The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1898-03-26
ADDRESSES OF FREE slLvERlTEs
Appeals for support of Rotten Money
Candidates.


The national committees of the demo-
cratic, populist and silver republican
organizations have just issued adj
dresses They are in substance appeals
to all to whom they are addressed to
unite at approaching elections in the
support of rotten money candidates.
Democrats, populists and silver repub-
Leans are urged to disregard all minor
issues on which they may disagree and
look on the financial question as the
paramount issue.
These addresses are filled with de-
nunciations of the gold standard, which
is held up as the cause of all the ills
that flesh is heir to. Chairman Jones,
of the democratic national committee,
informs prospecting country, whose
farmers are paying off their debts
hand over fist and whose wage-work-
ers can find employment whenever
they want to, that work is harder
to get; the weight of debt is doubled;
and the value of land and other prop
erty is reduced one-half or more"
This Arkansas pessimist also predicts
that unless the gold standard is thrown
overheard
1.-THE continued rise in the value Of gold,
or, which is the same thing, the continued
fall of prices, must inevitably transfer the
property of all those engaged in active
business, the actual creators of wealth,
whether by hand, brain, or capital, to
those who, avoiding the risk and effort of
active business, only draw interest"
But all the men in the United States
who are engaged in active business and
who may be assumed to understand
what is good for them as well as Jones,
the backwoods lawyer, are supporters
of the gold standard. They are not
afraid of being swallowed up by the
men who "draw interest" They could
not have such fears when they see the
steady decline in the interest rates.
The populist address declares tear
fully that
"All of those of whatever party who
favor the conspiracy of gold and monopoly,
who favor industrial slavery, widespread
poverty, and national destruction, should
be on one side; and all of those of whatever
party who oppose this deadly design, who
love truth and right, who love their coun-
try, who love their homes and firesides, and
who believe in the sacred principles de-
clared by Jefferson and reasserted by
Jackson and Lincoln, should be on the
other side"
But there is no attempt to explain
why Industrial slavery, poverty and ma
tional destruction should be incidents
of the gold standard when England has
prospercd SO greatly under it for over
so years and when Germany has made
such progress under it during the last
quarter of a century.
Those who wish to have the mono
the gold standard are described as low
ers of truth and right" and as believers
in the sacred principles" of Jefferson,
jackson and Lincoln.
But how can it be fright" to make a
44-cent dollar legal tender, to be used
retroactively in the payment of debts
contracted on 100-cent dollar basis ?
How can it be fright" to cheat several
millions of people, the majority of them
wage workers, who can i'll afford to lose
more than half their savings?
When did Jefferson, or Jackson, or
Lincoln announce it as sacred prin-
ciple" that the government should de-
base the currency in order that knavish
debtors might be enabled to defraud
their creditors legally? The authors of
the address should have quoted the
language those eminent men used when
they expressed themselves-as they are
accused of having done-in favor of rot
ten money and public and private dis
honesty.
These addresses explain nothing.
They do not point out wherein any
class of the community would be bene-
fitted by Accent silver dollars. They do
not attempt to justify the wholesale de-
struction of values which theretroactive
use of such dollars would entail. They
contain simply the old and often
answered attacks on the gold standard.
Their only novel feature is the failure
| to use anywhere those familiar words,
''the free coinage of silver at the ratio of
sixteen to one" That ratio, according
to Bryan, is the very heart and core of
the silver movement. 1t is little
strange that men like Jones, who have
been saying sixteen to one" several
times day for some years, should for
get to use those sacred words now.
Does this mean that the free silverites
are preparing to shift their ground a
little? Some of the eastern democrats
have urged that sixteen to one" be
dropped and the fight be made on the
naked issue of the free coinage of silver.
| Can it be that their advice is to be
taken?-Chicago Tribune.
An Absurd Alliance.
| oil