1
i
t
SENATOR DAVIS' VIEW.
Th Democratic Platform Strikes
at the
Foundation.
0?ernroent'i
FREE SILVER NOT BIMETALLISM.
Condition of Affairs Worse thin Wai
Would Result from Dem
ocratic Success.
Ia a s-eib delivered at St. I 'mil Au
gust 4, Scintor ('. K. Darin )h ji m 1 out
very clearly tin- fact that free silver in
not bimetallism ami showed what v i i
result would follow Democratic nr
ce. He said tbnl fur the tirsl
time siiu-e tin- choiiou next preced
ing the great Civil war, we lire
required to guard tln very founda
tion and bulwarks of national stability,
of commercial honesty, nl' flnam ial con
duct. The Di-niiM nitic party which met
at Chicago in coiivcinion in July suffered
a wonderful change in that contention.
The old oracle ami guide of the party
were rudely turned aside. It was occu
pied and demoniacally possessed hy new
spirit something which ha not raised
it head in the olilical convention of
either party for thirty years. If tin-re
any one thing which the L'.f N M i.( a at
of Dleti who went mil lo defend thin coun
try thirty yearn ago thought that they
had entirely obliterated when they re'
turnerl, it wn ihe ma lien doctrine of
state right, which lay at the bottom
and was the impel uh of Ihe greatest
rebellion which ever reared its head
gaint a civilized gotornment. Lo and
behold, in that couvenlion. from the
atate of South Carolina, a of yore, you
find the declaration of the name Mate
right, in the same spirit a in the an
cient time, and done in a connection, my
fellow citizen, which must appe.il to the
reaeiitineiit and repugnance of every liberty-loving
and country-loving innn." Ev
eryone n ho know anything about me
know that I tun not a political admirer
til t. rover Cleveland: hut ir there wan :
ny one j.-i ,.r hi administration which, j
after the contentions of history have
ceaed to race about hie acts and hi
memory, ilia' ;il reniaiti slur bright
forever, it wb his anion, when the
pulse of business beat low, when com
mercial intercourse nn cut off liy riotera
iu Chicago, by which, iiMin principles and
precedent laid down by Coorge Wash
ington UNI years before, he evoked the
strong arm of the I'nited Slate to re
store law and order in tfain country.
lApplause and cheer.
Thia act ia covertly (and covertly ia
too mild a word I denounced in the 'Chi
cago platform. More than that. If there
ia anything in thia country or in any na
tion upon which the alnbility of the gov
eminent dependa, the very keystone of
the great arch upon which the ranged
empire stands, the ultimate principle of
absoluteism that must exist somewhere
In all governments, it is the courts of our
land, where men seiuestered from l it i
eal concerns and political nmbilions,
holding the .-nlc of justice even be
tween contending piissiona mid contend
ing right, dec ide for their fellow citizen
what the law is. And for more than WO
years the Supreme court of the I'nited
Slatea has sat iu that exalted position,
midway In the enpitol of Ihe mi I ion be
tween Ihe Senate and the House of ll.-p-reaeutativea,
a typical object lesson o
their isisition and of their sublime ca
pacity to restrain either, nud has done
more to eoiirluct the government to lb.
I ' . 1 ; i.i.o i waul to say one thing
!. you-that not one of these professor
in foreign universities, not one of these
c.'ouoniiMB whoso uame and lame are
world wide, and not one of those great
financier who have given day and years
of thought to this subject, not one. and
liotsjdy exceB) the leader of the modern
I'cuiooraey and l's;tilisni, has venture
lo advise his own i-ountry iu Kurois- to
undertake that task alone. (Applause.)
I lie quotum is tin, am nothing more
Shall the l uiled Slatea, alone, under
take the fret- and tiullruiti-d coinage of sil
ver at a ratio of IH to 17 (A lew cries
of "ve" and "no," and repeated cries of
"no. ') Now. see you gentlemen oer
there who called "yes." ami you gentle
men here who called "no," shows the
difference of opinion upon this subject
(laughter), and to you over there who
come to listen to inc. you will listeu dis
passionately, you will digest uiy argil
iiients. ami hois- finally that by th.
time you have done so thoroughly that
you will be inclined to shout "no" with
the gentlemen who responded when you
resM.iuled. iCheeriiig and applause.)
Now, let ua be entirely good-natured
about this. 1 am going to Iry to give
you the facts, and I reis-at it, the issue
ia whether the I'nited States shall al
tempt to do that thing alone, in the
face of the controlling fact that every
civilized commercial mil ion iimii the face
of the earth, except Ihe Ceiilral Amer
ican and South American slates, years
ago and la-fore we did abandoned it ut
terly. And if I shall succeed in con
vincing any of our friends that we are
not iu isisition to do it without inflicting
iisin the country and iisn us all injuries
w hi. h it will lake a generation to re
pair, I shall be more than rewarded
fur the pains that 1 have taken, the ob
servations that I have made, the studies
I have gone through and the reflections
which have brought me to my present
convictions. (Applause.)
hhsll W lie Backward or Fern aril?
Shall we. for our own interests stand
along with those nations with which we
I hate classed ourselves and who are lead
j ing the march of humanity, or shall we
i go with Mexico, South America, China
and .liipnii. ihe rearward half of the
great army of human progress, and .join
those imperfect and rudimentary civiliza
tions, which are an iicculiir demons! ra
tion that no mi I ion ever undertook alone
the coinage of free silver that did not de
prive itself of gold entirely. (Applause.)
