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About The American. (Omaha, Nebraska) 1891-1899 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 25, 1896)
THE AMERICAN free silver ; fallacies. t i " Ably Exposed by Ex-President Harrison. BTEECH AT CARNEGIE HALL Encouraging Words For Sound Money Democrats. XSTTOEITT Of THE 8DTBEME OOUET the rMUKUM Meat II rrmml Am lmu IVMlda Which Ttrif m Cola ' aga Sink 1st latlcolfleaaeo ".vol. ' tlaMi7 Spirit of In ChleasCoavoatloa. , Point Oal How the FrMldaat Coal 4 t Bring l i to a Silver IWU Wlthoal Lta ; latlna by ConcTM Nallimal Honor at t (.tak- Clear ExrxMltloa of tha Financial ' QoMiloa.' Xz President Benjamin Tlarrtson opened the Republican campaign la New York dty at Carnegie hall on Thursday even ing, Aug. 7, with the following speech: I.ADIK9 AND GKNTtKMKIf I am on the Republican retired list not b,r rmaon of any age liutit, imr by the plea of any con tention, but that the youugor men might bare a eluinoe and that I might have rest. But I am not mural or dtsnpiiolutcd or bedridden citizen. My Interest In my ountry did not cease when my lout salary heck tu cashed. 1 hoped to add to the relief from official Antics the retirement from the arena, of political debate. Hut the gentlemen hav ing In charge tide campaign seemed to think that I might In eome way advance the Interests of thoee principles which are ot less door to me than they are to you by making hero In thll great city a puMlo address. 1 thonght they greatly magnified the Importance of anything that 1 could any, but I could not quite content niyeulf to f ubordlnato what others thought to be publlo duty to my private convenience. I am here tonight, not to make a 'key. Bote' pooch, but only to express my per sonal view, for which no one else will be In any measure responsible, for this spooch has not been submitted to the Judgment of any one until now. I shall speak, my fel low citizens, us it Republican, but with perfect respect to those who hold differing opinions, Indeed, I have never had so much respect for Democrat an I have now, PT perhaps I should say I never had so much respect for so many Democrats as I have now. That party has once more ex hibited Its capacity to te ruptured, and party that cannot be split is a public men ace. The Time to Bolt, When the loaders of a party assembled In convention depart from Its traditional principle and advocate doctrines that threaten the Integrity of the government, tlte social order of our communit ies and the security and soundness of our finance, It ought to split and it dignities Itself when It does spilt A bolt from any party la now and then a moHt reassuring Inci dent, and It was never more reassuring and never had lietter cause than now. But these Democratic frlonds who are disposed, more or less directly, to help the eauso of sound finance In this campaign ought not to e.H'ct that tha Republican party Will reorganize Itself because the Democratic party has disorganized Itself. The Republican party, the Republican voter, If sound money triumphs, as I be lieve It will, must. In the nature of the thing, constitute the body of the success ful army. Wo ought not, therefore, to be asked to do anything that will affect the solidity, the loyalty, tlio discipline or the uthustnsm of the liepubllean party. The Republican party fronts the destruo tlonlstand trumHts ltd defiance to tho enemies of sound money. It will fight, however, without covering any of the glo rious mottoes and Inscriptions that are npon Its banner. When tho house Is on Are and many of our lX'mocrntlo friends be lieve that to be the present domestic situ ation tho tenant on the top floor ought not to ask tho tenant In the bitsomcnt to bury any of his opinions before he joins the fire brigade, and so our Democratlo friends, who ronlizo as wo realize tho grav ity, the farroaohlng consequences of this campaign, ought not to ask tho Republic an party to reorganize itself, to put aside any of the great principles that it has ad vocated In order to win a vote. If their opinion Is sincerely held, as they Insist, it ought to determine their action for themselves without reference to what anybody else should do. And I submit to these gentlemen, forwhoseopinions I have tho highest respect, whether, if it be true as they say that the success of the Chicago nominees would plunge this country into lrrcmedlal commercial distress and drag the nation's honor In the dust, there can be any question for such gentlemen but tills: How can we most surely defeat the Chicago nominee? r The Attack on the President. j Neither conventions nor committees can eroate Issues nor assign them to their D" es as to thrlr Importance. That Is the Ing Issue of a campaign which most agitates and most Interests the peopla In my opinion there Is no Issue presented by the Chicago convention more Important and vital than the question they have '.raised of protecting the power aud duty of the notional oourts and national executive. The defense of the constitution and of the Integrity of the supreme court of the IJnlted States and of the president's power pud duty to enforce all of the laws of the United States without