The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-04-24

| begin at once to pay the pensioners,
officers of the army and navy, labor
ers and all government creditors in
silver dollars
Nobody Demands Heavier Dollar.
You condemn me because 1 did not
support that in 1896, and because L
would prevent such delirium in 1900.
Had the Chicago platform not urged
the immediate free and unlimited
coinage of silver and gold on a. ratio
of 16 to 1, but awaited the commercial
bullion parity of the white and yellow
metals before compelling creditors to
| accept the former, the scheme would
have been more tolerable. You well
know that our silver dollars are now in
our country kept equal to the gold dol
lars simply and solely by restricted
coinage of the former, and by con-
trolling exchange demand. You ought
to know that if our gold and silver dol
lars shall be at commercial par on the
ratio of 16 and France shall open her
minis again on the ratio of 151a, then,
since in our country 16 ounces of sill
Yer would be required to buy one ounce
of gold, our silver would. just as it
did in 1884. go to France, where only
151a ounces would be needed"
Here follows.a reorganization of cleo
ton returns from which Mr.. Belmont
undertakes to make it appear that in
dependent bimetallism has been re-
pudiated by the people. Continuing, Mr..
Belmont says:
Jefferson, Standard and Test.
I'm your unwarranted letter to me Of
March 16 you arraign my political opin-
ions because, as you assert, they are
hostile TO those of jefferson, who stood
for sacred, well-defined principles Jei-
ferson was by you made the standard
and the test. In order to crafty your
desire to know my opinions l mailed TO
you correct record of all l had said
or written on the Chicago platform
since the election of 1896. 1 did not, as
you wrote in your letter of the Sth inst,
to which 1 am now replying, ask you
to point out objections. l said: You
are at liberty to indicate and expose
any portion that is unpatriotic, IN
Democratic, un-American or in conflict
with the Democratic creed as set forth
in Jefferson'S first inaugural address.
You reply that you have not standard
by which to determine whether a given
opinion is patriotic or American. had
suspected as much.
'On the issue raised by yourself over
Jefferson, you endeavor to make not
his state papers the test of his Democ-
racy, but the innovations your co-con-
spiratorS, chiefly Republicans, inserted
in the Chicago platform. You complain
of our first Democratic platform, which
was Jefferson's inaugural address. that
it dealt only with general principles
OF course it did. 1t is the function of
a platform, in the American sense, to
deal with questions the conditions of
which are permanent. Jefferson did,
however, insist 'on honest payment Of
our debts, and sacred preservation of
the public faith which you ignore in
your ,unreasoning spite against credit
ors. In your hatred of creditors, You
ignore the public credit.
Shifts Position Again.
Again shifting your position, you
forget to apply Jefferson's platform to
these three topics on which, You say,
have taken a position First, stand
ard money; second, paper money; third,
the income tax.
las to the first, you affirm that JEFF
ferson favored the double Standard
but the Chicago platform declared that
the first coinage law of 1892 set up Il
single standard which was the silver
dollar, and insisted that alone was
Democratic.
AS to the second, there is not paper
money under our constitution. Only
specie can be money Everything in
paper is mere currency and should not
be legal tender. Jefferson said nothing |
of banks in his inaugural, but that he |
became intensely hostile to the bank |
is true. The conduct of the state banks |
in his time was enough to excite his |
Mr.. Gallatin wrote on
June IA. 1871. that Jefferson lived and |
died a decided enemy to our banking |
system generally, and especially TO Il |
bank of the United States but in the |
Briscoe (Kentucky) case a Democratic |
supreme court, led by fancy, decided |
that state could empower a bank to |
issue circulating notes and that they |
would be protected by the constitution. !
| leave you to wrestle with that judg- |
ment and with the fact that the exist |
ing national banks and their notes are !
creations.
In the darkest days of the war of |
1872, Jefferson, on Sept 10, 1914, did sug-
gest the issue of treasury notes for
large sums, based on specific taxes,
leaving the door open for the entrance
Of metallic money and urged the |
states to relinquish the right to estah-
lish banks, but he did not advise that
evidence of government debt be made
a full legal tender. During seventy
three years after the constitution was
adopted no Democrat, or Wing, toler-
ated that idea.
Income Tax.
at is misrepresentation pure and
simple to aver that l have resisted all !
'orms of taxation Of incomes. The vol
lime sent you proves it. In my friend
y correspondence with Mr.. Warner, to
which YOU refer, l said: THE income /.
AK may be the most equitable of all
axes if exclusive" l condemned the
income tax which the supreme court
declared unconstitutional. l referred
o the disaster which might ensue if
he United States and a state should
ak the same income, and also to the
feasibility of income and inheritance
axes laid only by the several states,
provided those taxes were not so I'M
'qually laid as to violate the fourteenth
There is similar MISREPRESENTATION
When YOU describe me as advocating
,oid recommendation. / have ALWAYS
TODD by the National Democratic
platform OF 1892. l infer that you con-
Tenn, as l do, proposed alliance be-
ween the TWO English speaking ma
ions. If such alliance be entangling
n the sense denounced by jefferson,
nd if it ALLEVIATE the present honest
of other powerful nations.
t should not be encouraged. A really
Democratic president chosen in 1900,
aving a secretary of state and of the
inspired by intelligent faith
n and zeal for international bimetall-
wo nations to promote the policy of
he United States and the welfare of
10Th governments, accomplish even I
I .