Crawfordsville Review, Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, 31 October 1896 — Page 7

SHIVELY'S SILVER SPEECH.

The Democratic Nominee For Governor Ever An Advocate of the People and An Enemy of

Plutocracv.

MAGNIFICENT RECORD.

South Bbnd, Intl., Oct. ",N, !80i

To lhu Editor:

Here at, his homo whop' wi have known Hon. B. F. Shively, the Democratic nominee for governor, .*nr so many years, anil where we lon^ .since familiarly ami a licet,innately dubbed Eim "Our Frank." his word in

tin*

iJI.MOO.OOO.O'.iO

edi

torial sanctum, in the halls of pniwuss, and in the walks of private life, us a consistent advocate of the People

persistent l'o" of Plutocracy has won liim the confidence and admiration of the tint ire community regardless of politieal atlllintions. As an old friend and neighbor feel that I am but, doing honor to whom honor is due in

citing

briefly the following extracts from his editorials and speeches, which show that ho is no new convert to the cause of the people and their emancipation from financial bondage.

Mr. Shivrly's Kditorml K«»con!. Over l(i years ago, 011 March •!, 1S0, tho tirst number of the South ml Era, *'B. F. Shively, editor and publisher," appeared with the following editorial leader: "Who can view the policy of the government for the last 15 years, with respect to the bonded debt, without feeling slight, suspicions that it has nover been the design of those who manipulated Uncle Sum's exchequer, to pay otV that little obligation? It is evident that a.ll financial legislation since ]siii." has boon shaped with a view to perpetuating our interest,-bearing indebtedness. After tho cIom'of the war. the public dobt was being rapi^'y liquidated, but it was seen by government security holders that solid (i per cent investments were soon to be paid and so they framed an innocent niece of legislation, called the "Credit Strengthening Act." "which changed the whole tenor of the law, and made bonds, costing HO cents on the dollar—and previously payable in lawful money, greenbacks—payable 100 cents 011 the dollar in coin, which then consisted of gold and silver. Bondholders still nor satisfied, demonetized silver. This made the debt payable in #»old alone. Next, in order was the resumption act. which of course would require the accumulation of gold for the .purpose of greenback redemption, and deprive the' government of ito use for $£ying the bonds. But the people finalIV'concluded to have a slight pause in these proceedings. They compelled the partial ronionoHzation of silver, the bondholder succeeding, however, in limiting its annual coinage to an amount sufficient to pay less than onehalf the annual interest of the bonded debt. The act providing for the contraction of tho currency, the "Credit Strengthening act," the "demonetization act," the "Resumption act" and

during the consideration of|th*i bill authorizing the issue of treasury notes on deposits of silver bullion that Mr. Shively's best contribution to financial reform was made in a speech opposing that measure. -Mr. Sliivcly In CnnRrns*.

On June, tt, 1SOO, in the house of representatives Mr. Shively discussed silver restoration as follows: "However prejudicial to the supply of a snfliciont and sound currency our present law with its limitation on silver coinage may be, it is infinitely superior from the standpoint of sound finance, the public credit, and the commercial interests of the country to (lie law that would supplant it should the committee bill or the caucus bill be placed on the statute book. True, the venerable and familiar prophecy comes to us again from the treasury department. The alarm is again sounded, anil the red lights are again flashed athwart our purblind sight. But tho vast majority of the American people persist in accepting the hard, plain, demonstrated facts in preference to the oft-repeated, and to this hour utterly unfulfilled and doubly discredited prophecy. Gentlemen easily recall the storm of lurid predictions and

the silver coinage limitation clause are suggests a single sound reason why we but successive steps in the design to perpetuate the bonded debt as a basis for a national bank note circulation. The frantic attempts of Hayes, Bayard, Sherman and company to sweep out of circulation the greenbacks, fully confirms this view of the case. And •tbe storm that attempt created among tho people was but a slight zephyr, compared with the tornado that will sweep these traitors from positions of public trust, when tho iniquity of their proceedings is fully understood. John Sherman is taking somo pains to reduce tho bonded dobt by a few millions, but it is evident that ho is taking more pains to have it refunded into bonds to run from H0 to 50 years, upon which bonds the people in the meantime will liave to pay interest, amounting to nearly one and one-half times their face value. Tho people have aliealy pail: over

