The Penn's Grove record., 1904-10-14
On United States Finances.
From Thomas E. Watson's Letter
of Acceptance.

al law, 1t seemed to be firmly liked. For
a hundred years this money system was
in operation among u.s.. Therefore it
seemed to be 'sirrevocably fixed"
Very wise men created this system of
national finance. 1t was the one sub
Iiect upon which Thomas Jefferson and
Alexander Hamilton agreed. Those
two were perhaps the greatest states
men this country ever produced. So
pre-eminent were they above all others
that the divided the people into two
distinct schools of political thought.
But upon the vital subject of finance
these master minds reached the same
conclusion, and that conclusion became
a part of the Constitution.
Whether the Wall Street influences
which produced the establishment of
the gold standard emanated from wis
er heads than those of Jefferson and
Hamilton may be doubted. Both of
these great men served their country a
long time and died poor. In fixing BIZ
metallism as a system and the silver
dollar as the unit of value they had no
selfish motive. Two ofty-minded states
men agreed upon that system as the
right system. 1t remained in force,
giving full satisfaction, until the mon
ey power, in it's march of conquest,
found it to be a barrier. The money
power demands a standard which it can
control, and one metal is easier to con-
troll than two. For the same reason it
opposes governmental issues of paper
money, and will never be content until
the greenbacks are called in and de-
stroyed.
To establish the single gold stand
/ ard, which sets the Constitution aside,
1 the statute had to be violated. The
word "coin" had to be construed to
mean ''gold only" and the paper note,
issued on silver, had to be redeemed
in a manner different from that pre-
scribed by law.
There are at least five reasons why
the gold standard cannot be considered
as fixed:
(1) 1t is unconstitutional.
III 1t violates statute law.
(3l The supply of gold might in
crease beyond all the calculations of
the money power. Thus the standard
of value would get beyond their con
troll. In that event the money power
itself would change the standard.
~ The supply of gold might sudden
ly cease. In that event contraction
would at once set in, because the coun-
try's expansion in business and in
crease in population require a constant
ly increasing volume OF currency. If
the horrors of contraction should again
come upon us by the selfish policy of
the money power, the people would
compel a change in the standard. Wall
Street gave us the panic OF 1873; Wall
Street gave us the panic of 1898. Let
Wall Street give us another, and it may
find that it has given us n too many.
The American people have about reach
ed the limit of endurance. We have
heard mach of "Constitutionalism'' in
this campaign. The sincerity of the
cry is shown by the fact that the gold
standard, which violates the statute
law and the Constitution, is not only
supported by Theodore Roosevelt, the
I%mperialist, but by Alton B. Parker,
the chosen apostle of Constitutionalism.
STANDARD NOT FIXED.
(5) The gold standard is not TIRE
vocably fixed" because it is unscienti-
lic and wrong. Nothing is more GER
tain than the people of this country
will continue their struggle until they
have a national currency which the
money power cannot control, and which
answers the purpose of perfecting ex-
changes without becoming an armory
from which the buccaneers of modern
finance draw the irresistible weapons
with WHICH they attack values and raid
the markets.
THAT GOLD TELEGRAM.
BY a dictatorial tone, amounting to
menace, Judge Parker was driven by
the New York World into the sending
of the telegram which told the Demo-
cratic Convention, for the first time,
and many hours after Parker had Sc
cured the nomination, that the gold
standard was "irrevocably fixed.''
Neither then nor in any utterance af-
terward did he say that the gold stand
ard was right, until he had been she'll
ed so vigorously by myself and others
for having deserted the free-silventer
without saying they were wrong, and
having gone Over to the gold standard
without saying it was right. Even
Judge Parker finally realized that the
ground was caving under his feet, and
was literally driven to firmer footing.
AT last he has taken his place side by
side with Roosevelt on the most deeply
important issue before the people.
Let it be borne in mind that Wall
Street wanted the last Congress to is
u nor bonds; let it be remembered
that the Cleveland Democrats want the
greenbackS called in and burnt: do not
forget that the ''endless chain'' pre-
cedent set by Cleveland stands as a
precedent to be followed; recall how
easy it is for the money power to hide
their plans until the victim is in their
trap-and you will begin to realize that
terrible dangers still lurk in this mon
ey question.
MORE BONDS WANTED.
Wall Street wants more bonds; the
machinery for getting them is there,
just where Cleveland left it; the same
men who worked Cleveland for bonds
are steering Parker's campaign; what
has been promised to Belmont and his
confederated corporations? Is the
''endless chain''- to be put in motion
again? Voters who do not consider
these questions do themselves injustice.
The Wall Street organ, the New
York World, compelled Parker to
speak out on the money question; why
should he not be compelled by the
Hearst papers, and other really Demo-
cratic papers, to speak out upon other
questions where the people have Alright
to information?
HELPING REPUBLICANS.
The great party of six and a half
million voters sent their leaders to st.
Louis without any Instructions to sur
render to Wall Street. That surrender
created a profound discomfort which
will not down. Mr.. Bryan himself can
not make that bitter pill palatable to
the Organizes. The sellout was too
hr1ZQn too Su1den too comn1nta No.