awaiting the call or torment of the governor of any state is an Important and living Issue In this cam paign. Tariff and coinage will be of little Btotnent if our constitutional government Si overthrown. When we have a president who believes Oat tt la neither his right nor his duty to M that the mall trains are not obstructed fJt that Interstate commerce hoe Its free tray, Irrespective of state line and oourts, rho fears to use our ancient and familiar power to restrain and punish lawbreakers, m trade and free silver will be appropriate aooompanlmenU of such an administra tion and cannot add appreciably to the na tional distress or the national dishonor. There Is only one rule by which we can Dye usefully as a nation or peacefully as Citizens. It is the rule of the laws consti tutionally enacted and finally Interpreted by the judicial tribunal appointed by the annstltutloa. IV It becomes the rule that violence earrio Its end, we hare an archy, a condition a dtru-tlr to boneat lata and lu reward as death Is to the tlaaue of the human body. Spirit of Hovolalloa at Chirac. The atmosphere of tbe Chicago conven tion wits surcharged with the spirit of rev olution. This platform was carried and Its nomination iimuUi with aenoiuiaiiylng tu etdent of frrniy Rial startled the onlook ers and anuued tbe country. The court and lite prealdetit were arraigned for en- forcing tlie laws, and government by the mob was given preference over government by tbe law enforced by the court dra-ree . and by executive orders. The spirit that exhibited Itaelf In this convention was so wild and strangely enthused that Mr. Bryan himself likened It to the seal that possessed the crusaders when tliey re spomlod to tlie Inipmmloned appeals of l'e ter the Hermit tu rescue the aepulcher of our Lord from tlie hands of tbe infidels. Ills historical Illustration was more po tent and more forcible than he knew, for the seal of the crusaders was a blind and Ignorant teal. They sought to rescue the transient and Ineffectual sepuloher that had held the body of the Son of God while they trampled upon the precept of love and mercy which he bod left for their guidance In Ufa He told us that this sli ver crusade had arrayed father against son and brother against brother, and bad suudured the Undercut ties of love. K Mailt Senator Hill's Action. Senator Hill, watching the strange pro ceeding, had to extend that brief political code from which he has gained so much re nown. He felt oompellud to say, "I am a Democrat, but I am not a revolutionist," Senator Vest, realizing that they were in augurating a revolution, reminded the con vention thai revolutions did not begin with the rich and prosjierous. Mr. Tillman felt that the ohange In the management of pub lic affairs was to be so radical that he proposed sulphur fumigation for the ship before the new crew took possession of It Now, my friends, all these things Indicate tlie temper In which that platform was adopted and the spirit that prompted the nominations that wore mode. There was no calm deliberation. There was frenzy. There was no thoughtful searching for the man who from experience waa most able to direct publlo affairs. There was an Im pulsive rusonse to an impassioned speech that selected the nominee. Not amid such surroundings aa that, not under such Influences, are those calm, dis creet things done that will oommend them selves to the judgment of the American people. They denounce In their plutform Interference by federal authorities In local affairs as a violation of the constitution of the United States and a crime against free Institutions. Mr. Tillman In his speech approved this declaration. It was Intend ed to be In words a direct condemnation of Mr. Cleveland, aa president of the United States, for using the power of the execu tive to brush out of the way every obstacle to the free passage of the mall trains of the United Suites and the Interstate oommerce. And, my friends, whenever our people approve the choice of a president who be lieves he must ask Governor Altgeld of any othor governor of any other state per mission to enforce the laws of the United States we have surrendered the victory the boy won In 1801. His Appeal to the Veterans. Once we wore told, and a grave question was raised, that the United States could not pass Its troops through Kentuoky to meet a rotol army In Tennessee. My friends, this constitutional question, this division between the general and local au thorities, is a plain and easy one. A die turtaince which is purely local in a state It a state affair. The president cannot send troops or lend any aid unless the legisla ture calls upon him for help, or the gov ernor, If tho legislature Is not In session. Rut when a law of the United States Is in vaded and broken, It Is the sworn duty ot the president to execute It, and this con vention arraigns the president for doing what his oath compelled him to do. Comrades in the great wnr for the Un ion, wins of those who went out to battle that tho flag might not lose Its luster, will we consent after those years that that doc trine, that vu4 shot to death In the great war, shall be revived and mnde victorious