Crawfordsville Weekly Journal, Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, 4 September 1896 — Page 14

WEEKLY JOURNAL.

ESTABLISHED IN 1848.

Bnccossor to The Record, the first paper In Orawfordsvllle, established in 1831, and to The People's Press, established 1844.

PRINTED EVERY FRIDAY MORNING.

THE JOURNAL COMPANY. T, H. B. McCAIN, President. J. A. GREENK. Secretary.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1896.

IF the farmers really want to prosper why don't they get a law passed providing that the government shall purchase all the wheat and corn they raise at the uniform price of 81 a bushel? They ought to have as good a chance at the Treasury as the mineowners.

THE essence of the money question is put is a nutshell by Major McKinley. "If," said he, "You can increase the value of anything by lowering the measure of value, and you want to benefit the farmer, then make the bushel smaller, the pound lighter, »nd declare a legal dozen less than twelve."

IT is said the Mexican dollars that are being circulated for campaign purposes are counterfeits.—Argus News.

As we have stringent laws for the punishment of those who deal in counterfeit money we would suggest to the Democratic managers who make this charge that they make a few arrests. That would test the truth of their statement.

THE Idaho Republicans have not given up the ship. At their convention held at Boise City on the 20th three Presidential electors we're named and a full State ticket nominated, including a candidate for Congress. C. A. Forseman, formerly of this city and a son-in-law of Hon. P. S. Kennedy, was renominated for Superintendent of Schools. The platform strongly endorses the St. Louis platform and candidates.

FREE TRADE and free silver are the two halves' of one thing. Free trade engenders low wages and free silver provides a debased money to pay wages with. Both work together in perfect harmony for the benefit of the foreign competitor in the labor market. The combination, if persisted in, will, and always does, make the rich richer, and the poor poorer at a swift ratio. No more devilish scheme was ever proposed. and never one which would so wholly handicap American free labor for the direct benefit of English capital, capitalists, manufacturers and workingman.

TUB attempt on the part of the Popocrats to array one section of the country against the other and the poor against the rich finds no favor in the eyes of the broad minded statesman, Wm. McKinley. In his letter of acceptance on this point he says: "It is a cause for painful regret and solicitude that an effort is being made by those high in the counsels of the allied partieh to divide the people of this country into classes and create distinction among us, which in fact do not exist and are repugnant to our form of government. These appeals to passion and prejudice are

AT

A. A. MoCAIN,Treasurer

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THE DAILY JOURNAL. ESTABLISHED IN 1887. TEBM8 OF SUBSCRIPTION:

One year In advance Six months Three months. Per week, delivered or by mall

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beDeath

the spirit and intelligence of a free people, and should be met with stern rebuke by those they are sought to in lluence, and I believe they will be. Every attempt to a-ray class against class,

'the

classes against the masses,'

section against section, labor against capital,

'the

poor against the rich,' or

interest against interest in the United States is in the highest degree reprehensible."

AM, the gasconade about our being dominated by "British money" is emitted for the purpose of capturing the unthinking. The certain end and purpose of Bryan's captious phrasings about "foreign dictation" is to lure his followers into the power of the silver monopolists, and that of the most grasping corporations on earth. The silver barons join hands with the gold barons. A late number of the Nation says: "The silverUes of this country will be confounded to learn that the Rothchilds are bimetallists. Whether our western friends will be pleased or shocked by this information we shall not attempt to predict, but we fancy that they will find some difficulty in swallowing all the hard things' they have said about the hateful house, who are always 'cornering gold'and making money dear in order that they may suck the blood of borrowers all over the world. The information that they are not goldbugs is printed in the

Independent, and comes from no less an authority than President Andrew's, of Brown University. WorEe and worse, Mr. Andrews says it is a mistake to suppose that the banking interest in London is solid for gold: 'London bankers are among the most enthusiastic propagandists of bimetallism.'"

AHSURD PROPOSITION.