And yon have but to gin mi- iim the
map of your hool Isiy or scIhhjI girl,
your little son or daughter, to see the
fuel recorded there for the education of
jouth. to know that every one of those
tuitions Miinds upon a lower scale of
progress I hnn the nations which fiBve
declared the policy upon which the I'nit
ed Slatea now stanu's.
My fellow citizens, the warning of his
tory are all against it. The present ex
n ui plea of nations who aingly are endeav
oring to sustain themselves under a single
standard forbid us to enter upon a voy
age iiMin, I was going to any, untried
waters, but no, upon a voyage which we
can plainly see other nations are making
at Ihe present time, where we inn plain
ly view rocks of distress, the shoals and
quicksand of their course from the se
cure mainland upon which the Aincrienn
people now stand, and from which our
opponents are attempting to lure t In-in
by false lighta h n.l false alarms. (Ap
plause.) Now we have got to take facts exactly
as they are. We nil t dealing w ith
glittering and glowing generalities. We i
lire administering society ami human con- J
ceriio: society, a being perfectly concrete, I
infinitely practicable, somewhat selfish,
mid I inn going to appeal to the selftsh
iichs of this audience to know whether
they will assist In bringing about that
which I think I run prove will result
from the arts of Ihe gentlemen who are
attempting to mislead them.
Now, my friends, the world is divided,
just ns sharply as it is by oceans and
M-rhai of capitalisls. hoard and gjtlier't0 Hire years
for Ihe oiipresMon of mankind. Now let f turriT to take th
ine call your attention to one fact. The
free-i-omers iv-rt, w lieu they are told
that the increased omput of gold is going
to tend very much and by natural pro
cesses to solve this inesiioii. that from
one-half to one third of Ihe gold uniiuulh
produced in the wo. M Int.. the ns.
This Matemeiit is prolt.ii.lv an exaggera
tion. It is probable tli.-.i oiie-qtiHit. r of
the gold of the world produced annually
goes into the arts, and it li.is Is-eu doing
it for centuries. Consider for a me
incut, my f. How citizen, what mi enor
mous Mini, enormous aggregate three
billions, is-rliaps four billions, of dollars
are lying in the ha- of golden orna
ments, thousand of dollars of them in
thia room tonight. Now I want to ask
you tins qni-Ktioii. if tiien- Ik a gold fain
inc. if the power of gold is so absolut.
ami tyrannical M1( tl M claimed, if its
possesNloil IU the 1imh' of coin gives its
owner siicfi hway over the destiny and
fortune of his f-llow man. how is it
that this enormous iimount of gold, )mt
haps one-third of that which i in exist
ence, ua not siumn ihe l.-ast symptom
yei oi going inlo tne inciting pot lo In
liirued into coin?
Hut we bear a great deal nl-oil the de
monetizHtion of silver, and one would
ininK to near our triM--.oin.-r friends d.--
claim that silver hud Im-cii entirely de
monetized, that by some malign influ
ence the money function of silwt
throughout the world had been cntirclv
abrogated, and it is a vcrv ciilchjiiL-
phnihc. It has boon a v.-r.i .niching
assumption, lor 1 will imi :ill ii nn argu
incut.
Now. I say. my fellow citizens, that.
pro icny considering facts, that shite
inent is inaccurate, not lo mm- untrue. 1
assert that silver m ne.-r i..en demon
etized in the sense ill which that charge
has been made, f Applause.! I Iciiioiie-
tization melius to .livest of standard
value ns money, and I say this has m.l
oocu none w nn any U -Har of silver nun
that was ever minted at an uiii.i. i.
piause.i u in inn- Hist many nations
who nave Bjiptoiicli, .1 Hi., danger line of
w hich spoke a few moments ago. when
one metal druox oul another, ih.-ti main
iiiilioiis have told the owners ..! sih.-'r
which lay concealed in the earth we will
not longer buy it nl a certain ratio and
at a certain mice. Kvcn that ha not
been entirely done, mid I repeat mv
statement that the assertion that silver
lilia lieen demonetized is one calculated
to mislead, and is not true in fnet.
'The t'rloie of ::!."
All our woes arc dated i loin
s-riod when the fro- . i.!a. i
their disciple that, to u-.e iheir
pn-smon. snver was ifomont
1ST
per-
high plane which il occupies. I was goingc mountain chains, betm-eti the gold t n
tfh Mil. fl.ao ll ,t... ...... .... i .1 . . t . i ,
lo any, than all the statesmen which tbisw
country n erer produced. (Applnnse.)
The Chicago platforui strikes nt that
court, strike at all court, and enntt
ciiifea Its malign prupheay of the reor
ganization of that court and of nn other
court If necessary, to register the tilfub
and passionate and repudiating edir-;s oii
mistaken and misguided men, of mistaken
and misguided parties.
A Crisis Is Impending.
And worac than that, tnv fellow cili
zenaworse than that! If there was
another thing which the veteran if the
last Avar thought they hail achieved md
which Ihe loyal sentiment of the North
thought it hud achieved, it was the ob
literation of all sectionalism in this coun
try; we were to have no South, no North,
no Kast, no West, any more. The w hole
eonuli v was to In- a unity. Hut in tin e
later days, wn see the solid South coin
ing up lo Ihe banks of the Ohio mid the
.Missouri as before the war. and with
'i-ui ofinuiKiM iijKin au economic in
ane, precisely such a was made before
tue Hels-llion. And now, with the piieh
fork of Tillman stirring tip the doctrine
of stte rights, with the bomb of Al'geld
in the denunciation of our courls mid of
President Cleveland thrown tinder the
very fabric of our government, they have
chosen to put forward as an issue some
thing which touches more imniedi itclv
the conviction, the passions, the cupidity
and Ihe honesty of men, and which in it
aelf contain more disintegrating influ
ences to our prosperity than nil the
causes combined that I have mentioned.
