Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1898 — FREE COINAGE AN ISSUE [ARTICLE]

FREE COINAGE AN ISSUE

Democracy Will Battle For. That Issue Until It Wins at the Polls. * notwithstanding Republicans Declare That Democrats Are Anxious to Abandon the Fight—Free and Unlimited Coinage of Silver at a Ratio of 16 to 1 an American Declaration. In the political parlance of the campaign in Indiana, and growing warmer las the days come and go, the free and unlimited coinage of silver is an issne, made so by the Democratic platform adopted by the state Democratic convention, which said: “We reaffirm and emphasize the platform adopted by the national Democratic convention of 1896 at Chicago. We are in favor of the free and unlimj ited coinage of both gold and silver at I the existing ratio of 16 to 1, without the aid or consent of any other nation. “We are unalterably opposed to the single gold standard, and we specially protest against the declared purpose of i the present Republican secretary of the treasury of applying that policy more | thoroughly. We believe that the prac- ! tice of the treasury in paying treasury notes in gold only, in violation of law. and in surrendering the option of the government, reserved by the statute, to pay in gold or silver, is chiefly responsible for the great money depression now, and for so long a period, existing in this country, is destructive of busiuess enterprise, dangerous to the public credit and the prosperity of the people, and a serious menace to the national honor.” It will be observed that the Democratic state convention not only “reaffirmed,” but “emphasized” the Chicago platform of 1896 in its declarations relating to the “tree and unlimited coinI age of both gold and silver at the existing ratio of 16 to 1.” In calling the attention of Indiana j Democrats to the isspe, it might be said j with exultant pride, as Daniel Webster j once referred to Massachusetts, “There she is, behold her and judge for yourselves." There stands the silver issue, behold it and judge for yourselves. What is there connected with the silver issue that should make its friends hesitate to extol and defend it? What is there about the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 that is not in consonance with sonnd finance ? The Republican press of the state and Republican stamp campaigners intimate, or broadly declare, that Democrats are anxious to abandon the free coinage issue and fight the battles of the campaign upon some other issue. The wish is father to the thought. If the Democratic party would abandon the freo silver issue, it would be a godsend to the Indiana Republicans. The Republican party has, in convention, time and again declared for bimetallism —the free coinage of gold and silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. The party has declared that “from tradition ana interest” that “both gold and silver should be used as standard money.” Bat while making snch patriotic professions it has treacherously abandoned the American people and gone into European camps to solicit foreign aid to establish an American financial, policy, knowing full well that European nations, while disdaining any interference of the United States with their financial policy, would never lend a helping hand to establish bimetallism in the United States. And the advocacy of an “international agreement with the leading commercial nation of the world,” which oonld not be accomplished, was designed to hold on to a class of free silver Republicans, who, like Democrats, believed the American people, as oertainly as Englishmen, Frenohmen, Germans, Italians aud Spaniards, could, and of right ought, to shape their own financial policy without consulting any foreign nation whatsoever. But neither the treachery nor the sneers of Republicans, press or speakers, high or low, rich or poor, blaek or, white, lords or vassals, plutocrats or their menials, can intimidate or stampede the Democratic party in its advocacy of a measure, whioh Republicans have said “from tradition and interest” is demanded by the American people. The free and unlimited coinage of gold and silver at the ratio of lfi to I, is as Amerioan as the declaration of independence, as American as the constitution, which was “ordained” by “we, the people.” The gold standard is British, as much so as the house of lords or the British throne. The gold sta> 1ard is autocratic, plutocratio and aristocratic. It is not Democratic. It was never “ordained” by “we, the people.”It never regarded the interests, the welfare or the liberties of ”we, the people” —as Bryan and Linooln would say, “the plain people. ” The gold standard in Europe is the standard of kings and the liokspittals of kings, the parasites of kings—the vermine who live in the hair of kingly dogs—who are. not like Americans, sovereigns in their own right; and to “the manner bom.” The Democratic party stands unswervingly by the tree and unlimited coinage of silver, because it is an Amerioan issue, because it is in the interest of

the rank and file of the people, because behind it. are all the glorions traditions of the government from its foundation, because its bistory is free from spot or blemish, because neither individuals, communities, municipalities, states nor the nation was ever harmed by the free and unlimited coinage of gold and silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. This cannot be said of the gold standard infamy. It has wrought incalculable disasters wherever it has been tried. It has placed the money and the wealth of nations in the hands of tbe few, and has made the many the degraded vassals of the rich, and this is what it is doing in the United States of America. The Democratic party is pledged to fight the gold standard iniquity. It does not ask to be discharged from the free silver army. It does not ask to be “mustered out” of the service. It is enlisted for the war. It bivouacs on the battlefield. It makes no compromise. Defeat may come as it did to the minute men at Banker Hill, bat the revolution will proceed, though, via Valley Forge, until Yorktown is reached and the goldbug British surrender. The sneers of such Republican sheets as the Indianapolis Journal aud the Indianapolis News will not deter the Democrats from battling for free coinage till the sun sets Nov. 8, IS9B.