THE moment the government passes a free silver law making silver ic^ai tender for all debts the moment all the rights given to gold are giveD to silver, that very moment the price of silver will rise and the price of gold will fall. A gold dollar will be worth no more than a silver dollar and the price of silver bullion will advance. Nothing could be more natural in the business world. It's a law than cannot be disputed successfully. Then instead of 30 ounces of silver beintr worth one ounce o: gold it will take but 16 ounces of silver to equal one of gold. That is not repudiation, it is honesty. Then instead of a 53 cent dollar we will have a 100 cent dollar Democrats remember this point and insist on it. It is absolutely true Argus-News.

The experience of such statesmen as Jefferson, Hamilton, Morris, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Benton and Webster is probably more valuable than the mere assertion of the statesman of the Argus-News. These men all believed and acted on their belief that the commercial ratio between the two metals should be the legal ratio. Hamilton, as the first Secretary of the Treasury, in a most exhaustive report on the establishment. of the mint, took high ground in favor of the commercial ratio. Among the evils attendant on making the legal ratio different from the commercial, Hamilton said:

Creditors, both of the public and of individuals, would lose a part of their property public and private debt would receive a wound: the effective revenues of the government would be diminished. There is scarcely any point in the economy of national affairs of greater moment than the uniform preservation of the intrinsic value of the money unit. On this the security and steady value of property essentially depends.

Jefferson, the first Secretary of State, and the father of the Democratic party, concurred in the views held by Hamilton. Concerning the ratio to be adopted he said:

Just principles will lead us to disrq^ gard legal proportions altogether to inquire into the market price of gold in the several countries with which we shall be principally connected in commerce, and to take an average of them.

Robert Morris, who was second to neither Hamilton nor Jefferson as a financier, held to the rame views. And it was James Madison as Secretary of State in Jefferson's cabinet in 180G who penned that celebrated order directing the Superintendent of the Mint to suspend the coinage of the silver dollar because in the market- fluctuations gold had become more valuable than silver at the legal ratio of 15 to 1 which had been adopted. Silver then had all the rights that gold possessed under the law but the market value was less, and although the difference was but two or three cents it was sufficient to prevent gold from being taken to the mint.

And this has been the experience of the statesmen not only of our own country but of the world since that day. Samuel D. Ingham, President JackEon's Secretary of the Treasury, in his report to Congress in 1830 proposing the change in the ratio from 15 to 1 to 16 to 1 held to the same view. There iv no possible reason for supposing that the case would be any different now in this country. It is not necessary to theorize but go to the facts Mexico, before the fall in the price of silver, had gold and silver both in circulation. Anyone could take either to the mint and have it coined on the same terms. Silver fell very slowly at first, but as soon as there was a difference between the actual bullion value of the gold and silver pesos (dollars-), everybody paid out silver in preference to gold. And so it went on until no gold was in circulation. The merchants buy Mexican gold coin to use in foreign trade. The gold has not changed in value. The silver peso is dropped to about half its former value. If the Argus News' assertion is tru* that silver under a free coinage law would advance from 05 cents an ounce to §1.29, why didn't silver keep up in price when the mints of Mexico, Japao,

China, Central America and South America were having it coined free to all comerb? All these countries could not keep up the price. Under free coinage the value of their silver coin fell right along with the value of silver, and their silver moiley, though a full legal tender, will buy no more than that much silver bullion will buy. Now, what is there that would make the case different from ours? We have not one-sixth as many inhabitants as »the silver countries of the world. What on earth would make the price of silver double Itfeelf because of the passage of a law? For it would haye to double itself the world over. If silver were worth more here than anywhere else, it would come here from all over the world to find a market.

THOMAS JKFKHRSON, the great apostle of Democracy, says: "The proportions between the value of gold and silver is a mercantile problem altogether." But the Argus-News and Bryan say that the proportions between the values of gold and silver is a legal problem altogether, that when "silver is given the same legal rights and functions that gold has it will advance in price." There seems to be a slipht difference of opinion between Thomas Jefferson and the Argus-Nems.

