e 'Che Conservative *
THE OBJECTIONS TO THE GOLD
STANDARD.
Some republican and presumably
Bouwl money papers are beginning to
ask , apropos of the forthcoming reports
of the two congressional -currency com
mittees which have held sessions during
the recess of congress , "Why legislate
about the gold standard ? Are we not
now upon the gold standard ? " The
conclusion they seek to draw is that it
would be a political mistake for the re
publicans in congress to adopt any
legislation fixing gold as the standard
money of the United States , and that
the whole question involved can be
safely allowed to drift along without
any positive action. We believe these
newspapers are in error , and we are
positive that the people are heartily
weary of the policy of drift and inde
cision that has prevailed in congress for
a great many years. It is true that the
country is now upon a gold basis , and
has been so by law ever since 1834. We
must not forget , however , that some
six millions of voters , no longer ago
than in 1896 , declared by their votes
that gold is not the rightful standard of
value and basic money of the United
States , and that most of those voters
insist today that silver is , according to
the constitution , equally standard with
gold.
gold.We
We must remember also that there is
a species of government paper obliga
tions afloat as money which are payable ,
by the statement on their face , in coin ,
and that there is nothing in the shape of
law to prevent a secretary of the treas
ury , on his own motion or by command
f of a president who may be a believer in
bimetallism , from notifying their hold
ers that they will be paid only in silver
These obligations are the so-called
treasury notes , of which there are now
afloat nearly $96,000.000. The secretary
of the treasury might also cease redeem
ing greenbacks in gold and begin offer
ing only silver for them when they are
presented for payment. If Bryan were
elected president there can be no doubt
that these would be the very first
measures of his administration. The
result would be to drive all gold out of
circulation , reduce it to a commodity of
varying value , and to lower our entire
paper circulation to a silver basis. We
need not stop now to point out the enor
mous losses that would be suffered if
the money standard should be lowered
by all classes of business men and by
all sorts of creditors , from wage earners
and savings bank depositors to the hold
ers of 'bonds and mortgages and the
owners of largo bank deposits.
It seems clearly the part of wisdom ,
now that the party of sound money is in
possession of both the legislative and
executive branches of the government ,
that it should , without further delay ,
enact such laws as will put it out of the
power of any president and any secre
tary of the treasury to abandon gold as
standard money and to precipitate the
country upon a silver basis. If congress
fails to do thi , then our sound money
victories in 1896 and last year count for
nothing. Ah , but such laws may be re
pealed , object the advocates of a do-
nothing policy. Not for six years to
come , because the complexion of the
senate cannot be altered during that
period. We grant that if the people of
this country should ever elect a major
ity of the senate and of the house and
also a president in favor of brass or
busswood as a standard money , we
should probably have that sort of money
forced upon us , but such a contingency
is beyond the range of probability.
Before the senate can be converted by
the election of new members into a free
silver body the free silver craze will
have passed away like an epidemic. It
has no solid basis , either of history or of
reason. The most expedious way of
ending its career is to enact a statutory
measure which will make it impossible
for it to achieve its purpose of lowering
the money standard without electing
first a majority in both senate and house
and electing also a president of the
United States. Such a statute would
speedily take Bryan out of politics and
cause all the Bryanites to set about
hunting for some new humbug with'
which to fool the votern. But as long
as there is any room for argument as to
whether gold or silver is the lawful
monetary standard there will continue
to be agitation of the question , with
disturbance of business and general
alarm lest it should turn out at some
election that the fools outnumber the
men of common sense. Congress has
the power to settle the whole question
by a half-dozen lines of law , and it will
be gravely remiss in its duty if it fails
to do this at the session of next winter.
Sound Money.
A LITTLE CHAPTER OF SEQUENCES.
A man was once occupied for some
time on a piece of swampy ground ,
planting it as he could and fighting
vermin. At length another man was
observed by the neighbors to get over
the fence with a gun ; he appeared for a
while to be after the same game as the
first one , but this being pretty well
chased out , he took a stand , and after
some indistinct altercation drew a bead
on the occupant , and began putting shot
into him. Then some of the neighbors
said : "This is wrong , to shoot a man
without occasion ; especially one who
has just been your friend and ally. "
But the new-comer answered : "Yon
do not know my occasions. I can show
you , that a mouth or two ago I bought
this gun for twenty dollars , on purpose
to shoot that man. Was I to go back ,
after doing all this ? What would you
think of me , or I of myself ? A chain
of irresistible sequence has led me on ,
and I am following my destiny. " Then
a number of his kindred said : "Well ,
of course that makes it different. He
ought not to lose his twenty dollars. "
But others did not seem so well satis
fied ; some people never are.
Whatever might be the general senti
ment about that action , there could be
no dispute as to the effect of it. From
that moment , neighbors one after
another , not only such as had ever had
any trouble with him before , but some
who had held only cordial relations ,
copying many of his ways devoutly and
seeming to rely upon him as big brother
among them , on whom they might
depend in time of danger , trying also
every way to set up prosperous business
with him , learned to look on him with
deep suspicion. None felt safe in his
neighborhood ; they began to draw
together , look to their locks and their
arms , and regard their late model and
champion as little better than a robber
and a murderer. Some of their alarms
were wild enough ; but by last accounts
the man was beginning to consider ,
whether he was likely to gain or lose
more by his new departure ; even as to
his power and influence in the world.
It has not gilded
BBYANAND
COCKKAN.an ? of tne Plumes
in Mr. Bryan's
helmet that he suffered himself to take
part in the trust conference at Chicago
and be put in contrast to men who are
in the habit of preceding speech upon
any subject with thought on that
subject.
His refusal to debate with Hon.
Bourke Cockran was an exhibition of
over caution incompatible his atti
tude of infallibility. lie first became
notorious through a persistently repeated
challenge to Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Car
lisle to enter into joint delate with him.
His fervid fondness for that means of
manifesting himself seems to have cooled
to such an extent that after his meeting
with Cockran was announced he Jtinched
and retreated. An attentive reading of
Cockran's speech and of Bryan'x , delivered
nejct day , reveah the cause of the Nebras
ka mnnjs abstention from combat. Cock
ran's speech is a masterly statement of
the trust issue , its cause and its remedy.
The remedy requires no doubtful inter
pretation of constitutional power , but is
ample and amply within the powers now
derived from the fundamental law.
His exposition of the need of a statute
of publicity and the means of legal re
straint puts a clear horizon to the whole
question.
Mr. Bryan's speech remarketed the
platitudes of his San Francisco speech ,
especially his arrant and inexcusable
misquotation from Lincoln , and , instead
of a clear horizon , put around the whole
issue a circular fogbauk in which his
voice droned like a foghorn , which
warns of a danger without suggestion