should even temporarily stop the com

age of the silver dollar. Applause.] ••But the secretary of the treasury, the mnj rity of the committee on coinage, weights and measures, and the caucus have opened up the whole question by submitting a proposition which everybody admits must close our mints against free coinage, for an indefinite time, and the minority of tho committee vorv properly meet -t 1:is assault with a plain proposition to restore the freecoinage of silver at the ratio of Hi to 1 of gold us it existed prior to 1S7:S. It is proposed to repeal the legislation which

first

as interest on the

debt, and the principal today is $101),000,000 larger than it was in '77''. And Mr. Shively kept up this lick throughout his editorial career, only ^topping aside occasionally to take a ^rhack at the trusts in much the same manner that lie does now on the stump, The following extract, taken at random from the South Bend Era of Sept. 1, 1S83, being as truthful and pertinent now as on the day it was written: "There is a bond of sympathy connecting the various forms of monopoly this country. It is idle to expect t.o load a general movement against one without meeting with more or less resistance from all. Those who wish to restrain transportation corporations, without interfcrring with the coal oil and telegraph ninnoplies, make the iious cm of arousing the entii of monopoly to the delen-" of a sinu-le tent. This connection between any two forms of monopoly is. ol coiiise. entirely s-'llish in its nature.

struck silver from our circulation, and thereafter limited its coinage, and by these hostile acts reduced its price, and restore free coinage of silver as we now have free coinage of gold. The somewhat hackneyed objection and al-

ways

inserted argument that the silver in the dollar is worth only 7-.' cents has already been met. With a given object :is the standard of weight all oilier objects must be either equal to, less, or greater in weight. "In other words the standard of weight, or of size, or of valneis always in the very natnroof things equal to itself, while all other things vary as measured bv such standard. "SilverbeMigdeinonetized ill 187:1. the bimetallic standard was il-st roved, gold was made the exclusive standard of

is .or.neu

•to secure mutual advantages at the cxpen.ie of outside parties. For instance, in 1877 the Standard Oil company eni'tered into engagements

with

lour ra'l-

wav companies by which the lattei .were to grant the former a rebate of 1 on each barrel of oil shipped over their lines. Within 17 months after this arrangement was completed these railway companies paid buck to the Standard Oil company, as rebates, the •normous sum of $10,500,000. This disjcriinination against other oil companies lias made the Standard the oil dapsot of the civilized world. These connections are forniod. conspiracies concocted and the most villainous conbinatioiifi 'entered into—all in dt,fiance of the rules of honorable competition and the welfare of tile country."

But it wati as a uiember of congress,

coinage, silver was lwiueed to a men.! commodity, and as the war on silver continued tho disparity ol price between a givi amount of the two metals as measured exclusively by gold increased. When we reflect that philippic after philippic has been pronounced by the treasury department annually for 12 years against silver, that the discretion camp lodged in the secretary of the treasury by the act of 1S7S has been invariably, harshly, and inflexibly exercised in discrimination against silver by holding its coinage down to the minimum of 000,000 instead of an occasional coinage of the maximum of £1,000.000 worth per month that there has been constant and aggressive co-operation of all the eastern national banks with the treasury department to discredit silver, the only wonder is that file commodity value ill the silver dollar, as measured by gold, the value of which every effort of the government has been employed to enhance. has not fallen to OOcents. V0 "The contention,Mr. Speaker,that we must await the co-operation of England,