In a olvll campaign? Dut this assault does not end there. The supreme court of the United States and the federal lower oourts are arraigned because they used the familiar writ of In junction to suppress violence, to restrain men frou breaking the law, and that plat form plainly means I will show you that it was so understood In the convention and In the committee on resolutions that the Democratlo policy was that when the su preme oourt, exercising its constitutional power and duty, gave an Interpretation to a law of tiie United States that was not pleasing to congress thoy would Increase tlie numlier of judges and pack the court to get a decision to please them. The Assault Vpon the Court. My friends, our fathers who framed this government divided its 'groat powers between three groat departments the leg islative, the executive and the Judicial. They sought to make these Independent, the one of the other, so that neither might overshadow or destroy the other. The su preme court, the most dignified judicial body In the world, was appointed to Inter pret the laws and the constitution, and when that court pronounces a decree as to the powers of congress or as to any other constitutional question there Is but one right method if we disagree, and that Is the method pointed out by the constitution to amend It to conform to our views. That Is the position today. Mr. Hill said In his speech of this assault npon the court: "That provision, If It moans anything, means that it la the duty ot con press to reconstruct the supreme oourt of the country. It means" and now note his words "and It was openly avowed that It moans, the adding of addi tional members to It or the turning out ot office and reconstructing the whole oourt. I will not follow any such revolutionary step as that." You are to answer, then, my fellow citi zens, in all the gravity of a great crisis, whether you will sustain a party that pro poses to destroy the balance which our fa thers Instituted in our system of govern ment, and whenever a tumultuous con gress disagrees with the supreme court and a subservient president la In the White House that the judgment of the oourt shall be reconsidered and reversed by In creasing the number of judges and pack ing the oourt with men who will decide as congress wanta them to. Faith In the People. I cannot exaggerate the gravity and the Importance and the danger of this assault upon our constitutional lorm ol govern ment. One of the kindest and most dis criminating critics who ever wrote with a foreign pen about American analrs, Air. Bryoe, In his "American Commonwealth" pointed out this danger that the constitu tion did not fix the number of the supreme court judges, and it jffas possible fur a rack km and a rerktae executive to subordinate and practically deatruy the supreme oourt by the juiwas I have Just doatiitml, and tho Knglubman, after speaking of this, says: "What prevents such aaaaulta on the fundamental law? Nothing but the fear of the jx-ople, who broad. g"i arnia and attachment to the principle of the consti tution may be generally relied on to con demn such a jicrvcralon of lie powers," Our English friend did not misjudge, I till uk, Si sound good nvne of lint Ameri can people when an Uaue like ' ' is to he presented. Whatever the .1 lion Is, whether Mr. liryau's view or Mr. Till man's view of tlie constitutional queetkin shall prevail or that of the augmtt tribunal appointed by tlie ounstltutiou to settle It, the eourta are the defense of tbe weak. The rich and powerful have othor reaouroea, but tlie poxir have not The high mlndid, lndeM-nuVnt judiciary that will hold to the line on questions between wealth and la bor, between the rich and tbe poor, la the defense and security of the defense leas, I do nut Intend to spend any time In tlie discussion of the tariff question. That de bate tut been won and need not be pro tracted. It means that It might run on eternally opon theoretical line. We had had some experiences, but they were historical, re mote and not very Instructive to this gen eration. Ve needed an experience of our own, and we have had It It has been a hard leason, but a very convincing one, and everybody was In the schoolhouso when It was given. Mr. Depew, whose absolute ac curacy and verity when he tolls a story you oan all bear witness to, In telling that story of our talk on the White House ste did an unintentional Injury to my modesty. I did not for a moment suppose that any of those Influences (hat have elevated American prosperity until the mark on the atones waa higher than any other record that had been mode were at all significant or of oonsequenoa At I have more than once said, It waa a controversy, not of men It waa not a question of what men controlled the gov. erument It waa wholly a controversy be tween Democratlo followers and Republic an followers, and In this tariff debate, If It la to go on, we have history so fresh and recent, history so Indelibly written on the hearts and minds of our people, that cer tain things must be admitted, and among those things Is this historical fact that In 18U2 we had the most prosperous times, the most general diffusion of