesmen illustri-
ous in Democratic annals for many
years prior to the administration of
jackson advocated the restoration of the
gold currency Have they never read
history, or do they withhold the truth,
when they ignore the fact that the bank
of the United States selfishly opposed
the restoration because the people would
prefer its bank notes 10 a currency so
bulky and inconvenient as silver? 1t
was jackson who saw the necessity for
action and who struck the blow which
crushed the bank and brought hard
money to the pockets Of the people. 1t
was Thomas H. Benton, speaking for
the administration of jackson, who de-
clared in the senate that the only way
to crush the power of the bank was to
restore gold TO circulation. Here wns
the necessity and the only reason for
? the psssage of the act Of 1894 establish
ing the ratio Of 10 to /.
1.-THE similarity between the discus
sion which took place in 1884 ard the
discussion which took place in 1896 is
striking and instructive. Hard money
Democrats, in supporting the policy Of
jackson, advanced the same arguments
which the sound money Democrats adj
vanced in supporting the policy Of
Cleveland. If the hard money Dem
ocrats insisted that the differentiation
of gold by the act of 1899 forced it out
of circulation, the sound money DEM
ocrats insisted that the proposition in
the Chicago platform to overvalue sill
yer, II carried into effect, would bring
about the same result.
''If the hard money Democrats reoog-
nized that the act of 1702 had no per-
ceptible influence ON the commercial
value of eitItr gold or silver, and the
only way to restore gold to circulation
was to change the ratio, the sound mon-
ey Democrats recognized that the free
mintage of silver at the ratio of lG to 1
when the market ratio was 80 to
would result inevitably in silver mono
metallism. II tho hard money Dem
ocrats contended THAT all mankind had
apredilection for gold, F" the sound mon-
ey Democrats contended that a gold
standard was preferable to a silver
standard. If the hard money Democrats,
IN order to maintain the gold currency
when restored, undervalued silver by
making the coinage ratio 16 10 when
the market ratio was 1888 to 1, the
sound money Democrats resisted the
scheme to overvalue silver so as to
force the retirement of gold. If the hard
money Democrats, after the passage Of
the act of 1884, pointed with pride and
exultation TO the prosperity which fol
lowed the restoration Of the gold cur
rency, the sound money Democrats have
never faltered in warning their ooun-
trymen of the disaster which would fol-
? low It's retirement.
1.-THE truth is the country is indebted
to the hard money Democrats, of whom
jackson was the chief, for the gold
standard. could go ON and show how
the act Of 1884 had an effect exactly op-
posite to that OF 1909, how under the
operations of the same infiexible eco
nomic law gold went out Of circulation
under the one and silver under the 9TH
On, how congress in 1853, ON account OF
tho retirement Of silver, was forced to
coin it as subsidiary money N order to
supply the people with small change,
and how the silver dollars ceased to
flow from the mints and gold was coin
cd IN great quantities. But this is for
eign to my text
my purpose Is TO show that the I'D
vocates Of the Chicago platform have
DO right TO conjure with tho name OF
Andrew jackson That platform has nc
precedent IL the history and traditions
Of the Democratic party. II promises q