FOB artistic work see THE JOUJWAL Co.. PBIHTKB&

EFFECT OF FREE COINAGE. THE JOURNAI, has been asked to state what would be the effect of free coinage of silver at the- ratio of 1(5 to 1. As is well known the present standard of value is 23.22 grains of pure gold. This is the amount in the dollar. The bullion in the silver dollar— 371.25 grains of pure silver—is worth a little over fifty cents in the market. To the extent of the difference between the monetary value and aud the commercial value of the silver dollar, this coin is token money. The government is able to keep it at a monetary parity with gold by limiting tha coinage and by making the silver dollar practically redeemable in gold, just us France has done with her silver. Obviously if the mints were thrown open for the coinage of all the surplus silver of the world at the present ratio—that is, the unlimited coinage of fifty cents' worth of silver into a so-called dollar—the government could not maintain this fifty cent dollar at a parity with gold. The result would be that our silver money would have simply its commercial value, as gold has now—that is it would pass for exactly what it is worth. Our paper money would fall to the same level, because it would be redeemable in silver. It is an indisputable proposition that cheaper money drives out the dearer. One hundred cent dollars would not circulate with fifty-cent dollars. Gold would be altogether banished. There is no gold in use in China, Mexico or any other silver standard country. The first effect of the adoption of the silver standard by the United States would be a tremendous reduction of the volume of money. We now have §026,000,000 of gold, 5625,000,000 of silver and 8475,000,000 of paper, a total of 51,726,000,000, every dollar worth one hundred cents. The moment we come to a silver standard the 8626,000,000 of gold would disappear and the volume of money would consist of 8625,000,000 of silver and $475,000,000 of paper, having a total debt-paying value—because of legal tender—of 81,100,000,000, but a purchasing power o: only 8550,000,000, because the dollar would then buy only one-half as much as the dollar on the gold basis now buys. But, says some one, the volume of silver would soon be increased to cover the loss of gold. It would take from fifteen to twenty years for the United States mints, running day and night, to coin $620,000,000 of silver, and at the end of that time the volume of money would have only one-half the purchasing power of the present stock of money. Fiee silver would mean, therefore, not only the debasement of the currency, but a vast contraction. It would bring upon the people of this country the greatest conceivable catastrophe.

Exports From Ilouo] ulu.

WASHINGTON, Aug. ol.—Consul General Ellis Mills at Honolulu, in report to the stato department says the exports to this country this year are almost double those ol! last year, reaching $8,748,5^0 for the year against §4,94!),{Jlii last year. Most of it is sugar, of which 52,457,4:32 has been carried around Cape Horn direct to iew York, instead of going via San Francisco. One large shipment has gone around the Horn to Boston.

15aby' Hit ISv a Coiiperheiitl Sitakc. MARIETTA, O., Aug. 31.—Mrs Alexander Shaw of Matimoras went into the room where her baby slept and discovered a large copperhead snake in the craddle. The reyitle had already bitten the child twice, and the baby was striking at it with its tiny hands. Mrs. Shaw rushed, to tiie rescue at once, and the snake, which was two feet long, was soon dispatched. The baby cannot, live. The wounds are

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its arm aud necK".

Michigan Central Depot Humeri. DYER, Ltd., Aug. ol.—Michigan Central depot here was burglarized. After looting the safe of its contents the station was burned to the ground. Three previous attempts had been foiled. Seven dollars was taiieu this time, but the loss by lire is about §2,000.

IJig Fire at Scrimtnn, Pa,

Sci?AXTON*, Pa., Aug. 31.—The 0-story coal exchange oliice and store building caught lire yesterday and before, the flames could be controlled the building and contents were damaged to the extent of $150,000. Insurance, .$100,000. Cause

01

lire unknown.

Murdered ut a

CASEY, Ills., Aug. 31.—WilliardBrandenburg, aged 38, of Huttpn township, was murdered in this city during a rally. Two stabs in the neck and a blow above the right eye are evidences of the deed. Brandenburg returned here four days ago, after 15 years' absence in the west.