prosperity, the most universal participation in pros perity, and the highest mark of prosirlty we have ever attained aa a nation. Now, what has happened slnoef Then our business prosperity waa like the strong current of the mighty river; now It la like a fading spring In an Au gust drought A panlo In 1803 of most ex traordinary character has been auooeedod by a gradual drying up, lest and less and less, until universal business distraction and anxiety prevail all over our commu nity. I do not believe there boa ever been a time, except perhaps In the very heat of some active panlo, when universal business fear and anxiety and watchfulness, even to the point ot desperation, have charac terized this great metropolis aa they do to day, Men have been afraid to go away for a vacation. They have felt that they must every day In this burning heat oome Into the city and watch their business. That la the situation. What brought It aboutf Gentlemen, who Is there to defend the , Wilson tariff bill? Who says It Is a good tariff measure? A voloe, "Nobody." I do not believe a Democrat can be found to aay that It is. Mr. Cleveland repudiated It It was so bad that be would not attach his official signature to It, and it became a law without It He said It was full of In congruities and Inequalities. And it was a better one than he wanted to give us. What has been tbe result of that measure? When a few yoars ago, during the Morton campaign In New York, I discussed this question, I said that the old Democratlo doctrine used to to that the burden of our publlo expenses should be laid upon Impor tations, that the tariff Bhould provide for the cost of running our government, and I pointed out then how our Democratlo friends had left that platform and were now endeavoring to obtain revenue by Internal taxation rattier than to allow the support of the government of the United States to be maintained upon the Importations of foreign goods. Maintenance of Gold Reserve. What has been the result? One of these experiments In Internal taxation, the In come tax, was held to be unconstitutional by the supreme oourt So eager were our Democratic friends to relieve tholr embar rassment and to put directly upon our peo ple, according to the English system, a tax to support our government that they pass ed an unconstitutional act In order to levy Internal taxes aud help out a tariff bill which had reduced the duties upon Im ports. Now, what has been the effect of that? It has failed to produce revenues enough, supplemented by our internal taxes, to maintain the government There has been an annual deficit approaching 150,000,000 every year, and the national treasury has been continually In a state of em barrassment Our manufacturers, left without ade quate protection, have been successively and gradually closing up and putting out their fires. But not only has this produced such an effect, but It has practically con tributed to the financial depression that we are In, The maintenance of the gold re serve up to $100,000,000 by the govern ment for the redemption of our notes was essential to confidence In tbe stability of our finances. W hen the government reserve runs down, people begin at once to say: We may come to a silver basis. Gold Is going out The reserve Is going down." And this fear Is greatly Increased. But how can you keep a gold reserve of 1100,000,000 when you have not got 1100, 000,000 In the treasury all told? How can you maintain this gold reserve for the re demption ot notes when you have an an nual and continual deficit In your income not equaling your expenses? So that, my friends, this tariff bill has aot only contributed, by Increasing Im portation, by taking away the needful sup port for our own manufactures, but It has contributed In the way of Increasing the silver scare to bring us Into the present condition of distrust and dismay which now prevails. The bond sales have been made necessary by reason of this deficit, because, I think, every one will agree that at a financial problem it la one thing when you havo 300,000,000 surplus In the treasury to keep one dollar lu three In gold and quite another when you have only $125,000,000 in the treasury all told. But I did not Intend to follow that ques tion further. I am quite as much, how aver, opposed to cheapening the American workingman and working woman as I am to cheapening our dollars. I am quite as strongly In favor of keeping days' work at home as I am gold dollars. If It could be known tonight that that gallant soldier, that typical young American; that distin guished and useful statesman, William McKlnley of Ohio, would certainty be lac-ted prvaWVnt, how the bears would take to cover oa tho Stork exchange to morrow. My friends, aa a Republican I am proud of many thing, but I can sum up aa the highest aa(Ufa tlon I have bad In tlie party and Ita career that proaptx-t of Republican aucomt never duT disturb bust- A Orave Vmagr. In connection with this financial mat ter, do we all realise bow Important the choice of a prealdeut 1st Do you know that as the law Is now, without the passage of auy free coinage iff silver law at all, tt la In the power of the