The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1898-05-20

declared that there was no possible way
Of maintaining the parity Of silyerWith
gold except by suspending the purchase
and coinage Of silver. Predictions Of
al the leading oddities in the land 10
the same effect might be cited. They
told the people every day while the
United States was purchasing and coin
ing silver that the limit had been
reached, and that If any more silver
was coined the value Of the silver dol
lar would fan to the current price Of
silver bullion. The fact that they have
made these false predictions for more
than 20 years, and continue to make
them, must be attributed to their lust
Of falsehood OF their desire to deceive.
There is another grossly absurd false
hood which goldites constantly preach
and teach. This also appears in the
Warner letter, which is said TO have
been the first financial document ever
written for Mr.. Cleveland 10 sign. AR.
Cleveland argued in that letter that the
Bland act must be repealed, OF gold
would be withdrawn, the volume of
money UnPrecedentedly contracted
and the wages OF labor scaled down by
| their payment in deprecated money.
/ To avoid doing him an injustice the pre-
else language he used in predicting the
results Of the refusal to repeal the
Bland act viii be quoted. He said:
Gold would be withdrawn TO its hoard
I ing places and an unprecedented coutrac-
ton in the actual volume OF our currency
would speedily take place. Saddest Of all,
I in every workshop, mill, factory store
7 and on every railroad and farm, the wages
I OF labor, already depressed. would suffer
stul further depression by a scaling dawn
I Of the purchasing power or every sO-called
dollar paid into the hands Of toll
This is a fair sPecime6l Of the argu-
ments against the restitution of the
/ coinage laws of the early days of the
republic. The hallucination which
would induce president of the United
States to believe that unprecedented
! contraction, creating dear money, and
the robhsry of the laborer, by the cheap
money in circulation, could occur at one
and the same time accounts for many Of
the absurd vagaries Of the advocates Of
/ sO-called sound money" But strange
as ii may appear, this absurd paradox
! has been iterated and reiterated by the
/ so-calIed economists of our colleges,
/ the financial mOuntebanks Of the com
mereiaI press, and the patronage-bribed
I politicians, for the last 20 years.
These examples. of the false predic-
| lions of the goldites have been cited
I TO show how little reliance can be placed
upon their arguments against the un-
/ limited coinage of silver at the ratio
of sixteen to one, because the stock ar
gument they always use, when driven
10 the wall by the force of well-knOwn
facts, is that the coinage ratio must be
/ changed to correspond with the com
/ mercial ratio Of the two metals. They
| seem entirely ObliviOus to the fact that
! under equal coinage the commercial "a
/ ito followed the coinage ratio without
material variation for thousands Of
| years previous 10 1873. While the minis
were open no one would sell his silver
/ bullion or his gold bullion for less
/ amount of money than II would pro-
/ duce at the mint 1t was impossible for
/ either silver or gold to decline in price
/ below the coinage value, because there
\ was an unlimited market for il a that
/ price. Nor could the commercial price
/ of either of the metals rise to any ap-
/ PreciabIe extent above the coinage
! value, because IN that case its excessive
I price would be prOnibitory and the de-
mand would fall on the cheaper metal
i until the commercial price Of the two
I metals was equalized.
The mode adopted by the goldites for
/ the Ostensible purpose of restoring the
/ parity between the two metals, but with
I the real object of increasing the dis
/ parity and destroying silver as a money
metal, is one Of the most vicious as well
/ as the most transparent humbugs in
vented 10 fool the people. The slightest
/ reflection viii show that the non
1 use Of a commodity destroys the de-
I lnGnd and reduces the price. Would the
/ price Of wheat be advanced If everybody
\ should stop eating wheat bread2 Yet
/ the gOldites say that the way TO raise
/ the price Of silver to parity with gold
/ is the utter disuse of silver and the use
/ of gold alone.
/ The Decentralization combination
/ excuse the breach Of trust Of which they
were guilty in refusing to pay out silver
/ according to law and the contract with
/ the bOndholders, by contending that
such use of silver would destroy the
7 parity, and that the only way 10 re-
/ store parity is to buy gold at any price
and pay il to the government creditor,
\ and keep silver in the vaults Of the
/ treasury. They claim to have discov-
/ cred that the unlimited use OF gold and
/ the nonuse Of silver viii make an equal
\ demand for both aud maintain the par
! ity. If they were indicted as private
4 parties would be for breach Of trust in
\ surrendering the option OF their en-
/ piOyers as the governments option was
4 surrendered to the bOndhOlders, would
I a jury acqUit them on such an absurd
4 pretext 2-Hon. William N. Stewart, in
I Silver Knight Waterman.