People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1894 — IT IS ROBBERY. [ARTICLE]

IT IS ROBBERY.

The Stoppage of Free Coinage Has Compelled the Debtor Class to Pay More Than Was Contracted For. The alteration of the standard of value is cruel robbery of debtors under the form and the sanctity of a contract. It is a species of robbery which even the courts of equity can hardly reach. Robberj- through the manipulation of the standard of value seems to be as securely entrenched in the statutes as was robbery before the war through the ownership of human chattels. Shylock demands his pound of flesh because it is nominated in the bond. When the borrower, fourteen months ago, received the money of the lender, and contracted to return so many dollars, he naturally assumed that, aside from the fluctuations of demand and supply he would only have to pay what he borrowed with the stipulated inter* est. But the stoppage of the free coinage of silver by the mints of India has compelled him to pay from one-fourth to one-half more than he borrowed, entirely aside from the ordinary market fluctuations. This is an extraordinary condition of affairs. It is morally wrong. It is an outrage upon justice. It is essentially a crime. If the courts of equity could take this alteration of the standard of value, which has altered the price of all commodities to the infinite injury of all debtors, and scale the debt down in the same proportion that the manipulation of the standard of value has reduced the price of commodities, equity and justice between the debtor and creditor might be done. Here we are confronted with a momentous issue, One way to do justice to the debtor is to scale his debts to the level of the gold standard. Another and more expeditious remedy is to restore bimetallism at once.—Denver Times.