A stomachful of undigested food is about as unhealthy a mass as one can «ell imagine.

What can be done with it? ''V There it stays. It won't digest. It churns up, ferments and decays becomes poisonous (as all putrid matter does) and causes great pain and deepseated disorders.

In order to change all this, take Shaker Digestive Cordial. It stops fermentation and decay at once, so that no more poisons are created.

It clears the stomach of all poisons already there. It helps it to turn the food tliBt remains, into healthful nourishment.' It strengthens the ctomach fo* the next meal.

Here is the whole philosophy and cure of indigestion in a few words. And what's more, it's all true. Try it.

Shaker Digestive Cordial is for sale by druggists, price 10 cents to 81.00 a bottle.

FOB bill heads see THE JOUBNAX CO.. PBINTEKB.

M'KINLEY'S LETTER

He Makes Formal Acceptance of the Republican Nomination,

DISCUSSION OF THE ISSUES.

Question of Our Monetary Systrm and Tariff Policy Handled at Considerable Length—Quotations From Harrison and

Cleveland—An Interesting Public Document.

OAXTON*, O., Aug. 27.—Major McKinley, who was some weeks ago officially notified of his nomination by theRepub-

WILLIAM M'KINLKT.

lican party for president, has issued the following formal acccptance: To

H011.

John M. Thurston and others, mem­

bers of the notification committee of the liepublican national convention: GENTLEMEN—111 pursuiuice to the promise made t.o your committee when notified of my nomination as the Republican candidate for president, I be:? to submit this formal acceptance of that high honor, and to consider in detail questions at issue in the pending campaign. Perhaps this might be considered unnecessary, in view of my remarks on that occasion and those I have made to delegations that have visited me since the St. Louis convention, but in viewof the momentous importance of the proper settlement of the issues presented on our future prosperity and standing as a nation, and considering only the welfare and happiness of our people, I could not be content to omit again calling attention to the questions which in my opinion vitally affect our strength and position among the governments of the world, and our moralit.y, integrity and patriotism as citizens of the republic which for a century past has been the best hope of the world and the inspiration of mankind. We must not now prove false to our high standards in government nor unmindful of the noble example and wise precepts of the fathers, or ot tiie. confidence and trust which our conduct in the pasthas always inspired.

Ot'lt MONETARY SYSTEM.

Clear iintl Direct Iasuo cf Vast Importance ill Its Effects. For the first time since ISttS, if ever he fore, there is presented to the American people this year a clear and direct issue at, to our monetary system of vast importance in its elfects, and upon the right settlement of which rests largely the financial honor and prosperity of the country. It is proposed by one win# of the Demo cratic party and its allies, the Peoples' and Silver parties, to inaugurate the free and unlimited coinage of silver by independent action on the part of the United States at a ratio of 10 ounces of silver to 1 ounce of gold. The mere declaration of this purpose is a menace to our financial and industrial interests and has already created universal alarm. It involves great peril to the credit and business of the country, and a peril so grave that conservative men everywhere are breaking away from their old party associations and uniting with other patriotic citizens in em phatic protest against the platform of the Democratic national convention as an assault upon the faith and honor of the government aud the welfare of the people. We have had few questions in the life-time of the republic more serious than the one which is thus presented.

Free Silver and Its Kfl'eet.

