The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-04

vision was made for their conversion
into the bonds of the government and
Their issue was justified only by
the most imperious necessity. me
country was without currency; specie
payment had been suspended; the govern
ment had no credit in the markets of the
world. and our national existence was In the
balance. Under such circumstances $780,
GO0. coo of greenbacks were issued. But. as
before observed, their final redemption was
contemplated by those who favored them:
by redemption to $346.OOO,00O and under. the
policy of the Republican party of making
them convertible into gold their parity with
that metal is maintained.
Wisdom of Lincoln.
1 would commend to the consideration of
our fiat free-silver friends, the wisdom of
Abraham Lincoln. In his message to Con-
gress Dec. l. 1862, he dwelt upon the perils
of a f1uctuating currency and the necessity
of avoiding them by providing for the con-
vertibility of paper currency into coin. Said
he:
THE suspension of specie payment by the
banks soon after the commencement or your
last session made large issues of United
states notes unavoidable In no other way
could the payment of the troops and the
satisfaction of other just demands be so
economically or so well provided for. The
judicious legislation of Congress, securing
the receivabiiity of these notes for loans
and internal duties and making them
d
made them universal currency and has
satisfied, partially at least, and for the time
the long-felt want of uniform circulating
medium, saving thereby to the people I'M
mense sums in discounts and exchanges
A return to specie payments, however, at
the earliest period compatible with due re-
gard to all interests concerned should ever
he kept in view. Fluctuations in the value
OF currency are always injurious, and TO re-
duce these fluctuations to the lowest posi-
BILE point will always be a leading purpose
in wise legislation.
"Convertibility, prompt and certain con-
Eerf6ty into coin is ht r se
safeguard against them and 1t is
extremely doubtful whether a circula-
tion of the United States, payable in
coin and sufficiently large for the wants
of the people. can be permanently, usefully.
and safely maintained. Is there, then, any
other mode in which the necessary provision
for the public wants can be made and the
great advantages of a safe and UNIFORM
currency secured? / know of none which
same time unobjectionable, as the or
ganization of banking associations under a
general act of Congress, well guarded in
its provisions. To such associations the
government might furnish circulating notes,
on the security of United States bonds de-
posted in the treasury These notes, pre-
GERS, being uniform in appearance and Sc
curity, and convertible always into coin,
would at once protect labor against the
evils of a vicious currency and facintate
commerce by cheap and safe exchanges.
The recent advocates of an additional is
sue of greenbackS did not make any pro-
vision for their convertbility into coin or
for their ultimate redemption. The PROPOSE
ton was plain, unadulterated attempt to
issue fiat paper obligations and TO force
them upon the people; in short, 1t was an
effort to dilute and vitiate the currency OF
the country. in the hour of it's necessity.
Had they been successful the tendency
would have been to disturb the present gold
standard, to affect values, and to diminish
the value of the money with which we are
n ma M n
ers, and worse than all, our soldiers and
sailors now in the field and upon the sea.
The Republican party has felt that 1T was
it's bounden duty not only to prosecute the
war with Vigor, and to maintain the ma
tional integrity, but that 1t should also pre-
serve interrupted our finances and maintain
absolutely unimpaired our monetary system.
1T is a source of pride that the people had
such confidence in the financial policy OF the
Republican party that when the shock of
war came it did not in the slightest degree
disturb and has not since adversely affected
my humble judgment if the fiat money
theories of the free-silver party had pre-
vailed in the enactment of the new revenue
measure, or if, unfortunately. the free-silver
party had been dominant in the administra-
tion of our country's affairs.
International BimetaIIism.
We made pledge at St. Louis to endeavor
to promote international bimetallism. and
true to our pledge, President Mckinley sent
a bimetallic commission to Europe-a COM
mission composed of able and ardent advo-
Gates of free silver-to promote international
bimetalism. The result of their effort is
known. One thing is made absolutely clear,
and that is, an international agreement at
sixteen to one under any present conceiva-
BILE conditions is an utter and absolute i'm
possibility. Senator Wolcott in his report
to the Senate, while protesting great faith
in the ultimate triumph of international BIZ
metallism, asserted it as his deliberate con-
riotsD fl,o% 4 no rnd ut oil
only by concession in the ratio of say
twenty to one. | assume that the senator
was quite as well informed on the subject of
free-Silver coinage the authors of the.
Indiana Democratic platform who pro-
nounce anew their faith in the soundness
and wisdom of free coinage at sixteen TO
one. They are willing to adopt ratio
which, in the opinion of Senator Wolcott,
other nations would be unwilling to adopt,
even If they could be brought to some con-
current action. In other words, they cling
to the fallacious belief that we could do in
dependently what, in. the opinion of the
senator European nations would not under
take to do even conformity with us. The
senator and the international bmetallsts
who sympathize with him, when they sug-
gest a change in the ratio, do it in recogni-
ton of the absolute and utter impOSSibility
of sustaining free coinage at sixteen to one
when the commercial ratio is thirty-five to
one.
But for the Democratic platform free sill
yer would not have been seriously regarded
as an issue in the coming campaign. AS an
issue 1T is lacking in real force, in vitality
In fact as an issue it is as dead as one of
the Rameses. Every prediction and prophecy
of the advocates of free silver in the cam
paign of 1896 has been exploded and it's
fallacy thoroughly demonstrated by actual
experience. No prosperity, said they,
will come back to the country I'M
til silver is as freely admitted to the mints
as gold at the arbitrary ratio of sixteen to
one. This was the ratio of our fathers. and
they chung to it as a political fetch. They
took no note whatever of the changed con-
ditions.
1t is unnecessary to repeat the old argu-
ments, or the old promises, or the old pre-
dictions Suffice it to say that not solitary
ence. The disasters so freely predicted have
not visited us. Prosperity returned under
the existing gold standard. With the cleo
ton of Mckinley factories were opened, ne "
industries were established, laborers and
capital found early, steady and remuner-
farm have risen in value, although free
silver advocates solemnly declared that their
value could only be increased and restored
by return to free coinage of silver. The
Republican party deemed the preservation
of the existing gold standard in the face
of war as essential as the protection of our
seaboard cities. 1T would, indeed, have been
a tWofOld calamity if 10 the misfortune of
war there had beer added the destruc lion
and overthrow of the gold standard and an
era of currency Generalization uShered in
carrying destruction and disaster to our vast
Industrial interests and commercial enter
prises.
The Gold Standard.
While the Democratic party is committed
to the establishment of the single silver
standard which will derange values and dis
turb business the Republican party is COM
mitted to the maintenance of the gold