Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 October 1898 — ADVOCATES OF FREE SILVER [ARTICLE]

ADVOCATES OF FREE SILVER

Their Demands Just and In Congo* nance With the Constitution. In 1896 the main issue of the campaign was the free coinage of silver, or the unlimited coinage of silver, at th© i ratio of 10 to 1. The imperative dei mand was that silver should enjoy all the rights at the government mint* which are accorded to gold. William Jennings Bryan, one of the “common people,” a superb leader, an orator in the best sense of the term, thoughtful, lObieal aud eloquent, was the national standard-bearer, and to his support rallied 6,511,678 American citizens, who oast their votes for bimetallism, for the free and unlimited coinage of silver, for the same rights of silver at the mint* that gold enjoys. The demand was just, eminently so. It was a lawful demand, in consonanoe with the oonititution of the republics. It wav a demand for an upright, Impartial, even-handed, straightforward financial policy. And, besides, it was a demand as purely American as the national flag. voiced the patriotic sentiment that the United States was, and ought to be, in shaping its financial policy free and independent, having no entangling alliance with any other nation. And here it should be said that no nation on the faoe of the earth consults the United States in any way when a change of financial policy is contemplated. When Japan decided to reduce . the weight of her gold yen oue-hali without impairing its debt paying value, she did not consult the United States or any other nation; and when Russia reduced the weight of her gold coins to the extent that 16 roubles were made equal so 15 roubles, the imperial autocrat asked ji either permission nor consent of any other nation. It is only the degenerate advocates of the gold standard in the United States that become the willing vassals of European nations when a financial policy is discussed. The advooates of the gold standard in the United States, In congress and out of congress, have filioitated themselves and the country that what they are pleased to call the “silver oraze” is dead, that the campaign of 1800 was what gave It the death stab, and that She advooates of free coinage, like Bret Hart’s Chinaman, were defunct, and that “subsequent proceedings would interest them no more. ” But they have found it a remarkably vital and lively corpse, and now they are tflying to kill it again. Indeed, they find it more vigorous, more energetic than in 1896. The more than 6,500,000 of voters who cast their ballots in 1806 for the remonetisation of the silver dollar are as determined now a* then to overwhelm the goidites in defeat and confusion. They know the principle for which they contended is bed rock, fundamental, constitutional and just. The result in 1896 neither' dismayed nor demoralized them. They believe that the conspiracy to demonetise silver has wrought incalculable ruin, and fib*y believe with John G. Gariiste, late secretary of the treasury, that “THE CONSUMMATION OF titfOH a SCHEME WOULD ULTIMATELY ENTAIL MORE MISERY UPUWTHE HUMANVtACE THAN ALL THE WARS, PESTILENCES AND FAMINES THAT EVER OCCURBED IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. THE ABSOLUTE AND INSTANTANEOUS DESTRUCTION OF HALF THE ENTIRE MOVABLE PROPERTY OF THE WORLD, INOLUPING HOUSES, SHIPS, RAILROADS AND ALL OTHER APPEL ANDES FOR CARRYING ON COMMERGE, WHILE IT WOULD BE FSI/T MORE SENSIBLY AT THE MOMENT, WOULf) NOT PRODUCE ANYTHING LIKE THE PROLOWGED DISTRESS AND DISORGANISATION OF SOCIETY THAT MOTS INVARIABLY RESULT FRQH THE PERMANENT ANNIHILATION OF ONB-MALF OF TUB METALLIC MONEY IN THE WORLD.” Th© advocates of the gold standard care nothing for the ruin which Mr. Carlisle pictures so graphically. -They

| constitute the “money pc , u th© ! plutocracy of the country, a-pvgr has Is soulless and heart less and in its fc?e©4 as relentless as a hungry tiger . a th© jangle. Aud, strange to say, lowers© paradoxical it may appear, tGs ua .oey power thrives on the calamities of th© people, as wreckers thrive when th© storms and the billows drive ships upon shoals and rooks. A faot that wa© brought into the boldest possible promt* hence when its managers bought gov* eminent bonds with depreciated paper money, the bonds costing them about 08 cents ou the dollar, and then, by using their influence over a Republican con* gress, made them payable in , *ooin, , ' gold or silver, aud prooeeded to collect prinolpal and interest of the bonds in gold, and this has been going on for mere than 30 years, until we have the astounding faot disolosed that on u in* terest-bearing debt of $2,821,811,918 in 1806 interest alone up to 1807 had been collected amounting to $2,A11, 169,008, or approximately $289,887,147 more than the total interest-bearing debt in 1805. It is this money power, this power tih&b controls the wealth of the country, tost advooates the gold standard policy and denounces all who advocate free coinage. These faots are stated that the friend© of silver may have in full view th© enemy that confronts them. It is as Bryan would say, the plutooraoy at wax with the producing oiasses—the men who oreate the wealth by in* ’’famous legislation, is poured in .A th© coffers of the rich in a ceaseless tide. As an issue in the campaign now on. the friends of free coinage of bimetal* llsm, the friends of the producing classes, may expect to have their lead* ers aud their cause traduced by the ad* vooates of the gold standard policy. A subsidised press will lend its energies ta the nefarious work, but they will find the ranks of the free silver advocate© compact and unbroken. They ,vlll dud them shoulder to shoulder and lore© to knee, intrepid aud unfaltering, belling'the welfare of the country deperp.. upon achieving a victory by virtue of which silver shall regain its rights at the mints and place the option which the law oonfers upon the secret ary of the treasury in the bauds of a man who has not been corrupted by the money power, and who will give to silver it© rightful station as a coin in all regardaj at the legal ratio, equal to gold.