The Democratic convention, or the
petnoorHllo parly, us now organized, has
loine.l Ihe l'opulisl party in bonds of un
holy wedlock upon the demand that the
Cnitcd States shall take a position uiion
the currency of thia country which I,
peaking fo von under the reasinsi.-iility
of a man who is speaking to his neigh".
Hora, sty that I believe is fraught with
more disaster to this country limn the
greatest foreign war could H.ihly Icing
about, (Applause.)
And that ia Ihe subject (hut I have
been asked to talk to you tonight nlsiut.
I am going to do so, as 1 said iu the lx-
iniiiug. not with any attempt tit deco-
i-ecn, not denouncing any men
who may choose to diRer from me, for
ieii you, my fellow citizens, that iminv
ami ninny a thousand men who differ
.Mo.. iihiiiv on mix mailer one year
iroin now will be wondcrint.- win- .,,!
they came to do It. lApplause.)
suaii go on, 1 may be tedious.
i am going to give you fads and lig
iircs. I am not going to draw on mv
own imagination for my fad nt ali
ihe facta that I shall give vou will he
iinpregiianie. It is for you to judge
ncem.-r nc oe.iuciioiiH i shall draw
from them can be refilled.
Now what is the question 1 l-'or a cor
reel understanding of the quest ion Is -wn
Ihe first slop towards the solution
of the controversy. The onesii. in i
i flier there should be the. free ..n.l
tries, who employ eoiieiirrenllv with irold
more xilver money than nil the silver
countries contain or circulate. (Ap
plause.) I say that the gold -countries
of this world, including the t'uite-l States
(and I call them gol.l countries for the
purpose not of definition, bill of clear
ness of expression), employ and circulate
more silver than all the silver countries
of the world employ, contain or circulate.
I make another proposition. np.a
to histoty and to contemporary facts
which no man can dispute, that every
free coinage country is on n ilvcr basis.
Isn't thBt so? (Cries of "Yes.") f make
another statement for vou to think of.
for I am not going to elaborate it I am
going to get into the figure pretty soon
- every gold country uses silver arid gold
in nmonnts nearly equal by money ns
lions. Isn't that so? (Crie of "Ves."l
Isn't that an in the f'nitcd Stales?
(Cries of "Yes.") In Frame? (Voices.
"es." I make another slaicmenl for
your calm and cool reflection, that no sil
ver standard country has any gold mon
ey whatever. (Aoplanse.i fiori't take
my word for It. (!o mid investigate this
subject. I say that no silver country has
any gold money whijtever. and voii pan
search from Mexico to Cape Horn an. I
find that this statement is correct.
Another statement -and I make il up
on a sense of my responsibility after an
exhaustive examination of statistics, in
vestigations and records that in every
silver standard country wages are pressed
down to the very minimum of n wretched
snbsistem. It is so in Mexico. If Is so
In Janan. if is so In South America I
say mai in every silver country
are pressed nnwn to the vcrv
of a wretched subsistence.
, the
liade
I C .V
' that
one -null ol the agiegale wealth of the
world waa struck down at a blow. Now
let us bring this statemeul to the crin inl.
absolute test of figures, of what records
and statistics any upon this Hiibiect. and
not trust to the vague decla ina ion o
any person. I Iu- value laud I w ill give
you my authority for this siatemeni iu a
moment I, the value of nil iher coin in
the world in IXT.'i was 1.K77.(MHI.(HH
In IM'.Ci it was . 4. 1 MI.IMIt .((. The
value of all In- gold coin ill Ihe world in
IHT.'S wnn .$.'!, M. "i.( X H 1,1 H HI; the value of all
the gold coin in the world in iMilo was
4.2lM"HI,(NKI. (If this quantify of sil-
r current in tin- world in IMIo. $.'i. l:l.-
.'tisl.iKHI was full legal tender. Now at
tend to me for a moment while the ninth
einnlieiil deduction is made. ty this
slateinent it appear that the oiinnlitv
of gold in tin- world increased, between
l.S7;i and l.S'.l.'i, only JH.imi.ikiii.ihm),
while the iuoreiise of silver coin for the
same M'riod was .'sJ.L'H.'l,(KNI.(MHI -nioiv
coined in tin- tw eiity-l line year since
JN7;i than remniiic.1 up to that time of
all the coinage of the world since Noah
left the ark. (Applause.) And neiirly
dollhio llllil-c Mltvei- litis l.oi. ii coin. ..I l...t.
gold since lN7:t. What becomes, th.-n. f ! tr,'aH'ry toget a treasury certificate
and will probably
new medicine
bundao.-e. But I say that they admit
tiemelve8 any intelligent apeaker upon
that subject admits that the inevitable
md irresistible tendency ahrf result of
the free j-oinage of silver in thia coun
try will be to drive out the gold. Now
let ug aee how they propose to obviate it.
