Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1898 — THE DISHONEST DOLLAR [ARTICLE]

THE DISHONEST DOLLAR

Silver Good Enough For the Soldier, but the Bondholder Is Paid In Gold. Hie Government For Years Made and Circulated “Dishonest Dollars,” Only to Find It Oat In 1873, and Fire Years Later Went Into the “Dishonest Dollar” Business Again. If the people of Indiana, believe the half, or the 100th part of one-half of the mouthings and vaporings of the gold bugs and their henchmen about the silver dollar, they must conclude that the government, from its foundation, has been engaged in coining “dishonest dollars,” and that when it was not coining “dishonest dollars” at its own mints, it went into the business of making Mexican, Spanish and the dollars of other nations “dishonest” by affixing a dishonest value upon them and made them pass current at such value in the United States. Under every administration, from Washington to Grant, this thing of coining “dishonest silver dollars” proceeded unquestioned, but, in 1873, that paragon of integrity, John Sherman, saw the monstrous dishonesty of coining silver dollars of grains of standard silver, and by perpetrating a fraud in the interest of Judas Iscariots, the money bag hoidris of the nation, put an end to the eon a,; ■ of “dishonest dollars.” No <"* ■ r will ever know, the a o. John Sherman secured jj iui. aoi oi treason to the people. It is only known that, on $5,000 a year, he beca me a multi-mill-ionaire, was kicked out of office by William McKinley and left, in his old age, to reap a more abundant harvest of obloquy than has fallen to the lot of any native American since Benedict Arnold set the example of selling his country for British gold. The fraud perpetrated by John Sherman delighted every goldbug in the land, just as Arnold’s treason won the applause of the Tories in the war of the revolution. But, it appears from the records, that the people of the United States were so enamored of the business cf coining “dishonest dollars” that in 1878, after living five years with the mints closed to the coinage of “dishonest dollars,” a fearful epidemic of dishonesty seized upon the people and swept Over the country. And again the jnints were opened to the coinage of “dishonest dollars,” and this swelling tide of iniquity and astounding cussedness rolled on till more than 400,000,000 of “dishonest dollars” were coined—dollars which in the high wrought indignation of a Republican campaign openers declared to be “two-fifths lies,” and sees no reason why the government may not go to the extreme and coin a whole silver dollar lie, upon the ground, that if the government puts in circulation a dollar which is “two-fifths” a lie, it may with equal propriety put in circulation a dollar five-fifths a lie—in fact, go into the counterfeiting business under the constitution and laws enacted in conformity with the constitution. If any one will go to the trouble of I reading the campaign opening address ; of Hon. Albert J. Beveridge at Tomlin* i son hall, delivered some weeks since, it will be seen upon what sort of oratorical rations the distinguished speaker fed his audience. I It is not to be assumed that the Republican campaign opener, though a : regular Vesuvian orator, made any converts from the ranks of silver RepubJ licans, or in any wise demoralized j Democrats, but his reference to the dis- | honest American dollar indicates quite ; conclusively the kind of financial literature that suits the Republican party. The American dollar, which the gold | bugs delight in denounoing as dishonest j and “two-fifths a lie,” if these epithets were warranted, would present the United States before the world as a ' nation of knaves, coining dollars “twofifths” a lie, and compelling the people I to accept them as if they were honest dollars. To quote Mr. Beveridge verbatim, he said: “If the government stamp can make a piece of silver which you can buy for 45 cents pass for 100 cents * * * and if the government lies two-fifths in declaring that 45 cents is 100 cents, why i not lie three-fifths and declare that | nothing at all is 100 cents?” j This sort of rant is accepted as finanJ eial gospel by the Republican press and j the Republican managers of the camI paign, and yet, when their attention is i railed to the fact that the dollar they denounced as dishonest, and as lies, are I paid ont to soldiers, they are then com? I polled to accept the Democratic posi* j scion relating to the honesty of the ail- | ver dollar, that it is a. standard coin, , irredeemable, sound as gold, constitu- | tional and primary money, a legal ten--1 der for all debts, public or private, and | that its coinage now, as in 1792, meets ; every requirement of sound money. To j this the Republican goldbugs are driven, or be compelled to admit they have paid j soldiers in “dishonest” money. But this fact in no wise relieves them of the odium of mendacity which they have earned by their puerile- and studied slanders, heaped upon those who have sought with patriotic persistency to remonetize the silver dollar in the interest of all the people, But the Republican party, by paying silver dollars to soldiers and refusing to ! pay them to bondholders, has placed itself on record as a party making a distinction between soldiers and • bondholders. The party regards silver as inferior money and gold as superior money. In paying the bondholders it surrenders its option and pays them in gold. In paying soldier it exercises its

option and pays them In stiver. If stiver is good enough for soldiers, it hi good enough for bondholders, and this,, if the case were submitted to the people, would be the verdict. And the Democratic party does submit the question to the people of Indiana and asks for their verdict at the polls on Nov. 8, 1898. The faots are as stated. The government is placed under obligation to soldiers of a higher character than its obligations to bond holders. These soldiers performed patriotic service; they placed their health and their lives iu peril to serve their country. It has been said, and truthfully said, “There is nothing too good for soldiers.” If the Republican party believed that, it must pay its soldiers in gold, because it says “gold is the best money.” It is the money whioh it pays to bond holders, hut it does not pay the soldiers in the money it pays to bond holders. Bond holders will not have silver dollars, which Mr. Beveridge characterizes as “two-fifths” a lie, but it does pay such silver coins to soldiers, and does not permit them, as it permits bond holders, to choose the kind of money they will accept. If, as they are compelled to do, admit that silver dollars are “sound money,” sound enough to pay soldiers, why not pay it to.bond holders? Let Republicans answer, if they can. Indeed, the Democratic party of Indiana insists they shall answer, or sit as dumb as so many bronze dogs on the front steps of ft plutocrat’s palace.