8 Conservative *
owners to be paid for by the issue of
Treasury notes payable in coin.
THIS SHERMAN ACT.
This was the provision of Hie now
famous Sherman act , an act , although
fathered by Sherman as chairman of the
finance committee , was conceived and
nurtured by Senators Stewart and Jones
of Nevada and their free silver sup
porters. The act passed July , 1890 ,
whereby the United States government
agreed to buy the entire annual output
of the American silver miner and coin
it into standard silver dollars. The
total product from the mine in the
United States in 188' ) amounted to fifty
million fine ounces , in 1800 to fifty-four
million line ounces , in 1891 to fifty-eight
million fine ounces , all of which was
bought up by the Treasury as agreed
and stipulated.
The United States did not wait for
international agreement. But single-
handed and alone , without the aid or
consent of any other nation , gave a mar
ket to all the silver that was mined
within her borders. Despite these ef
forts to sustain the price of silver bul
lion , silver although temporarily inflated
in ISK ! ) to the average price of $1.04
an ounce from $0. ! ) : } in 188 ! fell back
to $0.98 an ounce in 185)1 ) and § 0.87 an
ounce in 1892.
The effort to raise the price of silver
bullion by legislation on the part of the.
United States failed. What the world
'
failed to do in 1865 the United States
could not do in 1890. The country was
filling up with a vast issue of under
valued silver money which the policy of
the government was to keep equal in
purchasing and debt paying power with
gold.
The doubts as to the ability of the
government to curry on this policy in
definitely , the danger to the stability of
the currency which an over issue of sil
ver threatened demanded of the repub
lican party as sponsor of the Sherman
Act nn expression of its true policy.
TIIK RKPUHLICAN PLATFORM OF 1802.
The Minneapolis platform of 1892 met
< ho issue squarely. It said :
"The American people , from tradi
tion and interest , favor bimetallism , and
the republican party demands the use of
both gold and silver as standard money ,
n'illi HHC/I ri'xti'tclioiiN and under xiicli jtro-
1'ixionn , to hi' di'tcfinincd by li'ijixlutiuu
ii'ill ' ' Ilic iiHiiiitentinci' tin' -
Ni't'itw
of ] > < ( i-ilu
of ralnex of the tire inclalx , so that the
purchasing and debt-paying power of
the dollar , whether of silver , gold or
paper , shall bo at all times equal. The
interests of the producers of the country ,
its fanners and its workingmou , demand
that every dollar , paper or coin , issued
by the government shall bo as good as
any other. We recommend the 'wise
and patriotic steps already taken by our
government to secure an international
conference to adopt such measures as
will insure a parity of value between
gold and silver for use as money
throughout the world. "
The money question , from the prom
inence given to the money plank in the
democratic platform of 1892 , was one of
the leading issues of that campaign.
As the republican platform was known
as the Harrison policy so the democratic
plank was the Cleveland policy respect
ing silver. Comparing the two plat
forms they are almost identical. It is
time , the democrats denounced the Sher
man Act as fraught with the possibili
ties of danger in the future. But a
great many republicans shared the same
opinion and were "anxious for its speedy
repeal. " But aside from this preamble
both platforms held to the use of gold
and silver as standard money of the
country , but both platforms agreed as to
the Hi'rexxitif mifi'i/nardH and rcttlric-
( ioiix of li'i/lxlatloii to IIIKIII-C ami xccnrc
tin' maintenance of tin1 iiaritiof / tlie tire
nietalx NO dial the i > nrcliaxiinj jioirer of
erci-'i ' dnllnr at all dint' * In' ci/iinl.
Both platforms agreed as to keeping
the paper currency equal with gold and
silver.
Both concurred that international
agreement was desirable to fix the value
of gold and silver for use as money
throughout the world , if that could bo
brought about , otherwise legislative re
strictions and safeguards in the coinage
of silver were necessary. For all pur
poses the democratic money platform of
1892 , with the exception of its preamble
respecting the Sherman Act , could bo
substituted for the republican money
platform of that year without violating
the traditions or the principles of that
party.
THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM OF 1892.