It baa always struck me that one of
their most enlightened champions was
Hr. St. Jobu of New York. He has been
largely and copiously quoted by them
ne was preame-jt of a national batik aud
waa president of the recent silver con
vention at St. lunula and by the bill
which be procured to la- introdui-ed in
Congress and which had the endorsement
Sf the Silver and I'onulist sentiment
there, they promised to bridge over this
yawning cnasm which they themselves
admitted WOUlii .men benonlh their feet
fcy issuing intereKt-lM-aring treasury notes
i me i nnea mates, secured liv .leisisit
f uncoined silver or gold bullion, or by
Jepoait of I'nited States bonds to Is? is-
ueq of course for that purpose. Now let
ns iook at this coolly and calmlv and fig
ure upon it a little, like men of sense w ho
are infinitely interested in this matter
a one of business concern and let us
ee bow thia project would work; wheth
er it wouid not merely
Kklp and dim the uloerous gore.
whilst rink corruption mining all beneath
juiccta unseen.
We have JtS20.l(H 1,1)00 of gold in the
I tilted States. 1 think more. It would
disappear at once in the face of free
silver coinage, or even the certainty of
it. I.et this election go Democratic
Populist, let the American woplo record
their will that the coinage of silver shall
h free and unlimited, long before Mr.
Bryan and his cohorts could place the
edict into the form of law, the just finan
cial feara of mankind, of a-ople here
iu this audience and of people every
where, at home and abroud. would draw
that gold from every vault wherein it
lies protect iii and it would sink into the
earth hh the waters which came down
from heaven last night. I sav it would
disappear at once. This bill of Mr. St.
John so admits, and that disappearance
is the very ailmeut which he proposes
to remedy. But in this universal ab
sconding of gold there would be no gold
bullion to deposit, people would not take
it out of hiding to exchange it for any
paper money whatever of the govern
ment which proposd to make all these
obligations payable in silver. (Applause.)
Thia remedy is counteracted so far by
the assumption and admission that gold
will disappear.
Now as to deposits of silver bullion.
The world's product of silver in W4
(commercial value) was $2Ifl.8!2.200.
If we could get the world's entire pro
duct (as we could nof), it would take
three years to fill the void of S)20.(XlO.-
(KK) of vanished gold. The nations of
the world will not melt down their
coined silver to deposit it in the United
State treasury and receive merely a
silver certificate.
Some of the KviU
Hut the third alternative is one of
most malign portent. It is tiroposed to
use the iuterest-bearing bonded debt of
the I'nited States in order that the miner
or owner of silver may take hia bullion
to the mint meanwhile and get evidene
of public debt two for one a privilege
not granted to or ctHiuieii uy any farm
er, artisan, manufacturer or producer
upon lions nentage. I say it is pro
posed to use the interest-bearing bonded
debt of the I, tilted States. Now. what
dss turn mean.' It means an increase
of the bonded debt. People who hav
got their lionds as investments to get
tneir living from in the way of their an
final income, or anyone else, are not
going to put their bonds on deposit in the
wages
minimum
The KftMin.
is true (I wil
noi go into
Is true as a
how
'And ho
wh.
uniinincn coinage of silver in fhe mints
of nil the nations, My the consent of the
principal commercial nations of the globe
Upon ii ratio to he agreed um.ii. That is
not Ihe Issue. We all might ngree that
when Ihis is brought nlauil, as it will he.
If the 1'nlled Hlales conducts Itself with
judgment iiNin thia question, I say we
might ull agree thai that would lie an
excellent thing. The Itcpuhlican party
has pledged Itself in successive platform's
to labor to bring about international
agreement. The most advanced think
era upon flnamial questions in both
hemispheres are advocating, eaiieeially In
foreign In iii, the rcsmnptlon of the coin
age of silver, by united action of mil ions
wli... before we did, long ago, Imlectid
MUf of us, and uncontrollable by us
lUftmlt-d ur limited the further coinage
Now if it
the reasons for ill, hut if it
concrete, absolute fact, that no silver
country, no connlry which has adopted
the silver standard bus any gold circula
tion whatever. I say that it follows that
the only practicable bimetallism on Ihe
planet is by the tuitions with which the
I illicit !ates lias classed Itself, and it
is tni iniuetallism in the t'niled Stntes
w inch the new Democracy and Popu
lism are endeavoring fo destroy bv sub
sfifuliiig a silver monometallism, ' (Ap
piiiuse.i. me bimetallism which this
country and fhe nations of which I have
spokrn enjoy is the bimetallism of fact
and aclnal enjoyment extending to that
full extent which human judgment, hu
man exierieiii-e. human npnrehoiisiuii-
call It what you wlll-ieaeh Is the pro
portion in which Ihe metals can be em
ployed in a degree that one will not de
stroy or drive out Ihe other nnd that
both can co-exist together. (Applause.)
Por there is, my fellow citizens, an un
questionable dividing line I shall prove
it further along, though it is not neces
sary for men who have rend history,
even cursorily, for me fo prove il (here
Is n dividing line bevond which vou can
not puss in the employment of the metal
of less value without Its driving mt Ihe
other and entirely supplanting it. And I
say that he who Insists 1 1 any It logical
ly) that the I'nitod Hmti-s shall or can.
acting alone, coin silver without limit,
as required by the Democratic nnd Pop.
nllst pint form. Is not a himcttillist: he Is
a silver moiioiuetallist. who. after spend,
iuit yenrs in attacking whnt he deems
the Idol of the dark Idolatry of mono,
metalllsin, ends by immolating himself
upon its altar. lAp-dause.)
