The record-union., 1899-04-24

1t declared that the Democracy 'was
unalterably opposed to monometallls1n,
but the trainers Of the Chicago plat
form urged what the country believed
would be silver monometallisn
Many things demanded by the plat
form could be done only by Congress.
such as opening our mines to silver ana
gold alike, on fixed ratio, legislation
to prevent freedom of contracts by
making debts payable not in such a
dollar as contractors preferred, extlnc-
tion Of the national bank notes, and
making Government notes the only pa
per currency. The right to grant 9TH
er demands-such as, for example, the
refusal to Government creditors OF the
right, existing for twenty years. to Sc
lect the coin of payment, whether Sill
yer or gold-Was, and is now perhaps,
IN the discretion of the Secretary of the
treasury, to whom the law has so gen.
orally given decision in those matters.
1t is not given to the President The
Chicago platform clearly intended that
the President should nominate, and, if
the Senate confirmed appoint a head
OF the Treasury who should forthwith
pay all Government creditors in silver
dollars the gold price of the bullion in
each of which was then worth a trifie
over fifty cents You may say that
you believed at the time that the open
ing OF our mintS to everybody'S silver
on the ration of 16 the bullion ratio in
1896 was over 30), without waiting for
the aid or consent of any other nation"
would bring 16 ounces Of silver to a
commercial parity with an ounce of
gold, but if you did there were prob
ably very few experts in any country
who sympathiZed with your belief All
felt that the time would be far off, if
1t ever came, when such parity could
exist. The Chicago platform plan.
however, was not to await the opening
of our mints by Congress and the ar
rival of parity, but for the Treasury to
begin at once to pay the pensioners,
officers of the army and navy, laborers
and all Government creditors in silver
dollars.
NOBODY DEMANDS A HEAVIER
SILVER DOLLAR
You condemn me because I did not
support that in 1896, and because L
would prevent such delrium in 1900.
Had the Chicago platform not urged the
immediate free and unlimited coinage
of silver and gold on a ratio of IS to 1,
but awaited the commercial bullion par
ity of the white and yellow metals be
fore compelling creditors to accept the
former, the scheme would have been
more tolerable. You we'll know that our
silver dollars are now in our country
kept equal to the gold dollars simply
and solely by restricted coinage of the
former and by controlling exchange de-
mand You ought to know that if our
gold and silver dollars shall be at COM
merclal par on the ratio of IS and
France shall open her mints again on
the ratio of 1514. then, since in our
country 16 ounces Of silver would be re-
quired to buy one ounce of gold, our sill
Yer would, just as it did in 1884, go to
France, where only 151a ounces would
be needed.
THE LESSON OF THE ELECTIONS.
Every tree is known by its own
fruit" What has been the fruit of the
Chicago platform? A tabuated state
ment of percentages for 1892. 1896 and
1898, emitting the scattering votes and
Classifying as Democratic the Silver
vote, the Populist vote, and the Demo-
cratic vote, will be more persuasive
than any other form of words. In Colo
rado, Idaho, Kansas, North Dakota and
Wyoming the Democrats had not in
1872 an electoral ticket but voted the
Peoples party ticket in order to take
thcse States from the Republicans.
That was true also in Nebraska. Classi-
tying, for tabular convenience. that
Weaver vote of 1899 as Democratic. and
also in 1896 classifying the Fusion vote
as Democratic, these are the percent
ages for 1892 1896 and 1903.