Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/301

Rh America and in Europe, backed by the monarchs and aristocracies of the old world, is seeking the general establishment of the gold standard of value to monopolize or “corner” the world's money to the general detriment. All this has found definite expression in the following declaration of the Chicago platform:

We declare that the act of 1873, demonetizing silver without the knowledge or approval of the American people, has resulted in the appreciation of gold and a corresponding fall in the prices of commodities produced by the people; a heavy increase in the burden of taxation and of all debts, public and private; the enrichment of the money-lending class at home and abroad, prostration of industry and impoverishment of the people.

Mark well that all these evil consequences are ascribed to the demonetization of silver in the United States alone—not to its demonetization anywhere else. This is to justify the presentation, as a sufficient remedy, of the free coinage of silver in the United States alone, “without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation.” This platform is amplified by free-coinage orators, who tell us that the act of 1873, called “the crime of 1873,” has surreptitiously “wiped out” one-half of the people's money, namely, silver; that in consequence the remaining half of our metallic money, namely, gold, as a basis of the whole financial structure, has to do the same business that formerly was done by gold and silver together; that thereby gold has risen to about double its former purchasing power, the gold dollar being virtually a 200-cent dollar; that the man who produces things for sale is thus being robbed of half the price, while debts payable on the gold basis have become twice as heavy, and that this fall of prices and increase of burdens are enriching the money changers and oppressing the people.