Now let mil right herenot ei.eilr In
fhe logical connection throw nut a
thought which to me has a great deal of
consequence. It Is represented that gold
litis Iscome n tyrant, that its power has
become olliniiiotelit.sbsolut.-lv selfish ami
rniel; that It hag become a metal which
Krcaf combinations. i.rui of nations,
the assertion of the equal nnd equable
production of silver and gold from year
to year since tune began, nnd of ihe de
monetization of Sliver since 1H7.'!. iu Ihe
face of this showing that, between 17:!
ami lKK the coinage of silver wn near
ly twice greater than that of gold ' I hev
talk of the demonetization of silver since
IS( in the face nl a .silver coinage
throughout the world since that vear of
over f2,0llMHHUslO, of which ls'lM.
m,47 was minted - by the I'niteil
Slates! lAiplause.) And of gold (In
I'nited States minted during the saim
is-riod ,fH.'(7.-li(M!.'l.':. And here. also, is
answered a statement confidently ninth'
and plausibly miiintameil. ami yet erron
eous in fact, that there ha in all I hi
tune been an enormous .-out rail i.ni of
the currency all over the world, yet
these figures conclusively ileinousi ra le
that that slntement is not true, N'ow,
my friends. I have nut taken this'ront
the statistics of tiny other speaker or
from any other book. I know where the
statistics are gathered with the cart
which commands the respect ami confi
dence, of the civilized world, anil on the
2!th of .Inly tonly n few days ago) I
Tclegra lined Jo the director or the mint
regarding information upon those sub
jects, anil he answered nu-:
"Hon. C. K. Davis. St. I'nnl. Minn.:
The folal value of all silver coined ill fhe
world in Sl'. I estimate to have b( ,-u
1..HI7.("MUNMI and IK! in S I. H)0,(HH).(MKI.
The world's slock of gol.l in 1X7:1 is es
timated to haw been ..'!, (l."(,fKSi.(HMi and
lK!l,"i about S-t.'JtHl.iNHi.iSKi. It. K. Pres
ton, director of the mint." And these
figures I Imve just given you are ihe fig
ures which 1 hiive just read in Ihe tele
gram of the director. The greatest busi
ness transaction in the way of linanee
on the face of the earth are made upon
statements like that, and when what I
hate said is discussed the only answer
that will be made to it is probably that
Mr. Preston and the I'nited Stale's gov
ernment is one general universal gold
hug. (Laughter. I
Now let tne give jolt another state
ment. The coinage of the nations of the
world iu 11'. I -sit I an.) H'M wa a
follow,: Cold. SI72.l7.l.rJ-l- silver
$t.V...")17..'M7: 1KIKI. gold. 2:;2.420.-il7-silver.
.Hl.'l7.l).r.2.(i!i: in 1S!M. gold, S227 -II2I.(I.'2;
silver, I l-'l.f KCi.'VI. A total in
Ihrce years of I.U.'!:i.:iKl..!lK, Willi all
deduction for recoinaue this oiilpul of
"coined money is of immense ,,lumc.
Now I have, thrown out these sugges
tion and will pas from that I, much of
the discussion and call jour attention to
another assertion of the lrc coiner: I
alluded to it cursorily n few- moments
Hgo, but I propose to now treat it in
Ihe same manner In which I have treni.
ed the last preceding question. The free
coiners aert that conn act ion has in-ttieb-ij
nil the tiiinncinl it n.l economic
mierie that mankind lias endured since
1K7.'I. Now I say thai they themselves
coouy propose in nring illioul a contrae.
lion of currency in the I'ttilcil Stales un
exampled In the world's historv. say
that they propose to bring about n coil
fraction Iu Ihe Cuitcd States unexampled
in the world's history and fraughl with
more evils than are recorded in the an
mils of human woe. In that case, if thai
Is the logical result nud inevitable des
tiny of what they propone. I wauf to
know wherein Ihe goldbiig is worse than
the siher eel V
Here ia lbs I'rool'.
Now you ask me for mv proof and I
will proceed to give il. 'he unlimited
and free coinage of silver in this tounlry
will drive out the gold. This is as indis
putable as any law of physic, such as
tne law of gravitation, it has driven out
gold in every country which ha mtlimit
edlv coined river. Do you wnnt tin- hi,
torlcnl and clear ioof of it j M fllrt
there is not an enlightened genii nti
who will talk to you in advocacy of IV...
coinage of slhei who it,.- noi aiimil ihai
I hi will be Ihe lucilluble result, but thev
any it Will only lust fvru or thie Vesi
thai the patient Mill prohahh- sllrrivu
And so the chasm could not be filled
in that way, neither by gold, by silver
or by the illimitable issue of bonds.
So fltis chasm could not be filled. They
drat it will last three years. What
will take place meantime, in the very
rave oi tne danger or it f we are in
the midst of commercial distress almost
unexampled In our history: a panic such
asktlM world has seldom seen. It would
thrVtv 3,000,000 of men out of employ
ment.- it would depress nnd starve the
wage-earner, and it would deprive him
of being the best consumer and purchas
er that the American fanner lias, nnd
by that reflex action inflict unexampled
misery upon our agricultural population.
(Applause.)