The character of the money which shall measure our values aud exchanges and settle our balances with one another, and with the nations of the world, is of such primary importance and so far reaching in its consequences as to call for the most painstaking investigation, and in the end a sober and unprejudiced judgment at the polls. We must not bo misled by plirases nor deluded by false theories. Free silver would not mean that silver dollars were to be freely had without, cost or labor. It would mean the free use of the mints of the United Stales for the few who are owners of silver bullion, but would make silver coin no freer to'' tiie many who are engaged in other enterprises, ft would not make labor easier, the hours of labor shorter, or the pay belter. It would not start a factory or make a demand lor an additional day's labor. It would create no new occupations. It would add nothing to the comfort of the masses, the capital of the people, or the wealth of the nation. It seeks to introduce a new measure of value, but would add

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value to the thing meas­

ured. It would not conserve values}. On the contrary, it would derange all existing values. It would not. restore business eo fidence, but its direct effect would be to destroy the little which yet remains.,

Democratic Coinage I'lanlt. The meaning of the coinage plank adopted at Chicago is that anyone may take a quantity of silver bullion, now worth 53 cents, to the mints of the United States, have it coined ittl-he expense of the government and receive for it a silver dollar, which shall be legal tender for the payment of all debts, public and private. The owner of the silver bullion would get the silver dollar. It would belong to him and to nobody else. Other people would get it only by their labor, the products ol their land, or something of value. The bullion owner, on the basis of present values, would receive the silver dollar tor 53 cents worth of silver, and other people would he required to receive it as a full dollar in the payment of debts. The government would get nothing from the transaction. It would bear the expense of coining the silver and the community would suffer loss by its use.

We nave coined since 1878 more than 400,000,000 of silver dollars, which are maintained by the government at parity with gold and area full legal tender for the payment of all debts, public and private. How are the silver dollars now in

use different from those which would be in use under free coinage? They are to be of the same weight and fineness they are to bear the same stamp of the government. Why would the not be of the same value? I answer: The silver dollars now in use were coined on account of the government, and not for private account or gain, and the government has solemnly agreed to keep them as good as the best dollars we have. The government bought the silver bullion at its market value and coined it into silver dollars. Having exclusive control of the mintage, it only coins what it can hold at a parity with gold.

The profit, representing the difference between the commercial value of the silver bullion and the face value of the silver dollar,goes to the government for the benefit of the people. The government bought the silver bullion contained in the silver dollar, at very much less than its coinage value. It paid out to its creditors and put it in circulation among the peonle at its face value of 10'J cents or a full dollar. It required the people to accept it as a legal tender, and is thus morally bound to maintain it at a parity with gold, which was then, as now, the recognized standard with us and the most enlightened nations of the world. The government, having issued and circulated the silver dollar, it must in honor protect the holder from loss. This obligation it has so far sacredly kept. Not only is there a moral obligation, but there is a legal obligation expressed in public statute, to maintain the parity.

Keeping Dollars at Par.

These dollars, in the particulars I have named, are not the same as the dollars which would be issued under free coinage. They would be the same in form, but different in value. The government would have no part, in the transaction, except to coin the silver bullion into dollars. It would share in no part of the profit. Tt would take upon itself

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obligation. It

would not put the dollars into circulation. It could only get themnsany citizen would get them, by giving something for them. It would deliver them to those who deposited the silver, and its connection with the transaction there end. Such are the silver dollars which would be issued under free coinage of silver at a ratio of 10 to 1. Who would maintain the parity? What would keep them at par with gold? There would be no obligation resting upon the government to do it, and if there were it would be powerless to do it. The simple truth is, we would be driven to a silver basis—to silver monometallism.

These

dollars, therefore, would stand upon their real value. If the free and unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 ounces of silver to 1 ounce'of gold, would, as some of its advocates assert, make 53 cents in silver worth 100 cents, and the silver dollar equal to the gold dollar, then we would have no cheaper money than now, and it would be no easier to get.

But that such would bo the result is against reason and is contradicted by experience in all times and in all lands. It means the debasement of our currency to the amount of the difference between the commercial and coin value of the silver dollar, which is ever changing, and the effect would be to reduce property values, entail untold financial loss, destroy confidence, impair the obligations of existing contracts, further impoverish the laborers and producers of the country, create a panic of unparalleled severity and inflict upon trade and commerce a deadly blow. Against any such policy I am unalterably opposed.

Jiimetallisra.