Germany and the. Latin Union for tho successful restoration of bimetallism is the last resort of the secret enemies of silver. Since there is neither a stock of silver bullion nor of silver coin in Enrope to submerge our mints, why must we wait? Political independence is in-

consistent with financial dependence. This nation is of age, and is entitled to si financial policy of its own. Bimetallism would broaden the basis of our national credit, and fortify us against the danger resulting from the exportation of tho single standard metal. The evil of a failure of a wheat crop is neutralized by a good corn crop. But if mankind depended on a single cereal for breadstuff its failure would mean starvation. We are producers of both gold and silver, and should declare and maintain our financial independence, and leave those tu wait on European diplomacy for our financial policy who would wc.it oil European statesmanship for ur code of political ethics. (Applause, "The charge is made that free coinage of silver means repudiation. As this charge always originates in the same quart -r, is always inspired by the same creed, ami always intended for the same it might, be. well to refer briefly ro the history nf repudiation in this country. Debt involves a contract between debtor and creditor. Can only the creiiitor'B side of the contract be repudiated? Is there no such thing as violating the equities of the debtor? In lN7t'i, .V.ig. I*. congress authorized the apiioint Hcnt of "The United States monetary commission," consisting of threes nators, three representative and three private citizens, experts in finance, to investigate the cause of the coinlnerciil degression then universal throughout :!ie country. A majority of this commission were Republicans, and

the flood of awful forebodings which were turned loose on congress and the country in 1STS during the pendency of the it moneti/.ation bill. We were told to conceive we could of the panics of lS:i7. ls.'iT anri 1^7:1 all combined, and yet such combination would be but a gentle zephyr compared with the tornado which would sweep over the eountry if the silver dollar were reinstated in our luoivtary system. We were told that gold would instantly leave the country, that our national credit would be everywhere discounted and that industrial enterprise would be utterly paralyzed. "Despite all the learned ami disinterested advic •, tho earnest and patriotic counsel, and the generous warnings and friendly menaces of the frantic ido'iators of monometallism,'the friends of the silver dollai in congress persisted and finally established its limited coinage over the veto of the president. It is needless to remind those gloomy prophets how utterly mistaken they were. Suffice it to say that the storm of bankruptcy did not burst upon the

Senator .lohn P. .Jones of Nevada was chairman. After along and thorough investigation that commission reported to congress. Ou page iVi of that report they usthis language: "li all theib'bts in this country had 1pom doubled by an act, of legislation, it, would have ten a fur less calamity to tin: debtor and the country than the increase in their real butdens already caused by a contraction of

tliu

volume of money.

"This language is plain and explicit. It was the result of thorough investigation. It means that if we hail passed a law arbitrarily doubling our national debt, our state difbts, our corporation debts, our municipal debts and all our private debts it would have been far less ruinous to the debtor and the country than wits the violent fall of prices and

country. On the contrary, with even a wages due to contraction of the curpartial restoration of silver coinage and rency. Under that policy the equitie.rhe consequent addition of over !?••.',000.- of the debtor were utterly destroyed, tin 0()o per month to our depleted volume obligations under his contract wen of circulating medium, prices anil wages doubled, his burdens frightfully intook an upward movement, gold ae- creased, and vet it is not recorded that cumulated in the country in amount one of the rirtuous, highniinded citizens never witnessed before, productive en- I who talk so glibly of repudiation ever terprises revived, hoarded money sought investjnieiu in active business, substantial reductions were made for tho first time in li years in the public debt, and the country entered on an era of comparative prosperity. So overwhelmingly. from evevv point of view consistent with the honor and welfare of tho country, has the logic of events vindicated (lie judgment of the friends of the silver dollar in ls?S that even the present secretary of the treasury in his last report prefaces his reiteration of the standard annual prophecy, and his assault on the present coinago of silver, with the frank admission that thus far all adverse predictions have failed of fulfillment. In short, the fact becomes more emphatic the more the question is investigated, that nothing in the history of recent silver coinage, nor in the present financial situation, nor ill tho calendar of probabilities for the future

