The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-07-26
A FALSE CRY.

publican party firmly established the
gold standard" which was menaced
when 1T came into power in 1891. The
first report made by this correspondent
states very unreservedly that 1t Is well
known by those who have made study
of financial legislation that "the gold
| standard has never been finally estab-
| lished" and that as long as the acts of
| one Congress can in no way hind sue
ceeding Congresses, so long will 1t be
impossible to establish irrevocably'
any monetary standard. No doubt this
is. technically true, but 1t shows to
what desperate strait the Republican
leaders are driven by the frank and
| courageous declaration of Judge Par
ker not only that he believed that the
gold standard was firmly and irrevo-
cably established" but that in the
event of his election he would "act ac-
| cordingly."
The purpose of this assault upon the
| permanency of the gold standard is to
| lead the voters away from the consid-
Grafton of other issues that are more
| frightening, with the faint hope of de-
! luding them into the belief that in the
event of the election of majority of
Democrats as members of the next
House of Congress such a result would
endanger the gold standard, because of
the alleged unreliability of the Demo-
cratic party upon the currency ques-
ton. But every person who has given
the least attention to financial legisla-
| ton must know that it is historically
true that the Democratic party has, as
a rule, been the champion of sound
money; that prior to the late war be-
| tween the States 1t was known as the
sound or hard money party. 1t
then favored both gold and silver mon
ey. the unit being the gold dollar, the
dollar of each metal to be of equal in
trinsic value. The mint act of 1892
fixed the ratio at Is to because it was
believed, upon inquiry, that according
to the average market price of gold in
the several countries with which it was
expected we would principally be con-
nected in commerce, disregarding legal
proportions, fifteen ounces of silver
were intrinsically worth the same as
one ounce of gold. A change was
made in the ratio in 1894, making it 1f
to 1, by the Democratic party. The act
of 1892 undervalued gold. which was
therefore exported, under the operation
of the memorable Gresham law. Under
the operation of the same law affect
ing our commerce with certain silver
countries our silver dollars disappeared
and their coinage was suspended by
President jefferson in 1906, and there
were none coined for thirty years. The
same law operated upon our fractional
, currency, which was of full weight, ir
proportion. and full legal tender. II
1858 the weight of these silver pieces
was lowered and their legal tender
, power limited to IS.
.. The act of 1873 omitted the standard
silver dollar from the list of coins tc
be coined under it. The most note
) worthy fact in connection with the his
tory of the coinage of the standard sill
yer dollar is the very small amour
= coined from the establishment of thu
continued. The amount was only IS.
031,23S during this period of eighty
one years, while on June Goth las
there We're silver dollars in the treas
. ury amounting to $496.41S,675. Tn
= coinage of silver during the long pc
Rod prior to 1873 consisted mainly o
factional or subsidiary silver, of whic
| tbara u,nre coipad S121 oen
The Republican party was mainly re
: sponsible for the act of 1878, as
!. passed. 1t was the creation of Senate
=, Allison. 1t provided for the purchas
VI silver bullion, not less than S-,vv0
600 worth nor more than 100000
. worth per month and cause the sam
to pe coined monthly as fast as pur
chased into standard silver dollars
The subsequent act of July IA, lS9
whose author was Senator Sherman
provided for the purchase of 4,5O0 90
ounces of silver, each month, at tn
" market price. These two acts wer
y the cues which produced the surfeit G
- silver coins which came SO near bring
. ing our country to the silver standar,
/
10 both houses of Congress. They wer
sustained by the Republican part
- through its national platforms. III
~ Republican platform of 1883 declared
re The Republican party is in favor {
.e the use of both gold and silver a
:, money, and condemns the policy OF tn
II Democratic administration IN It's etfor,
Il 10 demonetize silver.
1t was President Cleveland's first ad
- ministration that was condemned fo
it's alleged efforts to demonetize silve
- by the National Republican Conven
- ton. Mr.. Mckinley, adhering to tn
" policy which he had consistently pur
sued in the past, in "a speech at Toled
o.. February II, 1891, put the cas-
against the gold standard, by denounC
ing President Cleveland's policy as TO
= lows
p" During all of Grover Cleveland
II years at the head of the governmeI
II he was dishonoring one of the preciol
metals. one of our own great product
II degrading silver and raising the pri,
e of gold. lie endeaVored even befol
his Inauguration to office to stop Il
coinage of silver dollars, and aftc
ward, to the end of his administrative
persistently used his power to that en-
&C lie was determined to contract the eli
n of the coins of commerce. limit Il
,,o1uroa of Ynopav amOnp tho NAOMI