Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1898-03-23

fact that it can be paid in standard
silver dollars. The resolution of Sen
ator Stanley Matthews, voted for by
Mr.. Mckinley and nearly all the Re
Publicans in Congress, simply declared
what the law already stated. 1t was a
construction of the contract between
the government and the bondholder
This contract is the same today that
it was then. The law has not been
changed nor has the contract in any
way been changed. If they were pay.
able in silver dollars then, they are
now.
Suppose the bondholders were in.
debted to the government under SINH
lar circumstances-w would they give
the government a dollar of gold?
Would any sane man call themselves
dishonest if they did not? Further,
about $27 ,OO0,O of these bonds were
issued by the Cleveland administra-
tion solely to maintain the gold stand
ard, and Mr.. Cleveland told Congress
in his message that he had to sell
them in the market for many dollars
less than they would otherwise have
brought because of the fact that they
could be paid in silver dollars. Think
of it. Sold very cheap because they
could be paid in silver, yet we are ask
ed to turn around and pay the specu1a.
tors in gold. The truth is that this
policy, if carried out, would not simply
be dishonest, but would be a crime
against the toilers of America whose
sweat and blood must earn the money
to pay these debts. And it is also true
that the false pretense of the self-con-
stituted guardians of public honor
would be an insult to common intelli-
gence if they were not 50 extremely
ridiculous. Who are the men who are
ready to resort to every means, fair or
foul, to betray their race and sell their
money to the money power? AS a
rule they are corporation men, not one
in hundred earns his bread by the
sweat of his brow or creates anything.
AS rule they are the men who eat
the fruit of other mems toll. Every
great corruptionist in this country is
gold standard man. Debt can only
be paid by the product which toll
creates. To now make the bonds pay
able i'll gold would add that much
more to the burden which that metal
is already carrying and would still
further enchance its value, reduce
prices, and para1yze industry. 1t
would require more sweat and more
blood to earn dollar than it does now.
Practically it would add many hun
dreds of millions to our burdens. Yet
these men who are so swift to give the
nonied power something for nothing
would scarcely pay a dollar for this
burden. Ultimately it would nearly
all fall on the men who toll with their
hands. Their wages would be reduced
and their lot made harder
Let me close by referring again to
the soldiers. The article quoted from
relates to pensions. We are now dis
cussing contracts. Pensions are given
on account of some disability incurred
in the service, and have nothing to do
with contracts. During the war the
government contracted with the sol
diers and agreed to pay them from $13
TO $16 per month. Nothing was said
about the kind of money they should
be paid in, and the government paid
them in the cheapest money they had.
Generally it took from s. to S. so of
this money to get 81 of the dearest
money-that is of coin At the same
time the government issued its promis-
sorry notes or bonds, and the cautious
monied men dealt with the government
as pawn broker deals with starv.
ing woman. They bought the bonds
at that time for fifty and sixty cents
on the dollar. OF course, after the
war they brought higher prices. Now,
Notwithstanding the fact that the
| government expressly reserved the
right to pay the bonds at its option in
silver dollars, and notwith standing Q
the fact that large portion of them
had been sold cheap by the govern
ment because they could be so paid,
the gold standard people and the sup
porters of the Mckinley administra-
tion have recently declared in Con
gress that the bonds shall be paid in
the dearest kind of money known.
None will deny that the men who left
their families, risked their lives, and
bore the hardships of war in order tc
save our institutions and make it pos.
sible for the government to pay any.
body cent, deserves infinitely more
of their country than the men who
stayed at home and made fortunes by
shaving the governments paper. This
being so, then if the latter are to be
paid in the delrest money known GER
tainly common justice requires tha'
the government make good to the ole
soldiers the difference between tn,
value of the cheap money it paid then
and the dear money when it is nov
! proposed to give the money power
Yet, strange as it may seem, not
single man of that whole herd of lob