Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1897 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

SILVER THE VITAL ISSUE The Democracy of Ohio has roused Itself to meet the situation and, taking a look westward toward lowa and Nebraska, has Ix'gun a vigorous campaign on the currency question. The financial issue is not to l»e ignored. and the Democratic candidate for Governor, Horace L. Chapman, has ignored all minor issues and is urging the importance of the unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio of Id to 1. The. purpose of tlie Republican party is not only to destroy silver money, but to put in its place rag money issued by the banks and secured by the assets of those institutions. The Cincinnati Enquirer is outspoken in its advocacy of the silver cause, and discloses the plots of the. gold clique as follows: "The purposes of the Republican leaders, if they shall succeed In all thsy hope to at the eledions this year and next, are not set forth In their platforms, their newspapers or the speeches of their campaigners. All the facts, though, point to the intention to destroy the greenbacks. The presidents message advising the creation of a monetary commission had that end in view, and the present irresponsible monetary commission is organized for the same purpose.” It is not good politics for Democrats to ignore these facts. The Republicans should be forced to place themselves on record before the people in every political contest. They wish to evade the queslion, but when crowded into a corner dare not deny the charge for fear of offending the money power, whose toyls they are. Democratic success in IN! 18 and in 1900 depends on keeping national issues before the people and in compelling the advocates of gold to fight in the open and to show the full enormity of the crime against the masses which they are plotting, bimetallism is gaining ground every day. the success of Democracy is assured if tliffc vital issue is kept constantly in view.

“f'Qj-ty-Cent Dollars.” Special pleaders for tlie gold clique continually harp on one string. They sing the song of a “40-cent dollar,” ami they can Invent uo variations on tlie theme. The bullion value of silver which gives the excuse for talking atwnt 40 eeut dollars is tin* result of special legislation against the metal, just as dollar wheat is the result of special providential conditions. Give silver the protection which it had under the law up to 1873 and the bullion value would rise until It equaled the coinage value. History proves this contention if it proves anything. During all the years when silver was given mint privileges equal with its gold Its bullion value and its coinage value were practically equal. Whenever the mints have been closed to the coinage of silver the bullion has fallen in price. Whenever anything has been done that looked toward an enlarged use of as money, the bullion price has risen. Even the slight concession granted recently by the Bank of England in announcing that it would hold oue-lifth of its reserves in silver has resulted In a rise in the price of bullion to the amount of seven cents on the ounce. For eighty years up to 1874 the bullion value of silver was equal to the coinage value. As soon ns it became apparent that the coinage of silver had been restricted, the bullion price began to drop. In 1890 there was a movement which promised a restoration of coinage rights, and silver bullion rose to $1.20 an ounce, lacking only 9 cents of a parity with gold at the ratio of 10 to 1. It is evident that unlimited coinage of silver would result in a bullion price of $1.29 per ounce, and the 40-cent dollar would cease to exist.

What Hanna Is Fightiiij; For. Mark Hanna is probably not fighting for his political life in Ohio this year, but the result of the election there'is of the most serious importance, not only to himself, but to all his “chums” who are now exercising power and drawing fat salaries from both, the State and the national treasuries. To him defeat means the vacation of the seat in the United States Senate, which he obtained by playing on poor, decrepit John Sherman's vanity. To the others it means loss of income and influence for a long time to come, and to the Republican party of the country ir will also mean the certainty of a grand beating in the Congressional struggle next year, and a worse one in that for the Presidency three years hence. Hamm’s exjerience in polities, measured by years, is limited. He is a manufacturer, end a speculator in other men’s labor, who has gotten very rich by means of the help furnished him by the Government in the shape of favorable tariff laws. He has found it exceedingly profitable to be hand and glove with the legislators at Washington who dispense fortunes under the name of “Protection,” and so long as he felt that he had to make a light for what favors he wanted he was content to keep in the background. His success in the election of McKinley last year has led him to suppose that he can now take his ease and pose as a statesman. If the Democracy should carry Ohio next November Hanna’s dreams, of the immediate future at least, will he sadly disturbed. The Senatorial seat which he obtained by means of what nobody wlio knows the facts will hesitate to call a “dirty trick” will have to l>e given up to another, and “defeat” will be written in large letters all over the Republican slate for a long time to come. —New York News. Cheap Money. *<* The gold organs, says the Atlanta Constitution, are carefully avoiding a discussion that relates to the cheap and depreciated gold dollar which we now have with us. They admit that it is bringing prosperity, but they will not discuss the facts behind it. Well, we are happier over the prospects of prosperity than any of the gold organs, for they have declared that higher prices -that is to say, depreciat-