lisped a syllable against that: wholesale repudiation "f the rights and equities c'' the debtor Uios of the country. This most vicious of all Jtiiuls of repudiaris ,i is going on today all over this country, and unless congress does its duty in th"1 premises our courts will become simply courts of co fiscation. Five coinage, so far fr ::i involving repudiation, will revive stagnated enterprise and arrest the repudiation wli'ch is brought about by the enhancement of the value of securities and destruction of I he value of other forms of property. "The optimist may prophesy and the enthusiast may chant pean:* the success of our institutions. but the industrial horizon is not without clouds, nor the pathway of our old ship of statu without- breakers. The clouds are not there by foreign influence, nor the breakers from a foreign force. The danger is from within, not from without. Sir Archibald Alison, the most philosophic historian of modern times, records ho fact that the metallic money of Rome at tlie beginning of the Christian ei wa $1,800,000,000. while in the l.'.ti' (entury it had shrunk to s^Oo.ooo.000. lie traces with peculiar distinctness tie fatal intlue'iiv of decreasing curr

,cy

ter

sti-ov

irilv peasantry left to resist fh

eim barbarians1, and the civdi/

Hon

i' the west disappeared ••mid gaf!, rmg gloom oi the o"roii'"es renin

mic

f-.11.11 111:: Ol li has isin tile

ii _i.i. ,-r be.

the l'ol

mortgage, tho interest and freight rates that must be paid by the sale of such products do not shrink. It is an incontestable fact that notwithstanding we have paid $i!,000,000,000 in principal and iuterest on our national debt it would today require the sale of as much corn, wheat, cotton, beef or pork to pay otf the remaining debt as it would have required to pay tho entire debt at the close of the war. It will require three times as much of the products of the farm to pay a given amount of state, corporation or municipal debt as 'j0 years ago. It requires twice as much of the products of the farm to pay otf the mortgage ou the farm as 10 years ago. It requires four times as much of the, products of the farm to pay general, state and local tuxes as 25 years ago. "The increasing burdens of taxation and debt, due to the arbitrary reduction of values, have totally swept away the profits of agriculture and the farms themselves are going by tlio thousand under the hammer of the auctioneer.

Except on our frontiers and in localities where speculative causes operate to keep up values, the value of farm lands has fallen from a", to 50 per cent. The fatal policy of requiring the debts and raxes of the 19th century to be paid at 17th century prices is doing its awful work. The disorganizing and

been

on the occupations and charac

the Roman people, and shows how the Id Roman yeomanry were sacrificed usury and taxation until the mill us of small land owners were disfrat: hised from the soil, agriculturede-

d, lands turned to pasturage, and the .hindered and disheartened rural pop it ion left to starve or join tho oarliiv-:. of vice, corruption and decay in the larger cities. Tho wea thy looked upon the government as i.ere instrument for solf-aggra niliz mi it. the poor saw ill it only an eiir of extortion and plunder, aim ji t-• lisin died in both. Opulenin in:.. and vice enervated theono pv civ ..misery and despair destroyed id' sp i,. in the other. The disorgani: tin:, society was complete there

oe'ieVY.'

I:hv

l-ostaue

instit loti is wo th

.,/atioii ..t -v-

which stands i-

iinati Vov' to .-'a .•••

its ri

^htfal place in the si rue urcj/pl (un

laws.

Tiie blasphemous iri'c.als

greed and legislat ion

have

transformation.

supply

falls

wiou jit.

di-crea-,i.".

moie

with blighting

force on

agricultural population. It

a' 1

cities

lie-

employment ol credit may lor a time avert the crisis.