president of tlie United States to bring the business of this country to a silver baalaf All he has to do Is to lei the gold reserve go, to pay out sli ver when men aak for gold, and we are there already. It Is only because the pres tdents of the United States that we have had and the one we have now have regard ed It under the law aa their publlo duty to maintain the gold basis, maintaining that parity between our sliver and gold coins which the law declares Is the policy of the government, and because they have had the oourage to execute the powers given to them by the resumption act to carry out that declaration of publlo law. I under take, therefore, to say that If Mr. Bryan or a man holding his views were In the presidential chair, without any legislation by congress, we should be on a stiver basis In a week's time. The silver question what is ltf Do we want silver because we want more money a larger circulating medium? I have not heard anybody say so. Mr. Bryan is not urging It upon that basis, if anybody were to seek to give that as a reason for wonting true silver, he would be very soon confounded by the statement that free sil ver would put more gold out of circulation than the mints ot the United States could possibly bring In In years of sliver, and thut Instead of having more money we would have loss. With our six hundred and odd millions of gold driven out of circula tion, we will reduce the per capita money of this country between $8 and $9; so It Is not for more money. About the Rating of Valuaa. We have an abundant supply of circulat ing medium gold, silver, national bank paper, greenbacks, treasury notes, fraction al silver. We have something like $23 per capita ot our population. What Is It, then, that creates this demand for silver? It Is openly avowed It la not more dollars, but cheaper dollars that are wanted. It la a lower standard of value that they are de manding. They say gold has gone up un til It has ceased to be a proper standard of value, and they want sliver. But how do they want it? Now, my friends, there Is a great deal of talk about bimetallism and the double standard, and a great deal of confusion In the use of those terms. Bi metallism Is the use of the two metals as money where they are both used. By double standard they mean that we shall have a gold dollar and a silver dollar which shall to units ot value by which all prop erty and all wages and everything Is to be m ensured. Now, our fathors thought that when they usod these two metals In coinage they must determine tho Intrinsic relative value of the two, so that a comparison of the markets of the world would show just what relation one ounce of silver bore to one ounce of gold, how many ounces of silver It took to be equal to one ounce of gold in the mar kets of the world where gold and sliver were used, and they carefully went about ascertaining that Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton gave tholr great pow ers to the determination of that question, and they collected the market reports, and they studied with all their power that ques tion, and when they hod found what ap peared to to the general and average rela tive value of these two metals thoy fixed upon a ratio between them. Now, what was the object of all that? Why did they lump it all? Because they fully understood that unless these dollars were of the same Inherent, lntrlnslo value both of them could not be standards of value and both could not circulate. Why, every boy knows that It Is essential that tho length of his stilts below the tread shall to the same. What Is the law that governs here? It Is just this simple law of human selfishness and self protection that, If you have two things, either one of which will pay a debt and one is not as valuable as the other, you are sure to give the least valuable one. It Is just upon the principle that a man who can pay a debt with one dollar won't give two precisely that; so that, unless these two things maintain ap proximately the relative value, so that 16 ounces of silver are worth 1 ounce of gold, you cannot make such dollars clroulate to gether. The one that Is more valuable the man will keep In his pocket or he will sell it to a bullion broker, and everybody will use the other. It Is an old law, proclaimed years ago In England by Gresham, that the cheaper dollar drives the better one out It has been Illustrated In our history repeatedly. It has been Illustrated In the history of ev ery commercial nation In the world, and anybody of half sense could see why It Is so. You might just as well say that If we hod two kinds of bushels, If the law should declare that 60 pounds of wheat was a bushel and 30 pounds of wheat was a bushel well, what farmer would deliver wheat by the 60 pound measure If he hod sold It by the bushel? In Calculating the Ratio. Now, so nice were our people about this In trying to adjust It, that they went Into doclmal fractions. We say 16 to 1. In fact, that Is not the ratio. It Is 16.688 plus. Now, that Is the actual ratio. It Is so near 16 that we call It 16, but the men who made our silver dollar and our gold dollar were so nice In their calculation that they went