Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-06-21

| unuert act OF congress Has ulsQe care
| full investigation and will soon present
a full report of the best method of
dealing with this intricate! question.
| We shall meet it in some efficient way
and, as a party, shall have the courage
/ to protect every class OF our citizens.
4 There was never a better time to deal
with it than now, when there isn't
in this broad land man. willing to
work who doesn't find employment at
/ fair wages. and when the clamor of the
agitator who seeks confscation and not
regulation, falls ON dead ears and finds
no response from the artisans in our
busy workshops
The campaign four years ago was
| fought on the currency question:. The
populistic democracy insisted that the
United States alone should embark on
the free coinage of silver at the ratio
of 16 to 1, without waiting the concur
renee of any other nation. The repub-
lican party insisted that the question
of bimetallism was international, and
that until it should be settled under
agreement with the leading commercial
nations of the world, gold should CON
tinue to be the standard of value in
these United States. Upon that issue
we triumphed. In accordance with the
| pledge of, the party an honest effort
was made to reach some international
solution of the question. The effort
failed of Accomplishment. The mints
of the countries of Europe were open
for the coinage of gold alone. The vast
discoveries of Alaska, South Africa,
and the states of our own country,
have furnished steadily increasing
| volume of gold, and, with the recent
| European action, have demonstrated
that the question is one calling for in
ternational action by all, the great
countries of the world, and, if ever en-
tered into, must be by such concurrent
action of the leading commercial ma
tons as shall secure permanence of rel
ative value to the two metals. Mean
while we follow the path of safety. AS
we grow year by year more firmly es-
tablished as a creditor nation, the ques-
ton concerns us less and other coun-
tries more. No impairment of national
credit can be contemplated by an hon
orable nation. We have made advances
enough; this country can better afford
than any other to enter upon the con-
test for commercial supremacy with
god as it's standard, and for us the
time has come to give fair notice to the
world that we, TOO, make gold our
standard and redeem our obligations in
that metal. For twelve years the plat
forms of the party have declared in IA
vor of the use of gold and silver as
money. The logic of recent events, to-
gether with the attempt of the democ-
Sl1~prr II
it's international character, to associ-
ate it with every vagary of populism
and socialism, and to drive this coun-
| try to an alliance with Mexico and Chi
ma, as an exclusively silver using coun-
try, has impelled our people to this
settlement of this problem, and the
recent action of congress has eliminate
ed the danger which its further agita-
ton menaced.
The Currency Bill.
The provisions of the bill secure TO
the people needed increase in the vol
ume of the currency, prevent the f,1-
ture depletion of the gold in the treas
ury, and encourage a more extended
use, of our bonds by the national banks
of the country. But, above all. the sue
cess attending its passage has demon
strated that our own people and the
| nations of Europe have faith in the
permanence of our institutions and our
financial integrity. Our debt is funded
at per cent per annum, and millions
of our interest charge saved annually.
The world has never witnessed so tri-
umphant financial success as has fol-
lowed the passage of the currency law,
and our 2 per cent bonds, held the
world over, already command SUBJ
stantial premium. Thru the policy of
the republican party and the wisdom
of a republican administration, we
have not only made stable and perma-
nent our financial credit, at home and
abroad, are utilizing more silver as
money than ever before in our history,
but we have left the popnlistic democ-
racy dead issue they can never again
galvanize into life, and compelled them
to seek to create new issues growing
out of a war which they were most
eager to precipitate.
May l, western man, add another
word? The passage of this bill, which
received the vote of every western re-
publican in congress, marked the ter
mination, forever final, of any sort of
difference between republicans of the
east and west, growing out of currency
problems. Even if the stern logic Of
events had not convinced us, our deep
and abiding loyalty to the principles Of
the party, our belief that the Judgment
of the majority shout govern, would
lead us to abandon further contention.
And the thousands of republicans in
the west who left us four years ago
are returning home. The men of the
far west are bone of your bone, and
flesh of your flesh. The sun that shines
on you blesses them also, and the sha-
dow before your door darkens their
homes as well. They are naturally ex-
pansionists in the western plains and
mountains, and when they see great
political party attacking the integrity
of the nation, and lending encourage
ment to insurrectionists who are shoot
| ing down our soldiers and resisting
the authority of the government of the
United States, all other questions fade
and are forgotten, andlthey find them
| ca1yac Stap6inr cb0,11dpr IA choullor =.