The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-08-28
Gold standard Advocates Error.

whether the gold standard Il really e.
tabliahed by laW-by Statuts-and are
calling upon Congress to make It a
statute. This Is ignorance. The duty
Of Congress, and & VIII be done next
winter, for the reason that the senate
Is now on the Hide Of the sound cur
rency. viii be simply TO revise and re-
form the currency laws, correct some
weak places and settle the question as
to the retirement Of greenbaellS, revise
some banking laws, &c. It requires
no special statute to make gold the
standard Of value. for there Is such a
statute.
The New York Times, which. though
Democratic, Is strongly for the gold
standard, and eternaIly opposed to free
silver, went 80 far as to ask the follow
ing question on Thursday: 'Tf the gold
standard already exists in this country
would there be any harm in saying so
in a couple Of lines in the statute
book?" This gives the New York Sum-
which advocates the same principles on
the financial line that the Times does
an opportunity to show that the Times
asks a foolish question.
The Sun opens up the battery by ad-
hitting that there would be no harm
In saying SO, and states that accord
ingly 1t was said In the Act Of Con-
sress Of February Il, 1878, In these
words: 1.-THE gold coins of the United
States shall be a dollar piece, which
at the standard weight Of twenty-five
and one-elghth grains. SHALL BE
THE UNIT OF VALUE" The act then
proceeds to name other gold coins, and
then shuts out the free coinage OF Sill
yer.
1t should not have been necessary for
the sun to be obliged to inform the
Times, a financial authority, that this
very statute which established the gold
dollar as the standard Of value was
the great Crime of 1873" to repeal
which was the one paramount issue OF
1895, made SO by Bryan's platform ana
rejected by the country along with Bry-
an himself. The platform OF 1885 con-
tanned this declaration:
eve declare that the act OF lS7S; demon
| ettIJng silVer without the knowledge OF
| approyal OF the American people mas to
suited in the appreciation Of gold ETC
The Times further remarked that II
the single gold standard is established
by statute the silver issue would be
killed. THE Republican managers do
not want it killed dead. They would
keep 1t alive, for 1t is surely good for
another victory"
There is an easy answer to this IN
another question propounded to the
Times. 1t is: why was there silver
issue in 1896 and why is 1t still aliveT'
Ia It not because OF the act Of 1873, and
the statute which made gold the unit
Of value, and, as that law is still IN
force, having been unrepealed and I'M
amended, the free silver people viii
continue to oppose 1t. The Sun, after
showing why the silver isue is alive
because the gold standard is in exist
ence) makes the following pertinent
point: :,
HOW. then, could any re-enaetment o.
tho gold standard kill dead the silvet
issue. as the Times saysl The mere p IGGp
oSItion Of such superhuous iesiSlat ",
Nvo,iid rather give new vitality to the SUI
yer issue, for the Democratic party, ~
eordinE 10 Its latest dellveranee, - Opposes
uncompromisingly to the single gold st IN
dard. Surely no power 10 Repaetiean 4ef,
iSiation could change that opposition; II
is the very question over which the Dem
ocratie party IL nEaan ISS,i;,o,, managers
want or do not want the silver Issue ;ss
"LIiIcd dead !" they are powerless In tht
premises; they can neither XII i nor keep
Il alive by anything they can 40 IN SSH !,
Rresa The silver Issue Is acre anu u
bRG been here actively since lssa II cam
mi he KILLED dead" except by the aban'
donment OF It by the Democratic patty
and the positive acceptance OF the exls w
gold standard, or by the defeat OF thni
pSrty in 1900. II there is anything In law,
rea son or politics more obvious than this
we have not discovered II, yet IL seems
there are some minds incapable OF seems
or unwilling TO see q fact which stares
them in the face.
The idea brought out here is that
the Times suggestion cannot kill the
tissue" for 1t will be an ISSUE. The
real matter to be considered is to defeat
II again, and in the meantime Iegislate
the currency reforms referred to above
which Is all the Republicans and sound
money Democrats in Congress are
pledged to, and in Congress can do
The gold standard is already pro-
claimed by the statute. That Is al
there is in 1t.