Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1896 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

PAYABLE IN COIN.

The statement of James S. Cowdon, eandidate for Congress in Virginia in the last election, that the 1878 law now declares for the free coinage of silver, upon a careful investigation of the laws bearing on this subject is found to be correct, as the reader may judge for himself on the following evidence: The law of Feb. 28, 1878, reads: * * “That there shall be coined, at the several mints of the United States, silver dollars of the weight of four hundred and twelve and a half grains troy of standard silver, as provided in the act of Jan. 18, 1837, on which shall be the devices and superscriptions provided by said act; which Coins, together with all silver dollars heretofore coined by the United States, of like weight and fineness, shall be a legal tender at • their nominal value, for all debts and dues public and private, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract.” The next sentence of the same act commences w’ith the words: “And the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized;” then follows a description of the “purchase” of from two to four millions a month for the described coinage. Now, be it carefully noted, that in the repeal contained in the 1890 law of a part of this 1878 law, not a word in such repeal relates in any way to the above quoted sentence composing the second paragraph of this article, but relates solely and entirely to that part of the act contained in the purchase of the two to four millions per month, as may be seen in the following language quoted from the law of July 14, 1890: “Section 6. That so much of the act of Feb. 28, 1878, entitled, ‘An act to authorize the coinage of the standard silver dollar and' to restore its legal tender character,’ as requires the monthly purchase and coinage of the same into silver dollars of not less than two million dollars, nor more than four million dollars’ worth of silver bullion, is hereby repealed.” This just quoted Section 6 is the only repeal by Congress of any part-of the 1878 law; and on its face and in good law no other conclusion is possible than that the first sentence above quoted of the 1878 law yet remains in full force and operation. As may be noted the unrepealed part of the 1878 law above quoted is mandatory. The words say, “There shall be coined,” leaving our executive officers no choice in the matter, which fact compels .them to coin sueh dollars when people hand in silver bullion for the purpose, and at the 16 to 1 ratio of the 1837 law. Our Bimetallic League should, consequently, at once, force the executive officers of this country to carry out the unrepealed provisions of this 1878 law, which do in effect and unequivocally restore the standard silver dollar that was repealed in 1873, and which are as good law in all respects as this 1873 repeal act. If the 1873 law was operative until 1878, then the 1878 law, in its unrepealed parts, is good law to-day, and our executive officers can be compelled in our courts to carry out this unrepealed 1878 law to its fullest extent and provisions. Among these provisions is another unrepealed part referring to the Issuance of silver certificates to the holders of standard silver dollars at their option, in exchange for said silver dollars. This is the only law that permits the issuance of such silver certificates. And the fact that the executive officers of our Government have always acted under and upon this part of the law, and have ever since 1878 and 1890 issued silver certificates, proves at once that it is considered good law to now put into force and operation all .the unrepealed parts of the 1878 law. Now as all our bonded and currency National indebtedness is payable in coin, not gold exclusively, there can hereafter be no legitimate excuse on the part of any executive or administrative officer to issue bonds to get coin, to pay any of these National debts so long as silver bullion can be had from our mines and elsewhere to be coined at 16 to 1 for the purpose, the usurers of Wall and Lombard streets to the contrary notwithstanding.—Philadelphia Item.

Flings at Farmers. One of the persistent policies of the goldite press is to “make fun” of the farmers. The leading so-called humorous publications are published in New York, and, of course, furnish their patrons with cartoons and jests which appeal to the Eastern ideas and to Eastern prejudices. A broker who could not tell whether a field is better adapted to wheat or corn can bet on the price of grain next May; a speculator who could not improve the breed of cattle is an authority on the latest style in neckties; a clerk in a bucket shop who does not know whether pumpkins grow on bushes or In bunches like bananas is far too smart to bet on a shell game. These men and all the class of which they are types think it is very funny to depiet farmers as wearing long wisps on their chins and imagine it the height of humor .to call them “jays” and clodhoppers;

One and all the idlers in the city firmly believe that the manufacturer of shoes is a nobler man than the one who breeds the steer, and are firmly convinced that the dealer in. margins Is a higher order of being than the one who furnishes food to a nation. If one of the idlers in Gotham will sail out to Hell Gate some day and stick his finger in the water, and then f he will go back next week and look for the hole, he will have given an apt Illustration of the importance of his class in the affairs of our national life and in a nation’s prosperity. . Meanwhile, it would be wasting known historical truths to tell the kidglove coterie that the farms have bred nearly all of the great soldiers, statesmen, jurists and men famous in American history. There is a little red school house on every hill. The dudes who think the farmer is a fool would have

made fun of a certain rail-splitter. When the nation is in sore need of men and brains and pure patriots it must find them on the farms. They are not the product of bucket shops nor made by dealing in margins.—Chicago Dispatch.