ed money—would be hurtful to the interests of the workingman, but we are -not too happy to reason about the facts of the case. Here are some of them: With respect to wheat, we have what may be termed a <iO-c*eut dollar—that is to say, while a farmer had to pay a bushel and a half of wheat for a dollar a few weeks ago, he can now buy *.he same dollar In Xew York City with one bushel. With respect to wool, we have a T>o- - dollar—that is to say, tlie farmer who was compelled to give a certain quantity of wool for a dollar can now buy the same dollars in the open market for half the quantity necessary a while ago. But this is not all. We have a depreciated currency with respect to corn, oats and other farm products. We nave “Cheap” and therefore “unsound” money with respect to stocks and other securities. And' behold, this depreciated money, instead of plunging the country in ruin, is actually bringing prosperity! The gold organs not only admit it, but insist on it. And yet this is precisely what tlie Democrats said would happen if we ‘could get higher prices—which is another name for cheaper money. It is an object lesson not likely to be lost on tlie people. Encroachment of the Judiciary, "Resist the beginnings.” Herein lies the only*safeguard against tyrannical rule. Especially Is this true with regard to The usurpation of courts and In point of danger the federal courts lead

nll the rest. Their judges hold office for life, or until they choose to retire, and are invulnerable to popular displeasure, however merited. Only Congressional impeachment can drive them from the bench, and in such emergency there would be no lack of zeal and effort by plutocracy for the protection of its servitors.—Grand Rapids Democrat, Mark Hanna’s War Record. When Mark Hanna entered the banquet hall at Buffalo where there was feasting the select coterie of G. A. R. members and at the head of the main table was seated the President of the United States, some guests forgot-their good manners and respect for the proprieties and screamed a welcome to the mighty political boss. The President, infected by the prevailing ent 1 ’siasm, and losing his accustomed placidity, sprang from his sent, rushed toward the advancing hero and embraced the puissant politician, to the amazement of the assembled war veteraus and of the country. The great political manipulator’s war recoi-d is summed up in this brief autobiography of that epoch: “No,” he said to au eager newspaper interviewer, “I did not serve in -the army, but I hired two substitutes and sent them to the front.” What patriotism is here proclaimed! What sacrifice and danger are here avowed for preserving this Union! And how Ilannaesque! The prevailing rate of wages for substitutes in the war was sl3 a month. Some patriots hired only one substitute, but Mr. Hanna hired two. He doesn't say how long he kept them in the field, hut whatever the length of their service might have been we know that it cost him $26 a month. For this noble sacrifice Mr. Hanna is publicly embraced by the country’s chief magistrate, who went into the war as a private, supplied the fighting soldiers at Autietam with hot coffee and came out with the rank of major. Mr. Hanna’s $26 a month is entitled to recognition. Had he not spent it for substitutes the Union army would have beeu short two soldiers. Wherefore. three cheers and a tiger for Hanna. the unsc-arred veteran who poured s2oa month into the overstrained treasury at Washington to keep the furnaces of war ablaze and roaring!

One-Hundrcd-Cent Dollars. Mark Hanna is hedging on the gold question in ids stump speaking tour of Ohio. He is after votes, and he kno\vs that there are thousands of Republicans who believe in bimetallism, and therefore he is careful npt to offend these voters by a bold statement of his views on the money question. He satisfies himself by saying that he wants every dollar to be “worth 100 cents here and all over the world.” But Mark Hanna and the members of the money power do not believe that a silver dollar Is worth 100 cents here or anywhere. How, then, is he going to make these silver dollars worth lOO 1 cents all over the world? He lias no idea of trying to do anything of the kind. He proposes to 'destroy the silver dollars altogether. To wipe out over $500,000,000 of silver money at one blow. And wllat would be put In its place? Nothing.« He aud

