The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-10-02
The aaIielta Day Eagle Saturday Moruug October 2 1897

organization, they asked me il I was
going TO destroy the harmony OF the
party by insisting for free coinage OF
silver. Well, I feel about that as the
! boy who had the cats tail The cat
| was squalling and making great noise
and Johnny's mother said TO him, john
nv. what are you pulling that cats tail
foro I'm not pulling the cats tail,
said the boy, I'm just holding the tai
and the cats doing the pulling. Well
that's what I'm doing. I'm just hold
! ing the cats tail and they can pull as
| much as they have a mind to and make
all the noise they please.
the Republican party never endorsed
| the gold standard. You may take the
history of its conventions from the be
ginning and you can't find single en-
dorsement of the gold standard. And
whatever harsh things you may say OF
| the Republicans you must not accuse
them Of adopting the gold standard, for
they haven't done 1t.
PALACES ALLEGED.
There are al! sorts OF fallacious ar
d1N de5 OAliIC ld-.i-4ii'
A man who lives across the street from
me came 10 me one day and said this
free coinage was a dangerous thing.
asked him why, and he replied that it
couldn't be otherwise than dangerous
when every man had mint Of his own.
Nov, everybody ought to know that no
individual can add TO the volume Of cir
lating medium without running great
chance OF wearing stripes. A great
many get the idea that if you coin sill
yer free you must coin everything free.
, An Iowa man said TO me that this free
| coinage was great injustice. Why,
said ne, don't you know we raise more
! corn in Iowa than silver in Colorado.
Don't you know 1 said, that we pro-
| duce more butter in this country than
gold
What's that got to do with goid?'
Nothing, sir, only they are both
yellow; but what's corn got TO do with
silver any more than that both ara
white
Well, the fact Of the business IS,
he said, I haven't studied this financial
| question much. anyway and that's the
way with most OF these fellows who are
conscientious in their advocacy of the
| gold standard-they haven't studied the
question much. They get their opinions
| from New York.
You ask a gold bug why he's in favor
of the gold standard and he'll tell you
| that he wants an honest dollar. If you
ask him the definition of an honest dol
lar he'll say sound money, and it's hard
| TO get him out Of the circle.
AN HONEST DOLLAR
"Now, I'll tell you my idea of an hon.
est dollar Bimetallism will not give us
| an absolutely honest dollar. There is a
| story Of Mississippi man who wanted
to run for office. He wanted 10 be urged
by his friends and pursuaded and
pushed into the race. SO he got up a
petition requesting MIN to come out for
the office and went around to get all his
neighbors to sign il. He got along very
Well till one man said he would sign il
if allowed 70 scratch out Just one word.
When asked what that word was he re-
ferred to the place that said he va s
strictly honest. He wanted to scratch
out the word strictly and put in toler-
ably.
''Wen, bimetallism won't give US a dol
lar that Is strictly honest because dol
lar is human invention and nothing
human is perfect. But it will be toler-
ably honest and so 1 favor the dollar
of bimetallism. I'll give you a defini-
ton of an honest dollar. It's dollar,
the purchasing power OF which Is always
the same or averages the same. A dol
lar that rises is just as dishonest as the
one that falls only it hurts a different
class. That's all. When Ii rises il
hurts the debtor and when it falls it
hurts the creditor. It's dishonest just
the same.
They give the melting pot test as a
definition Of sound money and an honest
dollar. They say that If You have $40
in gold, SO in silver and SO in paper in
your house and the house burns, your
paper is lost, the silver is melted and
worth only half as much, while the
gold is the same value and has the same
purchasing power and is the only good
money. When they give you that melt
ing pot test You can meet il with the
boat test. II you have SO each of gold,
silver and paper in a boat and the boa t
upsets the gold and silver will sink and