The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-12-19
Issue an Address Setting Forth Their Views
on the Currency Bill.
Assert That IF the Measure Be-
comes a Law It Will Result In
the Creation Of q Great Bank
Money Trust, and Urge the
Friends Of Silver to Join Them
in Waging an Intending War
Against the Adherents Of the
Gold Standard.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1S.-After the
passage to-day by the House or the
financial bill, the Silver Republican
leaders in the city held a meeting ana
adopted an address setting forth their
views as to its effect. The ADDRESS
says:
THE passage by the House of Rep
resentatives to-day of the gold stand
ard and bank currency bill exactly as
agreed upon by the Republican caucus
and without the opposition of single
Republican vote, marks the elimination
of a policy long and carefully pursued
by certain influences in control of the
leadership of the Republican party, and
justifies the action of the men who III
1896 refused to remain in that organ
ization after the adoption of the ~
Louis platform.
THE Republican national platforms
of 1888 and 1892 had been unequIvocaA-
ly in favor of bimetallism, and the use
of both gold and silver as standard
money. Nevertheless, it was apparent
several months before the assembling
of the national convention of 1896 that
the machinery of the Republican party
had passed wholly into the hands OF
the banking and creditor interests, and
that it was the purpose of the latter TO
commit the party to the advocacy ana
achievement of the gold standard.
Against this danger the undersigned
and many other Republican bimetallists
at that time vainly attempted to arouse
the masses of the party. The politi-
clans and newspapers privy to the
scheme denounced our fears as I'M
founded or simulated, and by sk1llful
use of catch words and generalltleS
succeeded in foresta4..ng any wide
spread comprehension of their designs.
When the convention met similar In
genuity governed the framing OF the
declaration of the money question. It's
essential part was as follows:
I'VE are therefore opposed to the
free coinage of silver, except by inter-
national agreement with the leading
commercial nations of the world, which
we pledge ourselves to promote, and
until such agreement can be obtained
the existing gold standard must be pre-
served All our silver and paper cur
rency must be maintained at a parity
with gold, etc.
1T is strange that so manifest an
body Clearly, If the gold standard was
desirable, the free coinage of silver was
undesirable, however secured. If the
gold standard was right, free coinage
must be wrong. Nobody could intelli-
gently and honestly demand the inter-
national free coinage of silver, and at
the same time express such emphatic
satisfaction with the gold standard as
an alternative. AS a matter of fact,
this declaration was intended as a def
mite assurance to the speculative banks
and their allies that the Republican
party, If successful in the election.
would proceed with all possible speed
to the establishment of the single gold
standard in all its rigor.
las soon as the election was over
and the fruits of this chicanery had
been gathered, the great Republican
newspapers began to discard their con-
venient antiquities about sound mon
ey' and honest money and to claim the
result as a definite verdict in favor of
gold.
1.-THE international agreement for the
free coinage of silver having failed to
be promoted steps are now taken to
insure that the gold standard shall be
preserved The present bill preserves
it with vengeance. The vast bonded
debt of the country, now payable in
'coin,' that is either gold or silver, is
to be made payable in gold alone.
Nearly half a billion of standard silver
dollars, heretofore not redeemable in
anything, constitute a burden on either
the gold reserve or the credit of the
Government, but forming a large per-
centage of our basic money, are here
after to be redeemed in gold, thus in
creasing tremendously the strain on
that metal, and thus becoming an
endless chain with which to pull gold
from the treasury, and affording an
excuse for the, final destruction Of the
silver dollars as money and their forced
sale as bullion, after the manner of the
German procedure in 1872.
THE greenbacks. the best paper
money the world ever saw, the product
of the patriotism and craftsmanship of
the Republican party In the days of
Abraham Lincoln, are to be virtually
destroyed by being changed into gold
certificates, to be locked up in the
treasury and paid out only for gold.