The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-04-25
!. WHO ARE THE TRUE FRIENDS
OF SILVER

! Senator Mark Hanna is now sending
out to the Republican country press a
great deal of plate matter. This plate
matter is devoted in particular to in
| ternational monetary conferences.
showing that they have all been held
under Republican auspices. The mat
ter is headed. Who Are the True
Friends of Silver?"
/ Men would probably differ on the
( question, Who are the true friends of
| silver? But taking the platforms put
forth by the two great political par
ties and their declarations on the sill
yer question last year, no one would
hesitate to say that the Democratic
party is the true friend of silver. This
is proven by the fact that Republic
cans who had been ardent silver men all
their lives, having no sympathy with
the general principles of the Democra-
cy, joined with the Democrats last
year and marched to the polls togeth-
er and cast their ballots for William
J. Bryan. There was a practical test
that is far more convincing than any
plate matter argument on the question.
who Are the True Friends of Siiver?"
1t is true that the international con-
ferences have been held under Repub-
lican auspices. But can Senator Han
ma or any other Republican point to
single thing favorable to silver that
has resulted from these conferences?
Each successive one has shown more
strongly how futile they really are so
far as accomplishing anything in be-
half of silver is concerned And If
there is another one as the result of
the mission of Wolcott, Stevenson and
Paine to Europe and anything at all
favorable to silver comes of it, it will
be a glorious exception and every
friend of silver will sing praises.
Does Senator Hanna or any other
Republican leader think for one mo-
ment that all the international none
tary conferences that have been held,
though they were held under Republic
an auspices. can outweigh and obliter-
ate the big, black fact that it was the
Republican party that demonetized sill
yer in 1873? That showed one thing
as plainly as a thing can be shown,
which is. that the Republican party is
not the true friend of silver On this
silver question the Republican party
has been giving the people nothing but
the Dead Sea apples of international
monetary conferences.
Are they the true friends of silver
who in their national platforms declare
that We are unalterably opposed to
every measure calculated to debase our
currency or impair the credit of our
country. We are therefore opposed to
the free coinage of silver except by
International agreement with the lead
ing commercial nations of the world,
which we pledge ourselves to promote.
and until such agreement can be OBJ
tanned the existing gold standard must
be preserved" Or are they the true
friends of silver who declare in their
national platform I'VE demand the
free and unlimited coinage of both sill
yer and gold at the present legal ratio
of Is to l, without waiting for the aid
or consent of any other nation. We
demand that the standard silver dollar
shall be full legal tender, equally
with gold. for all debts, public and pri- |
vate, and we favor such legislation as
will prevent for the future the demon
etization of any kind of legal-tender
money by private contract"
There are the positions of the Repub-
lican and Democratic parties on the
silver question. And which is the true !
friend of silver? The declarations |
themselves answer the question.