Our Foreign Relation*. The foreign relations of the United States will undoubtedly occupy much attention at Washington during the winter session. Cuba, Venezuela and Hawaii are the points of Interest. Add to these the Armenian and Turkish troubles, the high-handed conduct of British" Colonial officials on our Northwestern frontier, the unsettled seal fishery claims and the new German port charges complication, and it can easily be seen that there are international questions enough to interest the diplomatic world. Most of them will probably settle themselves, or go over for the consideration of the incoming administration, but some must, and several may, press for earlier action and come upon the carpet with the new year.

The impression is very general that Major McKinley is favorable to the recognition, perhaps the annexation, of Cuba, and is also committed to the acquisition of Hawaii as a Territory of the Ufilted States. Both these propsoals involve questions of raoe, and it is probably for that reason that the present administration has shrunk from handling them. The uniting to the United States ofi either Cuba or Hawaii would bring to us large non-Caucasian contingents of population, upon whom, under our Federal Constitution, the right of suffrage must be conferred equally with its, enjoyment by whites. The negroes and mulattoes of Cuba and the Kaukas, Japanese and Chinese of Hawaii, would all become full-fledged citizens of the United States. Whether President McKinley will favor measures to bring about this parti-colored complexion for the American people remains to be seen. It is possible that the sympathy we all feel for the Cubans and the Hawailans may not, after all, be further invoked than to carry out a scheme of protectorate or colonial connection.

Poverty and Crime. Statistics prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that crime increases as the opportunity for work decreases. This seems to be at least the result of a natural law, if not a natural law itself. The present carnival of crime is a verification of it, though by no means the first given in the world’s history. The average man’s heart may be, it doubtless is, more or less corrupt and desperately wicked. The Bible says so, and experience indicates it. But at the same time he would prefer the bread of honesty to the fruit of theft When times are good there is comparatively little crime against the rights of property; in seasons of depression thieves become bold and desperate. What better proof is there that government, as a measure of self-defense, should afford all of Its citizens the opportunity to work? Legislation should be directed to this end, instead of being shaped for the purpose of glutting the market with labor, and beating down the price of toil. It is said that the hour of necessity always develops the man of resources. Who will solve the problem before us to-day? Who will guide the people from a condition that threatens national life? Every tramp is.a menace to society—to property. In seasons of prosperity thtere are few of them; to-day there are a million. Can we expect them to be honest? Who would preach the sanctity of property rights to a starving man and expect that man to agree with him? Jails and penitentiaries are expensive luxuries. It is doubtful if they would be necessary at all under a system rec ognizing the right of all to live.

Tariff Taxation. It is perfectly appropriate, and according to the eternal fitness of things, that the return of the Republicans to the control of the Government of the United States should at ofice Involve questions as to the form, shape and amount of Increased taxation. Having obtained at the polls what they construe as a popular approval of the robbery of the people of their silver currency, they now lose no time In preparing for the next step—the Increase of taxation upon imports and the placing of additional duties on trade. That we are to have a higher tariff, if the incoming administration can effect it, appears to be beyond doubt. The only thing left to conjecture Is whether it shall be fashioned on the model of the Dingley bill, passed by the present House of Representatives at its last session, and modified In some way this winter so as to make it acceptable to certain. Western Republican Senators, or whether an extra session will -be called as soon as President McKinley gets his Cabinet around him, and, during next spring and summer, an elaborate, comprehensive and sweeping McKinley bill, as near as possible upon the lines of McKinley’s laM previous effort, be put through, and the American people be called upon to face once more the experiment so often tried since 1842, of a purely protective system. The present outlook seems to favor the leaving of the tariff alone till after McKinley takes office. If so, there will be grand times in Washington all summer.—New York News.

Foresight of Speaker Reed, By sitting down on the clamorers for an extra session Speaker Reed is again demonstrating that he has the bulk of the brains in the Republican party. The Speaker has sense enough to see that the business Interests are tired of political and legislative turmoil and want a good rest The sun’s surface is so Intensely bright that an electric light held against It wbuM look black.