The herald., 1898-02-22

available to exchange for bushel Of
| wheat and the price of wheat will fall. The
| owner of wheat must give up more and
more of his commodity to get the dollar
| When this alteration takes place in the
| supply of money every producer is in ex-
| actly the same situation as the wheat
| grower in the illustration just employed
| The result Is that when the producing
| classes incur debts. which are measured
| in dollars. they must pay back the money
borrowed with a greater and greater
| equivalent of their commodities. 1t is as
| simple as that two and two make four. that
| this operation, if indefinitely continued
| will take away the property of the pro-
| ducer and debtor and make a present of 1t
| TO the owner of the gold debts; will destroy
| the great middle classes of society, and
erect a tyranny of wealth in the land un-
der whose sway liberty cannot possibly
survive.
CREDITOR VS.. PRODUCER
'Tt is a demonstration of statistics of alb
solutely universal acceptance that since
| 1878 the purchasing power of unit of gold
| has increased 100 per cent. Everybody to-
| day that has to have gold with which to
pay debts or taxes must give twice as much
on the average of all the products of hu-
IudH tOll dS ne WOulu nave ptSH COiipeiieu
to give for the same gold in 1873 With the
preservation of the gold standard there
can be no possible relief. There will. rath-
er. be an increase of hardships and contin-
uously growing burdens. Either the cred
itors and the gold brokers will have their
way and will force. one after another, all
the remaining nations of the world to the
gold standard, or the producers will have
their way and the old equivalence of priv
ilege and power be restored between gold
and silver. In the former case, three
fourths of the worlds population remains
to be crowded upon the basis of gold and
the prospect is therefore held out of an
indefinite period of ruinously falling prices
and the piling up of uncomfortable debts. 1t
requires no evil prophet to foretell that If
the misery of the past twenty-five years is
to be increased upon the human family
during twenty-five or fifty years to come,
there Is not a civilized government that
can stand the strain, and society must pre-
pare to meet the gravest disturbances
known to modern times.
THE CREED
I'VE who advocate the restoration of
bimetallism are the friends of the peace
and good order of society. We repudiate
the allegations of our opponents that we
are disturbers and that We are enemies of
the law. On the contrary, 1t Is the law
that we invoke. We believe that mon
strous injustice has been done by means of
law and of administrative usurpation of
law. But We propose to correct the in
justice of the law with laws that shall en-
act justice. We propose to correct execu-
tive abuses of the law by enactments which
shall define and control the discretion of
public servants and enforce the clearly ex-
pressed will of the people.
REPUBLICANS ERROR
Until within two years the gold stand
ard has lacked an apologist or defender
among the political parties of the United
States. Until the national convention of
the Republican party met at st. Louis in
June. 1896, no public reference to the gold
standard had ever been made by any party
organization in America, otherwise than
in condemnation. 1t was perfectly well
| understood that the object of the world
had been to get rid of the gold standard,
not 10 fasten its manacles any more close
ly upon the limbs of our people. 1t is
known. for example, that although the
gold standard went into effect in 1873 yet
| within five years. viz, in 1878. an inter-
national conference was held for the pur-
pose of trying TO get rid of 1t; that the
attempt was renewed in 1881, again in 1889
| and still again in 1892; that repeated COM
mittees and commissions were appointed
| in various countries to inquire into the
CIV iiS vi Tic eOlu StduudTu SYSTEM, dTu tHdt
| these had invariably reported in favor of
| its abolition The platform of the Repub-
| lican party before 1896 reflected this con-
viction of the majority of the thinkers of
the civilized world. In 1892 the party had
| declared as follows: The American people,
| from tradition and interest, favor bimet-
| allism, and the Republican party demands
| the use of both gold and silver as stand
ard money. When, therefore, those rep
| roc rot Of ha 40 M 1,
| secured the control of the Republican party
caused the adoption at st. Louis of the
| financial plank, which, after a weak and
| insincere approval of international
| agreement for the free coinage of silver,
| declared that until that can be secured
| the existing gold standard must be pre-
| served it apparently signalized an abso-
| Lutte revolution of purpose in the Repub-
| lican party and in the nation. That decla-
ration was notoriously against the convic-
| tions of the majority Of the members of
| that party. Nothing In the world enabled
it to receive the apparent support of ma
| jority of the voters of the American peo-
pie but the absurd and unreasonable par
| tisanship which leads millions of our peo-
pie to vote their party ticket without in
quiry and examination. George Washing
| ton warned his countrymen of the dan
ger of party spirit, and certainly II our in
stitutions shall finally perish that calamity
will not have resulted from a lack OF in
telligence on the part of our people, but
| from failure to follow the dictates of
their judgment and reason. The Repub-
lican party in its campaign text book OF
1892 declared that 'nine-tenths of the peo-
pie are bimetallists II that be true, and
believe it is and was, the only way In
which the gold standard can be perma-
nently established in this country is
- =