Bimetallism cannot be secured by independent action

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our part. It cannot be

obtained by opening our mints to the unlimited coinage of the silver of the world at a ratio of 10 ounces of silver to 1 ounce of gold, when the commercial ratio is more than 30 ounces of silver to 1 ounce of gold. Mexico and China have tried the experiment. Mexico has free coinage of silver and gold at a ratio slightly in excess of 16\4 ounces of silver to 1 ounce of gold, and while her mintsare freely open to both metals at that ratio not a single dollar in gold bullion is coined and circulated a« money. Gold has been driven out of circulation in these countries and they are on a silver basis alone. Until international agreementishad.it is the plain duty of the Unitad States to maintain the gold standard. It is the recognized and sole standard of the great commercial nations of the world, with which we trade more largely thau any other. Eighty-four per cent of our foreign trade for the fiscal year 1S05 was with gold standard countries and our trade with other countries was settled on a gold basis. «.

More Silver Than Gold.

Chiefly by means of legislation during and since 1873 there has been put in circulation more than 8024,000,000 of silver, or its representative. This has been done in the honest effort, to give to silver, if possible, the same bullion and coinage value, and encourage the concurrent use of both gold and silver as money. Prior to that time there had been less than 0.000,000 of silver dollars coined in the entire history of the United States, a period of 8!) years. This legislation secures the largest use of silver consistent with financial safety and the pledge to maintain its parity with gold. We have today more silver than gold. This has been accomplished at times with grave peril to the pubiic credit. The so-called Sherman law sought to use all the silver product of the United States for money at its market value. From lS'.K) to 1893 the government purchased 4.500,000 ounces of silver a month, or 54,000,010 ounces a yc.-ir.

This was one-third of the product of the world, and practically all of this country's product. It was believed by those who then and now favor free coinage that such use of silver would advance its bullion value to its coinage value, but this expectation was not realized. In a few months, notwithstanding the unprecedented market for the silver produced in the United States, the price of silver went down very rapidly, reaching a lower point than ever before. Then, upon the recommendation of President Cleveland, both political parties united in the repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman law. We cannot with safety engage in further experiments in this direction.

Tiio Double Stani(iirl.

On Aug. ^2, 1S01, in a public address, I said: "It" we could have an international ratio, which all the leading nations of the world would adopt, and the true relation be fixed between the two metals, aud all agree upon the quantity of silver which should constitute a dollar, then silver would be as free and unlimited in its privileges o£ coinage as gold is today. But that we have not been able to secure, and with the free and unlimited coinage of silver adopted in the United States, at the present ratio, we would be still further removed from any international agreement. We may never be able to secure it if-we enter upon the isolated coinage of silver. The double standard implies equality at a ratio, and that equality can only be established by the concurrent law of nations. It was the concurrent law of nations that made the double standard it will requir* the concurrent law of nations to reinstate and sustain it."

The Republican party has not been and Is not now opposed to ithe use of silver money, as its rec.ir 1 abundantly shows. It has done all that could be done for its increased use, with safety and honor by the United States, acting apart from other governments. There are those who think that it has already gone beyond the limit of flnancialNprudence. Surely, we can go no further and we must not permit false lights to lure us across the danger line.

Silver Circulation Compared. We have much more silver in use than any other country in the world except India or China—$500,000,000 more than Great Britain $150,000,000 more than France $400,000,000 more than Germany 8325,000,000 less than Tndia, and $125,000,000 less than China. The Republican party has declared in favor of an international agreement, andif elected president it will be my duty to employ all proper means to promote it.

The free coinage of silver in this conntry would defer, if not defeat, international bimetallism, and until an international agreement can be had every interest requires us to maintain our present standard. Independent free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1 would insure the speedy contraction of the volume of our currency. It would drive at least 500,000,000 of gold dollars, which we now have, permanently from the trade of the country and greatly decrease our per capita circulation, it is not proposed by the Republican party to take from the circulating medium of the country any of the silver we now have. On the contrary, it is proposed to keep all of the silver money now in circulation on a parity with gold by maintaining the pledge of the government that all of it shall be equal to gold. This has been the unbroken policy of the Republican party since 1S7S, It has inaugurated

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new policy. It will

keep in circulation anil as good as gold all of the silver and paper money which are now included in the currency of the country. It will maintain their parity. It will preserve their equality in the future, as it has always done in the past. It will not consent to put this country on a silver basis, which would inevitably follow independent free coinage at a ratio of 16 to 1. It will oppose the expulsion of gold from our circulation. l'"sirmorH and T.aborers.