Into decimal fractions. Into thousandths, to adjust It accurately. Now, what do these people propose to do? To take any account of thousandths? No. When the markets of the world fix the rel ative value ot silver and gold at 81 ounces of silver to 1 ounce of gold, they propose to say 16. Well, my friends, there has been nothing more amusing and yet I fear that with the thoughtless It may have been In some measure misleading than the repeat ed declaration of Mr. Bryan that every body admitted that bimetallism was a good thing there Is no debate on that subject and that the debate of the campaign has oome down to this fine point The Repub licans say that wo cannot have this good thing without the consent of England, and we may say we can have it ourselves, and he has endeavored to pivot this great cam paign, with its tremendous Issues, upon that pinhole. We hear a great deal about the great re sources and wealth and power of ths coun try, and I do not allow anybody to go be yond my appreciation of them, but what la the use of talking about all that when you do not propose to put this wealth and pow er and lnfiuenoe behind the silver dollar at all? As things are now, the silver dollars that we have are supported by the govern ment, and the government that supports this silver bullion has Issued these dollars on Its own axrnant not fur tbe mine own er and It has pledged Its aarred honor It would make every one of tbeae silver dol lar a good as a gold dollar. And that Is a powerful support. Without It disparity between these metals would at once show Iba-lf In the markets, and there would he aonis sense in the talk which our Populitle friends indulge In when they spunk of Die power of this gov ernment If they propose to put this power la-hind their five coinage. But they do not Tbey propose that tlie man who dig silver out of the mines may bring It to the mint and have It stamped and handed back to him as a dollar, tbe government having no responsibility about It Theae men would rejert with contempt the proposition that free coinage waa to oome with a pledge on behalf of the government to maintain the parity of the two dollar. But thia feeling Is well adapted to touch the prevailing American bumptiousness and well adapted to touch that prejudice agalnat England which many people have. "Power of the Ovearaiarat. But oan we do thla thing ourselves? Is It a question whether we will do U or ask someltudy's consent whether we may, or ask the oo-ope ration of somebody? Not at alt I will tell you what this government can do alone. It can fix Its money unit It can declare by law what shall he the rela tive value of an ounce of gold and an ounce of silver, but It cannot make that lust dec laration good. It Is unquestionably fully within the power ot this government to bring this oountry to a silver basis by coin ing silver dollars and making thom legal tender. Tbey oan do that This govern ment shall say you shall take one of those dollars In discharge of any debt owing to 1 you for a dollar notwithstanding you may ; have loaned gold dollars. But It cannot say and enforce Its decree If you should ! call out the' regular army and navy and muster all our great modern ships and add I the militia and put William J. Bryan In j command of fhem It cannot enforco the uucree tnac i ounce or gom is wio equiva lent of 16 ounces of silver. Not only that Not France and England and Germany can do that unless the mar kets respond. Why? You make me take a silver dollar for a debt, but If I have bought my goods at gold prices you cannot make me give as many yards of cloth for a , silver dollar as I have been In the habit of giving for a gold ona If I have a gold dol ' lnr In this hand and a silver one In that, and you declare they are equal and I can take that gold dollar to a bullion broker , and got $3 for it, I know tt Is a lie. If I , have nothing but a gold dollar and sugar Is 20 pounds for $1, I will not give that gold dollar for 20 pounds of sugar. I will , take It around to a broker and get two sil ver dollars tor It and get the 20 pounds of I sugar and have one silver dollar left So j It Is, my friends. We can of ourselves, of ! our own wisdom, declare the unit of valua We can coin silvor freely, but we cannot make 16 ounces ot sliver equal to 1 ounce of gold unless It Is. And it Is not unless tho merchants take It at that rate. What Free Sliver Means. That Is where all this thing comes la It Is trade, it Is the merchant, It Is the man who exchanges and deals in these things, that fixes their relative value, and If you do not take the value he fixes the gold dollar will go back to the gold vault, and the gold will go out of circulation. What Is another consequence? In this connection these gentlemen say, "Why, didn't we win the battlo at Bunker Hill? Didn't we whip the British at York town? And do you mean to say wo can't do It again?" The loglo of these gentle men If I may use such a term In connec tion with such balderdash is that a na tion that can do these great things and establish Its political independence can also be financially and commercially free. It cannot to free of the laws of trade. They can say that