The democrats in 1892 said :
"Wo denounce the
republican legis
lation known as the Sherman Act of
1890 as a covvardly makeshift ; fraught
with possibilities of danger in the future ,
which should make all of its supporters
ns well as its author anxious for its
speedy repeal. We hold to the use of
both gold and silver as the standard
money of the country , and to the coin
age of both gold and silver without dis
criminating against either metal or
charge for mintage , but the dollar unit
of coniago of both metals must be of
equal intrinsic and exchangeable value
or be adjiisted through international
agreement , or oisinIt xafeijnanlx offij -
ixlafioii a * Hhall hiHiirc tlie niahiti'iianci'
of tlic ftarltif of tin1 fii'o inelalx and tin'
1'iinnl jHHiH'r of ererif dollar at all tiinat in
tin1 inurkclx and hi nat/uu'iil of dclilx , and
wo demand that all paper currency shall
bo kept at par with and redeemable in
such coin. We insist upon this policy
as especially necessary for the protec
tion of the farmers and laboring classes ,
the first and foremost defenseless vic
tims of unstable money and a fluctuat
ing currency. "
THE 189(5 ( PLATFORMS.
We now come to the platforms of
189(5. ( With the events leading to their
adoption at St. Louis and Chicago ah1
are more or less familiar. Six hundred
millions of silver dollars were added
by the United States in fifteen years to
its money without raising silver to par.
The silver in the silver dollar was worth
about (50 ( cents when congress , Novem
ber 1 , 1893 , repealed the purchasing
clause of the Sherman Act. The gold
holding of the Treasury was being
( brained and the ability of the govern
ment to keep its gold , silver and paper
at equal exchangeable value was severely
strained. Business depression became
acute due to crop failures in America ,
and reaction from speculation first in
Europe then in America. The govern
ment revenues were insufficient to meet
current expenses. Between February ,
1894 , and February , 1896 , President
Cleveland was forced to borrow 2(52 (
million in gold by the sale of bonds to
maintain the Treasury gold reserve in
tact. Momentous events abroad fol
lowed no less rapidly. Austria-Hun-
garia , replaced the silver standard with
gold in 1892. British India suspended
the coinage of silver in 1893. France
absorbed eight hundred millions of gold
and let its silver go. Chili adopted the
gold standard in 1895 and Russia the
same year collected a hundred million
gold reserve. Japan adopted the gold
standard in 1897. These countries took
up gold as the better tool for business.
Silver the world over was deposed as an
independent monetary metal. The free
coinage of silver existed nowhere except
in Mexico , Central America and China.
The silver in the American dollar in
Juno 189(5 ( was worth 5o cents. In the
light of these events wo may under
stand the republican platform of 189(5 ( ; a
platform consistent with the traditions
of the party and repeating the pledges
made to the people in 1880 , in 1884 , and
1892.
"The republican party is unreservedly
for sound money. It caiised the enact
ment of the law providing for the re
sumption of specie payments in 1879 ;
since then every dollar has been as good
as gold. We are unalterably opposed to
every measure calculated to debase our
currency or impair the credit of our
country. Wo are therefore opposed to
the free coinage of silver except by in
ternational agreement with the leading
commercial nations of the world , which
we pledge ourselves to promote and un
til such an agreement can bo obtained
the existing gold standard must be pro-
served. All our silver and paper cur
rency must bo maintained at a parity
with gold , and wo favor all measures
designed to maintain inviolably the ob
ligations of the United States and all our
money , whether coin or paper , at the
present standard , the standard of the
most enlightened nations of the earth. "
NEW DEMOCRATIC DOCTRINES.
Turning now to the so-called demo
cratic platform of 1896 adopted at Chicago
cage we find the ten commandments of
the democratic party on the money
question ruthlessly shattered by Mr.
Bryan. The life-long devotion of the
party to honest money ; the gospel of the
strict maintenance of the public faith ;
the pledges to meet the obligations of
the government at the call of the cred
itor ; the creed so often proclaimed in
the platforms of the use of gold and
silver to bo adjusted through inter
national agreement or by the safeguards