If there is any one thing which should bo free from speculation and fluctuation it is the money of a country. It ought never to be the subject of mere partisan contention. When we part with our labor, our products or our property we should receive in return money which is as stable and unchanging in value as the ingenuity of honest men can make it. Debasement of the currency means destruction of values. No one suffers so much from cheap money as the farmers and laborers. They are the first to feel its bad effects and the last to recover from them. This has been the uniform experience of all countries, aud here, as elsewhere, the poor and not the rich are always the greatest sufferers from every attempt to debase our money. It would fall with alarming severity upon investments already made upon insurance companies and their policy holders: upon savings banks and their depositors upon building and loan associations and their members: upon the savings of thrift upon pensioners and their families: and upon wage earners and the purchasing power of their wages.

Inference to Paper Money. The silver question is not the only issue affecting our money in the pending content. Not content with urging the free coinage of silver, its strongest champions demand that our paper money shall be issued directly by the government of the United States. This is the Chicago Democratic declaration. The St. Louis People's declaration is that "our national money shall be issued by the general government only, without the intervention of banks of issue, be full legal tender for the payment of all debts, public aud private," and be distributed "direct to the people, and through lawful disbursements of tiie government."

Thus, in addition to the free coinage of the world's silver, we are asked to enter upon an era of unlimited irredeemable paper currency. The question which was fought out from 1865 to 1870 is thus to be reopened, with all its uncertainties and cheap money experiments of every conceivable form foisted upon us. This indicates a most startling reactionary policy, strangely at variance with every requirement of sound finance but the declaration shows the spirit, and purpose of those who by combined action are contending for the control of the government. Not satisfied with the debasement of our coin which would inevitably follow the free coinage of silver at 1G to 1, they would still further degrade our currency and threaten the public honor by the unlimited issue of an irredeemable paper currency. A graver menace to our financial standing and credit could hardly be conceived and every patriotic citizen should be aroused to promptly meet and effectually defeat it.

Not a Nation of Classes.

It isa cause for painful regret and solicitude that an effort is being made by those high in the councils of the allied parties to divide the people of this country into classes and create distinctions among us, which in fact do not exist and are repugnant to our form of government. These appeals to passion and prejudice are beneath the spirit aud intelligence ot a free people, and should be met with stern rebuke by those they are sought to influence, aud I believe they will be. Every attempt to array class against class, "the classes against the masses," section against section, labor against capital, "the poor against the rich," or interest, against interest, in the Uuited States is in the highest degree reprehensible. It is opposed to the national instinct and interest and should be resisted by every citizen.

We are not a nation of classes, but of sturdy, free, independent and honorable people, despising the demagogue and never capitulating to dishonor. This ever recurring effort endangers popular government anil is a menace to our liberties. It is not anew campaign device or party appeal. It is as old as government among men, but was never more untimely and unfortunate than now. Washington warned us against it, and Webster said in the senate, in. words which I feel are singularly appropriate at this time: "I admonish the people against, the object of outcries like these. I admonish every industrious la-' borer of this country to be on his guard against such delusion. I tell him the attempt is to play off his passion against his interest, and to prevail on him, in the' name of liberty, to destroy all fruits of liberty."

TARIFF LAWS.

Protection Declared to lie an Issue of Supreme Importance. Another issue of supreme importance is that of protection. The peril of free silver ,is a menace to be feared we are already experiencing the effect of partial free trade. The one must be averted, the other I corrected. The Republican party is wedIded to the doctrine of protection and waf