ten muskrat skins are equal to one beaver skin, but that don't make it so. The fur trader fixes that question. What is the next suggestion? It Is, my friends, in the case of free sil ver, what Is the financial and moral equiva lent of a declaration that 60 cent pieces are dollars. They might just as well pass a law that 60 cents Is a dollar. That would not make It so, would It? But It would to a legal dollar, hut It would not buy a dol lar's worth of anything. What Is the effect of that? The merchant would take care of himself. A man keeps a store down here on Broadway, and the law is going Into operation tonight. He summons all his clerks and buys 26 cents' worth of pencils, and before he opens his store In the morn ing he has marked up his goods to the new scale. He can do all that But there are great numbers of people, numberless peo ple, who enlist our' Interest, and some of whom enkindle our sympathies, who can not use the pencil. Take the workingman. He cannot go to the pay roll with a pencil and mark It up. He has got to consult somebody. He bos to enter Into an argu ment He has got to get some other man's consent before he can mark up his wages. Then there Is the pensioner, those that are receiving pensions from this government for gallant deeds done In the war, and oth ers for the loss of beloved ones. We cannot take his pension certificate and when It reads $8 make It read $16. He must wait for an appeal to congress, and a congress that Is Populistlo In character would to unsympathetic Always Truthful to Working-men. He must make an appeal to congress to have his pension raised to twice what it was before he Is made equal. What can the( depositors In our savings banks this great company of widows and orphans, the peo ple of small means, who are putting by a few pennies against a hard time In life what can they do when this change oomes? Can they take their bank passbooks, and where it says $10 write $20? Not at all. Take the men who have life insurance. A man who has providently taken out a pol icy that his widow and ohlldren might not oome to want when the breadwlnnlng hand was stricken In death can they, where the policy reads $5,000, make It $10, 000? No. Can the managers of these In stitutions make It right with them? No. This policy coerces Integrity. However honest a president of a savings bank may be, however full of sympathy the president of a life association may be, he Is compel led to say: "All of the loans of this com pany are scaled down to 60 cent dollars. We loaned dollars that were worth 100 cents; we are now being paid in the re duced dollar. Although our Integrity re volts against It, our honesty Is coerced, and we must pay the widow hall" My friends, these men surely do not con template the Irretrievable and extensive character ot the disaster and disturbance and disruption which they are proposing for all of us In all our business affairs, great and slmpla Take the laboring man. How full of sympathy they are for him! My countrymen, I never spoke a false word to the laboring man In my Ufa I have never sought to reach his vote or Influence by appeals to that part of his nature that will pollute the Intellect and the con science. I have believed, and I believe to lay, that any system that maintains the prices of labor In this country, that brings hope Into tho life of the laboring man, that enables him to put T. that give him a stake In good order In tho property of tho country, 1 the policy that should be our American policy. I have resisted In many campaigns this Idea that a debased eurrenoy could help the workingman. j The first dirty errand that a dirty dollar 'does 1 to cheat tlie worklngiaan. My friends, a cold statistical Inquiry, nor par ti nan In lu character, was made by a com mittee of the senate in 1890 and some fol lowing year. The committee was com posed of Democrat and Republican, and tbey act out to study as statisticians the relative price of commodities and wages at different periods In the history of our country. This Investigation covered tho year of the war. It showed how prices of goods went up and In what proportion la bor advanced. Goods went op rapidly be cause the pencil process Is a quick process. Wage went up haltingly and slowly be cause the employer ha to be persuaded, and the pencil won't eerva, Now, I have here somewhere a memorandum of some of these facte resulting from that Investi gation. Labor In one period advanced S per cent Goods, the things the men had to buy out of his wage for his family and his living, advanced 18 per cent Through another period the laborer's wages advanced 10 per cent and the prices of goods advanced 4 per cent In another period the wages of the laborer went up 5 per cent and the prices of merchandise advanced 90 per oent In another period the laborer's wages went up 43 per oent and the prices of goods 117 tier cent Now, these statistics are the re- I suit of a cold scientific Inquiry made by i men of both parties to determine what the j truth was, and the truth they found waa ' that the enormous disparity between the advance of the cost of living and tbe ad vance of wages falls in exactly with what we would