In that slate of things the abyss must
be tilled. No nation could stand such
a contract inn. The most radical remedy
would be absolutely necessary to re
store it. and there would only be two
one is to get back to the honest, solid
standard on which nil the commercial
nations, including the I'nited States,
stand now, or to use an irredeemable
fmpor money, perfectly limitless or il
imitnhlc in its amount. And when that
comes to pass silver will vanish in the
face of pHper as gold vanished iu the
face of silver. (Applause.) And then
you would have another chasm, another
issue of money. The wreck is complete,
and the I'nited States stands entirely
on an irredeemable paper money basis,
precisely the place we occupied before
the war, and from which we struggled
with so much passion of honesty and
lovo of national honor to emancipate
ourselves. Do you want that again?
(Cries of No, no. )
But, my friends, to look a little deeper
into this subject. The misery goes fur
ther that would be inflicted. I have been
talking heretofore ahoul lawful money.
ami 1 mean by thai, money issued by the
governments of the world, the Pnited
Stales included. But did yon ever think
how liltle of the business of this world
or of any community liki; St. Paul and
Minneapolis is done on what is oiled
lawful money? Statistics would seem to
show that 05 per cent, of the transac
tions between man and man in civilized
nations, especially in the Cuitcd States,
is by way of checks. In cities they nre
balanced against cmh other in Ihe flour
ing house, and a few thousand dollars
balanced money closes the day's transac
tion. Where clearing houses do not ex
ist I mean in towns and villages the
depositing of the clic ks in the hunks, nnd
the collections of tfie banks adjust bal
ances in fhe same way.
Now, this is the greatest currency of
civilization. Numbers nre inadequate to
express its infinite superiority in numeri
cal relation to the lawful monev of
which we have beea talking. This is the
currency thai no statutory fiat enn ex
pand, although il can contract it. I'.ui it
is a currency which will contract inslan
laneously to it very minimum bv the
operation of the Democratic ami Popn
listie theories us announced 111 Iheir plat
forms. Now what does that mean? It
means simply that the merchant, the
manufacturers, the employer, the man of
every kind who pays out money 'o his
fellow-men for labor, or for material will
cease so far a he is concerned to emit
that currency which rule all business
The lack of confidence will produce that
contract ion in Hint currency, The clear
ings in the I'tiiled State last week were
fNtl.fKNI.OINI. In Ihe clearing i scs
aloae. mind you, and not through the in
fluence of interposition of the bunks
where there are no flouring house. ''h(.
clearances of the cily of Sf. Paul last
week were something over f 4,(NHI.(IOO,
Does any man think thai such miount
of money as that was used in St. Paul
last week-MilKKMNItl or In the nation.
IMl.nOO.fltfO. to transact their busin -st?
Il was done by Ihi currency of eivllizi-
Ion which no nation can produce, which
no nation can regulate pr control, ami I
say that this currency, more important
lltau nilvcr ur gold or national paper,
w ill be struck flown al a blo. if Hie shal
low project, of the Democratic aud Popu
list platform Ik- realized.
Hut Jon have beard from our free
coinage friends here that other nations
hare done Ibis. Aud there are many gisxl
le-ople who tselieve that France is doing
it. and that the Ijitin union uo-calle.1 i
doing it. Now, I would like to know why
they can't tell the entire truth about this
matter. Let us not d'.-eive each . llier
and let uolio.lv deceive us. The Lttin
nnion is oontM, so.i of I-'rnn-e, Helgium,
Italy, Switzerland and Crecce. It -thk
formed iu K(L"i by treaty hetween those
iwer. whereby each agreed until Ihe
year 1KN0 to take the coins of the ether
powers at the ratio of I.V., to 1.
But Ceriuany demonetized silver; she
had ceased to coin it. and so, in 1K7.3.
those great nations, headed by France
(the most scientifically-governed country
in the world, and the one which has the
most accurate financial ideasl. I say those
countries, after Cermany hail demone
tized silver in 1K7.', limited their silver
coinage, and by JK7(J they suspended it
entirely. They, those great Kurnnean
nations France, the strongest monetary
nation in the world, with her allies un
dertook with all their power to do pre
cisely what the free coiners of the Unit
ed States are asking thi government
lo undertake in the light of uch con
spicuous failures of other nations.
Invariable 8lnndaad Needed.
Now, everybody admits I think the
most rampant free-coiner declgimer
would admit that the money unit should
remain as nearly invariable as possihle.
Now, I say gold has so remained. Sil
ver has fallen commercially like other
articles. This is denied. They say sil
ver has not fallen, that gold has risen;
Now, that is the way you look at it.
Yon can look at it fhronifh the delndinir
glass of idealism, and it may appear thai
way. out ii is an optjcal illusion. Now
let me put an illustration from nutoro
The waters of Lake Snsrior. that great
inland sea which floats so much of our
commerce and is such an element iu our
prosperity. hae for many yesrs been
falling, until now thev re lower than
they hae been at any time for fifty
years, and everything nn their surface
has fallen. The waters of Lake Snne-
rior, like the universal, snread-ont nbme
of humanity, bearing everything unon its
surface those waters hear the fleets,
vessels and craft of all kinds, nnd Ves
sel and crHft and fleets of all kinds have
iHiien witn the water. What won ,1 vim
think of a man standing on the deck of
one of those vessels saying. "This ves
sel has not fallen: this vessel stands just
wnere ii am. nut the universal shore of
I.ske Superior has risen?" Tf
and applause.
.now. 1 say. mv friends- that tinn fho
Latin union, from IKT.'t to 1K7(V nhun.
doned free coinage, there has existed in
European nation ami the I'nited Kniu
the only practical bimetallism. Let me
repeat this. I feel that I cannot bear it
into your minds too often or too urgently
that these nations, including ours, nre
the only nations on the face of the enrth
that have any bimetallism whatever.