hts fellow conspirators desire to contract the currency and thus continue to force the value of gold still higher But that is not all. He would take the greenbacks ont of circulation, and in place of this money, guaranteed by the a&sets of the United States, wishes to substitute wlld-cat rag money, guaranteed by the assets of the banks. Of tice furniture is not good backing for a national currency, but the money power wishes to usurp the power of the Government and to issue bank notes at its own sweet will. If Mark Hanna real Iy wanted to make every dollar “worth ICO cents here and all over the world,’* he would favor the unlimited coinage of silver, for by that means the bullion value would be raised to a par with gold, and that which he pretends to desire would become a beneficent fact.— Chicago Dispatch. Tariff Barons Responsible. I The big tariff-pampered corporations are responsible for the great bulk at the grossly ignorant and semibarbarous immigration from Southern Europe. The coal mining districts of the country are the nests of anarchism - the swarming centers of a population which has no conception of free government, has uo appreciation of free institutions and are the riotous enemies of native labor. Probatly not one iu a hundred can read the language of the country whose laws protect them and whose privileges they enjoy.—Minneapolis Times. Pardons Lead to Lynckings. The pardon by President McKinley of a wealthy bank wmker of Indiana who had the influence and “pull” of politicians and men of business influence; singular as It may appear, is connected with the recent lynching of five white *inen in Ripley County of that State. There are Indiaua people who regard the President's undeserved clemency to Coffin, tl-e bank thief, as one of the causes that led to the

worst case of lynching tli.it lias ever taken place in a Northern Sj -ate.—Pittsburg Post. Elkins’ Unblushing: Concession. “There was no trick about it at all, I simply worked to succeed. Of course, I was not to tell those apposed to the scheme all about it.” Sc says Senator Elkin:! of section 22 in the tariff bill, which the attorney general interprets in a manner most displeasing to him. He had a “scheme” f;pd was keeping quiet about it. Th-s must have been because he belies-.id those opposed to it were in the Majority. And “there was no trick about it at all!”—Springfield (Mass.) Republican. Political Pointers. If we are to have a statue *5 some Kansan in the national capital why not take Ingalls for the subject and save marble?—Wichita <K:v\) f^igle. Governor Tanner removed a v Oman factory Inspector to make room for a political heeler, and Mayor Hudson has placed a woman in charge qj the street cleaning. Wlie.n it comes to executive heads, the city of Chicago is much better off than the State o* Illinois.—Washington Post. Whenever a Republican discovers that his party has abandoned all the principles of Lincoln. Greeley, Sumner and Trmnbull and is therefore compelled to leave it, have you noticed what au idiot and rascal he become* in the estimation of tiie newspapers belonging to the Hanna bureau?—Columbus (Ohio) Press. The continued find growing deficiency in national revenue will furni*h something for Congress to do at-tie coming regular session. Some legislation supplemental to the Dingley law must be enacted in order to make the government’s income meet its expenses. As a raiser of taxes the Dingley tariff is a great success—Nashville American. As well look for oranges to grow in Sii-eria or snowstorms to prevail at the equator as to expect the Republican administration to bring about general prosperity. Its daily business is the systematic and legalized pillage of the people. Its regular occupation is robbiug Peter, the producer, to pay Paul the plutocrat.—Kansas City Times. ’ Mr. McKinley exhorts the Ohio Sunday school boys to be virtuous and moral. He does not explain to them that it is virtuous and moral to appoint a disreputable New Orleans negro divekeeper to high office as payment for that dissolute person's services in bribing delegates to support the candidacy of an Ohio church member.—New \\«rk World. At the conclusion of his speech at the opening of a Galesburg gymnasium, Senator Mason asked if he might speak for live minutes on Cuba. He then proceeded to free the tortured pearl of the Antilles in the most feverish forefisic form. When curfew rang the horizon was spattered With Spanish blood as far as the eye could reach, —Quincy (Ill.) Herald. All the vehicles belonging to the Vanderbilt family are black, with maroon body, the spokes of the wheels beins shot with red,