conclude In advance. Laborers, men who work, whether with head or hand, In salaried positions, would do well to take these facts to heart and settle the question after tliat broad, deep Inquiry Co which Mr. Bryan Invites you, as to whether you want to enter into another experience such as you had during the war, when wages ad vanced so slowly and tediously and tho cost of your living moved on so swiftly. Who Will Gain the Profit? I have sketched very hastily some of tho evils that will result from this change to a debased dollar a contraction of our cur rency by the exporting of our gold and a readjustment of everything. I read the , other day in a paper a most amusing de scription of the troubles of the ticket agent at Laredo, a station on the Mexican rail way, who had to sell tickets to people who came from the United States with United States money going Into Mexloo, and then to people who came out of Mexico, and who offered him Mexican money. He had a large book bound up with yellow paper, and he had to cover one whole sheet In his calculation usually when he sold a ticket That Is what would happen everywhere. Everything would have to be readjusted, the prices of everything, tbe whole Intri cate business adjustments of the oountry would have to be readjusted, and while that process is going on uncertainty would characterize business, resulting In panlo and disaster. Now, who will got any benefit? Well, the man who owes a debt that he contract ed upon a gold basis and is able to pay It with a 50 cent dollar. He and the mine owner, who gets an exaggerated price for the products of his mine, are the only two people or classees of people that I can see that would have any benefit out of It My j friends, the people who advocate this oluss j legislation this legislation favorable to the mine owners to double the plrce ot the products of their mines, and who offer this ; temptation of repudiation to the better i class are the party that have for 20 years been proclaiming against class legislation. . They muke a strong appeal to the farm er. They say it will put up prices. Well, In a sense, yes. Nominally, yes. Really, no. If wheat goes from 60 cents to $1.20, the price has been Increased, you will say, but If the price of everything else has gone up in the same proportion a bushel ot wheat won't buy for the farmer any more sugar or coffee or farming Implements, or anything else that he has to purchase. If that dollar won't buy for the farmer any more or to a better dollar than the one we have now, where Is the good to anybody of Introducing these ficticious prices that are not real? It would work very well for the farmer if the prices of wheat, hay, oats and rye would double and nothing else1 would double But if everything doubled, who Is the richer? Who la richer than he Was before? Shall This People Be RepudlatarsT Only the man who bought when we had an honest dollar and paid In a debased ona Only the mine owner, who uses this gov ernment to add 60 cents to the value of every dollar's worth of metal that he pro duces from his mlna That Is not even a Democratlo doctrtna It Involves the Idea that this government of ours shall pay not only its debt of honor, but that It pay the Interest on Its bonds and the circulating notes In n debased currency. My country men, this country of ours during the trou blous times of the war may have had se vere trials, but these financial questions are scarcely less troublous than those. During those troublous times we had ac cumulated a debt so large that many of our pessimlstlo Democratlo friends told us we could never pay it We had had a cur rency which we were compelled to make a legal tender and use, that the constitution might live, but no sooner had the war end ed than the great conscience of this people declared the nation that has crushed thla great rebellion, that has lifted itself In its pride and Its constitutional glory to a fearless position among the cations of the ' earth, should cot continue to have a de preciated and a debased currency. And we walked up to resumption, and we made the greenback dollar a par dollar In gold. Shallwe-Uow In these times, when all the Ills we suffer are curable If we only pass a revenue bill that will generous ly replenish the treasury of the United States, that will generously -ct Amer ican labor against Injurious dmpetltlon and bring back again full prosperity to all our people shall we now contemplate for m moment or allow to have any power over our hearts and minds this temptation to debase our ourrency and put It In Its financial position alongside of the Aslatlo . countries or our weak and struggling sis ter republlo of Mexloo? I Does not every instinct of pride, does not every Instinct of self Interest, does not very thoughtful, affectionate Interest In others, does not our sense of justice and honor, rise up to rebuke the Infamous prop osition that this government and Its people shall become a cation and a people of re- pudlators? I A useful addition to toilet articles Is a pumice stone set In silver after the style of a call polisher. It Is designed to remove j Ink spots, fruit and other stains from the hands, i 1 i a