And why.' Because they went to the
danger line, as wo went, and then
stopped. lApplause. The universal
teaching nf history demonstrated that
there was a dead line, beyond which
silver could not be pressed without the
immediate annihilation nf its companion,
gold, as a useful, working money medi
um. And when any man gets up and
dreams and soliloquizes and philosophize
before me and tells me he knows it won't
be so if we try where others failed, I
tell him that an ounce of fuel is worth
a ton of theory, and that something bodi
ly is worth a million of disembodied
ghosts. Applause.
What Is ltatlo'.'
And yet these gentlemen fnvor, in the
face of these historical examples and
warnings, that the Cniled States shall
make the unit of coinage the silver dol
lar lit. the ratio of l(i to 1.
Now, what is ratio? It is not $l(i to
$1. as some people claim. (Laughter.)
Ratio means this: That there shall be
sixteen times more silver in weight, in a
silver dollar tluiii there is weight of gold
in a gold dollar. Or, to put the definition
in another form, flint sixteen ounces of
silver, wheu coined, shall be the equiva
lent of one ounce of gold when coined.
When gold measured by silver is worth
$111 per ounce, no disparity in value can
exist: but when measured by silver the
ounce of gold is worth $.'tl an' ounce com
mercially, disparity results. Such is Ihe
present condition, and yet the free silver
men assert that it will be no such thing
in case legislative fiat endeavors to make
two and two five instead of the old
fashioned result, two and two four.
The trouble is that our friends have
confused the ratio of weight with the
ratio of value, nnd are trying to confuse
the people with it. Ihe ratio of weight
nnd the ratio of value were once the
came, but they have changed. They
changed more than thirty years ago.
(liner nations saw it and obeyed the ini
perm I ncnest or tnni ciinnge lietore wi
silver would go al a parity with oid if
yon will only give us a limited pun-bane
of r4.iHi.(Ni ounce a year. It did nof
go to a parity. How cao they say now.
and look fhe American people in ihe face
with steady eye, that w here it failed then
it is going to work entirely different aud
satisfactorily now?
BE VAX ON THE KATIO.
He
lid, and the ratio is now throughout
me worm ,iz, or iitiout .(J. to 1.
Now- I say that no legislative fiat what
ever it does not lie m the power of man
(I wag about to say something more ex
treme than that, which it would not be
proper to say) it dees not lie iu the
power of man to enact that a given rii-
metmlnn, volume or capacity shall be a
hairs breadth greater than the laws of
the Almighty have fixed it from the be
ginning. I Applause.)
It is necessary that the ratio or propor
tion of value should be invariable. It is
necessary tor the production of the thing
itself called money, speaking of il in il
great volume, as the volume of monev in
the Pnited States. We see analogies
everywhere; we see an analogy in nature.
lake the air we hreathe. It is a coin
pound substance, made up from oxygen
and nitrogen nt the ratio of about 77
to 2.'t, and while this ratio lasts it is from
it we nil draw our lives and have our
being. But change to any material de
gree and, instead of being the vital, life
giving air, il becomes a deadly and de
structive miasma.
Rut the free-eoiners assert that unlim
ited coinage of silver will restore it 10 a
parity with gold. It has been tried bv
many nations of this world. Has it done
it in a single instance? Not one. Thev
said Ihe snme thing when Contress
passed the Sherman act of 1S!H). They
said buy of us freely 4,500,000 ounces a
month, or M.OOO.lHKI ounces a year, and
yon will see that, silver will go mi to
$1.20 an ounce immediately. In the face
of clamor, in doubt as to whnt might be
the result, in willingness, (it went too
far) to give such claims every oppor
tunity to be demonstrated whether they
were correct or incorrect, that legislation
wa enacted. And silver did go in the
course of ahoul ten days to $1.11) an
ounce (Applause hy one man) and the
free-coiner were exalted, and said, "1
told yon so." But. my friends who ap
plaud at flint delusive statement, it last
ed but a short time. Silver proceeded to
fall lower than It ever fell before. (Croat
applause.)
It did not take it Ioimt lo do it. The an
nual average production in Ihe I'nited
Slates for ten years before that net wn
passed was 44,(MKI,(KH) ounces, iu 1M1I1 It
run to .VI.OOO.OOO ounce, nnd in IKII':
to H2.000.0IH) ounces, nearly 20,000,000
ounces more than we produced In Ihe
average of ten year up to the time when
that bill wa passed, and. it wa then
seen by all wise men, by all men who
had Ihe stability of Ihe currency rind the
prosperity of their country at heart, with
Intelligent vision, that that Immense vol
ume would break down indeed It did
break down ihe very l henry upon w lilch
Ihe bill was paed. (Applause.) It nro
dueed llic panie dr JKO.'I, put distrust Into
the mind of "men. The silver men said
bt-fora we passed that bill In 1800, that
Sang a Different Sonar on the
Subject When He was in
Congress.