wealtii

But

the

ol the fanner is locked

up in his land, anil to depress by legislation or the failure of legislation the prv of tfro products of his farm is to despoil him of his profit and confiscate his capital. [Applause.] "The evils of a bad system of taxation and a shrinking money supply are corelative and multiply upon each other. Kaeh aggravates the evils and adds the burden imposed o:i productive industry by the other. All taxes, whether levied under a wise or vicious system, must be paid in money, and to deplete the volume of money and thus arbitrarily reduce prices is to multiply the hardships of taxation. The price of farm products is going lower and lower every year. Thta taios. the

destruc-

tivo process is bearing its bitter fruits. Instead of a prosperous and haVpy rural population we meet on all sides an appalling picture of agricultural depression. Our young men by the 10,000 every year turn disheartened from the home and occupation of their fathers and grandfathers to engage in the uncertain struggle of life in ourcities. The farmers' daughters

contemplate

with

sad apprehensions the farm life of never ending struggle and unrequited toil. Thus the stuvdv, hopeful, independent anil agtrressive spirit proverbial of this old and most honorable occupation is bending and breaking under the ltH lining strain of harassing conditions That, chivalnc courage, that moral energy, that sturdy self-reliance which gave character to a people and is the best defense of nations is gradually yielding to .he corroding influences of adverse legSlation. The hour in which hope desert:- our fanners and they are forced to the conviction

that

their gov

ernment has defaulted iu its duty and made law an instrument for their plunder will be the saddest in our country's history. [Applause. "•Added to flie,malign etTects of a shrinking volume of money on agriculture is the incalculable loss to the nation from enforced idleness. Legislative necromancy may be employed to take, hv insidious jv.icesses. the earnings of the m.iny and transfer them to the few but ail the statutes sinc^ the announcement of the sacred code from Mount Sinai have nor, added one farthing to tile wealth of the world. Legislation may supply favorable conditions for the production of wealth, but it never itself pioduces it. The ljjw of production comes down to us through 0,000 years unchanged and unchangeable, -In the sfteat of thy face slialt tho oat bread." Wealth is the product of labor. Labor is the first, last and only source of wealtii. Th riches of this world have

wrought out by the workers of the world. Legislation may enlarge the. opportunities and improve the conditions mider which labor opeiaies. or it may, as it often has done, decrease opportunities and destroy all favorable condit ions. I should qualify this observation with the fact that 1- gislatiou improves conditions of production by facilitating exchange and distribution. Human law cannot atfecr directly the natural conditions of production. To supply thechannels of trade with a sufficient volume of money to maintain steady prices and wages places all productive industry on a solia foundation where calculations for tho future can be made with certainty. To supply this money is a function ol'legislation. But when through failure of 'legislation the volume of money decreases, prices decline, eapitai is withdrawn from productive enterprise, money will not invest against a tailing market, the army of idle workmen grows larger each day, demand for all products of labor decreases through enforced economy, and the evils of such policy multiply until the. fabric of credit, falls to pieces and production is. swallowed up in bankruptcy. "This is the situation threatening the

American people today. "The day's labor unperformed cap tal lost forever. The loss last yeai the United States from enforced idleness was sufficient to pay off one-liait' our national d'-bt. Not only is the labor lost, but the laborer must live on his past labor or on the labor of others while out of employment. So enforced idleness is a two-edged sword sacrificing past earnings and future prospects. Tins loss in tilts country from this source in the last quarter of a centurv cannot be estimated. But even more disastrous on the future of our country thau-the pecuniary loss is the clTei of enforced idleness on the character and habits of a people. Enforced idleness, with all its attending incidents which dishearten and humiliate, will finally make a coward of the bravest man. and a sycophant of the loft iest spirit. It is these considerations which make the. subject nor one merely of the iirimediaie prosperity and happiness of the American people, but of the permanent dignity and integrity of our national character. Applause. "What is wanted in this country, Mr. Speaker, is a definite, well-settled financial policy. Such financial policy should be shaped in the interest of productive enterprise anil honest, gainf.il occupation. It should open no field for the gamblers in public securities or private credit. Every dollar coined or issued should be a dollar for all purposes. No individual or corporation should be permitted to retire and destroy the dollar. It is money, not bullion, that the people need in the channels of trade. The proposition to retire the notes issued ou bullion by the ultimate redemption iu bullion is vicious in the extreme. Permit exchangabllity, (Continued os 8th rage.]

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