Show 1 SILVER A2TD A CURRENCY COMMISSION I COM-MISSION I Mr E V Smaller has addressed a I long letter to the Denver Republican I on the quest1pn of pn the creation of a monetary commission He says that I I about a month ago he talked with the president on the subject and he ex I Dressed himself as being favorable to the appointment of a representative I silver man on it if congress authorized I i the commission Nothing less than this could be exDected should the appointment appoint-ment of a monetary commission be authorized j After some remarks as to what is i meant by the money power which i 3Ir Smalley says the people of the east I do not exactly understand or where It onn n I is to be found he proceeds 1 mint harm could there Possibly be in i the deliberations of a government com mission comprising representations of both sides of the much discussed ques I tion of the gold standard or the double standard i May I add that to a gold standard I man like myself the strong opposition I of the silver men to an investigation of the money question by commission ap pears to arise from an apprehension I that some facts may be brought out which would be detrimental to their side of the controversy For example i such a commission might show first as i I an historic fact that coinage legislation I ucver yet determined the commercial value of the precious metals and secondly that all attempts at maintaining maintain-ing a double standard in the past have failed to long equalize these values at any legal ratio and have always resulted result-ed in driving out of circulatln the dearer metal If this should be shown to be the uniform history of money it certainly would be highly prejudicial to the success of current efforts to try again in the United States the theory of a double standard We cold standard men observe that outside of the silver nroducing states where there is unquestionably a I genuine bimetallic sentiment the silver movement means a bitter hostility to I i gold as money and a strong desire to obtain a cheaper form of money as the I standard of values in which to make legal tender payment of debts We find also that a large number of the silver I men regard silver money as only a temporary expedient in fact as merely a halting place on the road to an irredeemable ir-redeemable paper currency This feeling feel-ing cropped out strongly in the late Ohio Democratic convention which resolved in favor of the immediate retiring re-tiring of bank notes and putting greenbacks green-backs in their place I believe that Mr Bryan is himself at heart a r > aper money man and that the time s not far distant when there will be a new division of political forces in the United States and when the people who are in I favor of the precious metals as a > asie of aU our credit currency will have to stand together to fight the Populists I and other paper money inflationists One point more in relation to a monetary mone-tary commission We have now even kinds of paper money in this country Some are legal and some are nct Do you not think it would be well to do something by legislation towards simplyfying this complex system And what harm Jn your judgment could come from the work of a good commission commis-sion representing both gold and silver men in this direction It is not probable that any harm would come from the appointment of a monetary commission and it is not I improbable that some good light II result If the members of such im mission should approach the r ect without prejudice determined c to ascertain what was best ano inly such should be appointed their discussion dis-cussion of it would be almost certain to result in throwing a light on the subject at least it would do very much to cause people to consider It from an unprejudiced point of view So far as we are aware there Is no particular opposition among silver men to an investigation of the currency I question Certain it is that the silver cause has nothing to fear from such an investigation I Mr Smalley says he finds a great many silver men who regard silver money as only a temporary expedient I in fact as merely a halting place on the road to an irredeemable paper currency cur-rency Such silver men are not genuine I silver men for they merely seek to attain at-tain their end by using a popular and widespread demand to further their ultimate design Every cause has just I such men attached to it Ve repeat the silver cause hashing has-hing to lose by the appointment of a currency commission whether or not it has anything to gain and the better known the merits of that cause the more strongly entrenched it will become be-come |