On the liith of August. IK'l.'i, on the
floor of the House of Representatives,
Mr. Byran said:
"In fixing the ratio we should select that
one which will secure the greatest ad
vantage to the public and cause the least
njusiice. The present ratio, in my judg
ment, should be adopted. A change in
the ratio could la- made (as in IKH4) by
reducing the aize of the gold dollar, or
by increasing the size of the silver Hol
lar, or by making a change in the weight
of both dollars. A larger silver dollar
would help the creditor. A smaller gold
dollar would help the debtor. It is not
just to do either, but if a change must
be mad. the benefit should lie given to
the debtor rather than the creditor. Let
no one accuse tne of defending the just
ness of any change; but I repeat it. if
we are given a choice between a change
which will aid the debtor bv reducing
the size of his debt and a ehs'nge which
will aid the creditor by increasing the
amount which he is to receive, either bv
increasing the number of his dollar or
their size, the advantage must be given
to the debtor."
Legislation in favor of debtors or of
creditors, as a class, would be class leg
islation and wholly unjustifiable. Ques
tions between debtors and creditors are
properly settled in the courts: and every
court will hold that what is. right for the
one is right for the other also. .Mr. Bry
an, therefore, did well to disclaim ad
vocacy of any change of the existing
ratio. Should a change be made at any
nine nereattcr it cannot and ought not
to affect contracts antedating such
change.
But in advocating the unlimited coin
age of silver bullion, at the present ratio,
for the owner and without cost to him.
Mr. Bryan does propose a change of the
entire basis niton which business is trans
acted. We are informed by him that
there are three ways by which the ratio
between gold ami silver coin can be al
tered: 1. The shrinkage' in size of the
gold dollar. 2. The enlargement of the
silver dollar, .'t. Making a change in the
size and weight of both dollars. L'ithor
of these three methods contemplates a
nearer approximation of the coinage ra
tio to the commercial ratio and is so far
forth honest. If this approximation of
the two ratios were carried to the point
of ideality, the change suggested by him
would be absolutely honest nrovided
that it is not retroactive in its application
to outstanding debts.
This is not, however, the change which
would follow the adoption of free coin
age at Id to 1. There is still another
possible change to which Mr. Bryan
made no reference in his speech, name) v.
the shrinkage of the silver dollar. A
silver dollar containing .'t7D grains of
pure silver, worth ?A cents in gold, which
jievertheless passes current for 100 cents
in gold. Is an anomaly in linanee, unless
explained. The explanation is simple.
Fifty -three cent of the em-rent value of
this dollar is visible; 47 cents of its value
is invisible, and consists in credit. Free
nnd unlimited coinage would destroy this
credit. In advocating free coinage at
Ki to 1, therefore. Mr. Bryan proposes to
make the silver dollar smaller not to the
eye. hut in fact.
This would bea change of ratio in the
purchasing power of the silver dollar, ns
compared will a gold dollar, from 11:1
to o-1:1. ., A
To avoid Tliis result, Mr. Brvun -zi-nvelv
proposes that we should do one of two
things: double the weight of the silver
dollar, or else coin gold dollars half their
present weight. Anybody can see that
one of these would have to be done, in
order that identity should be established
between the coinage ratio and the com
mercial ratty
Which vi'thoe two expedients does
Mr. Bryan lit or?' lie tells us that en
larging the silver dollar would help the
creditor. It could only help him bv
maintaining the present standard of
value. He also tells us tliaf halving the
gold dollar would help the debtor. If so.
it would he by a change in the present
standard of value. Finally, he tells us
that he prefers. the latter expedient, be
cause me ueiitor has rights
the rights of the creditor.
superior to
The LiCsiMon f 1M02.
What happened in 1S02? Everybody
had money, plenty nf money; and" then
they came to you and whispered in your
ear that although you had plenty of
money and plenty of work that you were
not buying what you bought cheap
enough: that they were taxing the many
for the benefit of the few, and too many
of the American people listened to it.
It was the arousing of the class of em
ployers against the employed; and the
employed against the employer; and we
had the change. They gave us the cheap
stuff, but in what condition did they
leave the American people?
It reminds me of a colored gentleman
who wanted to cross the Arkansas river,
and had no means. He sat. down awhile
upon a log nnd waited until someone
should come up. Shortly a white gen
tleman approached. He says: "Boms,
I want to cross this river; will you
please give ine two cents? I haven't a
cent in the world." "Well, sir." he said,
"if you haven't a cent in the world it
don't make a damn bit of difference
which side of this river yon are on."
And so it is with all cheap goods that
these gentlemen furnish us. They fill -the
stores with their clothing, made of
shoddy, brought in under an ad valorem
law hy which the importer is made to
swear that it Is worth nothing, and it
is worth nothing. It is made mit of
old hats picked tip out. of the streets
and alleys of our foreign chics, of rags
from Switzerland and rot ton socks from
Italy. It is sent over to be placed upon
American backs. That is not the civil
ization we want. We want American
wages, American clothing and Ameri
can civilization. Now, in IK'.Hi they
came fo ns. We had plenty of money
before, now we have nn money. They
come to us and say they are going to
give it to us; and they propose this
doubling of the face value of silver.- -
From a speech by Congressman Fowler
of New York at Milwaukee.
Carlisle's Five Point.
I.
"There Is not a free coinage country
in the world today that is not nn a silver
basis.
ir.
"There is not a gold standard coun
try In the world today that does not. use
silver a money along with gold.
III.
"There is not a silver standard country
in the world todny that ue any gold
as money along with silver.
IV.
'There is not a silver standard country
in the world today that has more than
one-third as much money in circulation
per capita a the United Stales.
. V.
"There is not a silver standard country
In the world today where the laboring
iiiuii receive fair pay .for hi day's
work." . - . ,
TWO
