The condition in which our Treasury may be placed by a persistence in
our present course is a matter of concern to every patriotic citizen who
does not desire his Government to pay in silver such of its obligations
as should be paid in gold. Nor should our condition be such as to oblige
us, in a prudent management of our affairs, to discontinue the calling
in and payment of interest-bearing obligations which we have the right
now to discharge, and thus avoid the payment of further interest
thereon.
The so-called debtor class, for whose benefit the continued compulsory
coinage of silver is insisted upon, are not dishonest because they are
in debt, and they should not be suspected of a desire to jeopardize the
financial safety of the country in order that they may cancel their
present debts by paying the same in depreciated dollars. Nor should it
be forgotten that it is not the rich nor the money lender alone that
must submit to such a readjustment, enforced by the Government and their
debtors. The pittance of the widow and the orphan and the incomes of
helpless beneficiaries of all kinds would be disastrously reduced. The
depositors in savings banks and in other institutions which hold in
trust the savings of the poor, when their little accumulations are
scaled down to meet the new order of things, would in their distress
painfully realize the delusion of the promise made to them that
plentiful money would improve their condition.
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