Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1886 — SILVER COINAGE. [ARTICLE]

SILVER COINAGE.

Speech of Hon. John H. Reagan, . of Texas, Delivered in the House of Representatives, Tuesday, January 12,1886. The House being in committee of the whole on the state of the Union for the purpose of considering the President’s message, Mr. Be&gan said: Mr. Chairman: Availing myself of the latitude of debate allowed in committee of the whole, I propose now to offer some remarks on •a question of great interest to our people. THE ISSUE. The controversy about silver coinage is a contest between the bondholders, bankers, moneylenders, and those having fixed incomes on the one side, and the laborers, midddle classes, and • debtors of the world on the other side. Those who desire the demonetization of silver • are fraudulently endeavoring to have this done 'in violation of existing law and contracts in order to further enrich themselves at the expense of other people, while working people who have to earn the means to pay all public indebted- ■ ness, the middle classes who live upon their • current earnings, and the debtor class, generally ask only that they be allowed to pay all debts, .public and private, according to the law and the contracts under which they were created. It is, ■therefore, a contest between dishonesty and hon- ■ esty, between fraud and fairness, betwesn wrong and right And the great question involved is, which of these shall be the rule by which the people of this great, free republic are to be governed. The rich moneyed men first conspired to degrade silver as compared with gold, and having accomplished this part of their wicked scheme .for doing away with silver coin and thereby re--duciug the va.ues of property and labor, doubling the value of all evidences of debt, and •doubling the amount of labor of the working men and women of the country which would be ■ required to pay these debts—the same men then turn to the people and tell them they are ininjured by the use of silver coin, that the value ■Of their labor is reduced by the fact that the .standard silver dollar is not the equivalent of 100 cents in gold, and that to restore to them .profitable wages and good prices they must join ■in the crusade against silver and helj) to strike it out of existence as a part of the world’s metal money. I know of no writer on political economy who ■does not maintain that a liberal amount of circulating money is essential to the prosperity of >a country. 1 know of none who do not insist 'that an inadequate amount of circulating rmoney checks enterprise and impoverishes the people. These two propositions may be accepted as axiomatic truths, questioned by no •ofie but the selfish and greed) gold-monometal-lists and their hired or deluded advocates, who have the unblushing effrontery to tell the people they will be made better off by reducing the present volume of our money, because then the smaller sum of money will be worth more than the larger, and that t’ueir smaller wages will ■buy more in the markets. These men, who by their selfishness and greed deceive themselves, Are engaged in the unpatriotic, insincere, and unjust effort to deceive the people into the belief that they will be benefited by a policy which would double the labor they must perform, in order to pay off the many billions of •dollars of national, State municipal, corporate and private indebtedness of the country. It is the old trick of the demagogues—no longer to be successful with the intelligent people of this country —to try to lull them into a sense of security by professing devotion to their interest, in order the more certainly and securely to be enabled to rob and degrade them. We can better understand the magnitude of this question by keeping in view some important facts. The national debts of the world .are alleged to amount to over $24,000,001,000, and they are steadily and rapidly increasing. •The debts of the railroad companies are estimated to amount to $6,000,001,000; the debts of States, municipalities, etc., to about $5,000,<ooo,ooo—aggregating $35,000,000,000. The private indebtedness of the world would probably be the double of this sum. The amount of metal money in the world is estimated to be about ■57,001,000,000. The following table, furnished to me by Mr. Burchard, the Director of the Mint, •on the 2Cth of June last, shows the estimated amount of gold and silver coin and bullion in the countries named. I have added the aggregates of these sums: Oou N - Gold coin Silver coin tries, and bullion, and bullion. Total. United S. $62G,422,646 $269,665,758 $896,088,404 Gtß. and Ireland 683,500,000 95,000,000 678,500,000 India 1,037,000,000 1,037,000,000 France .. 848,000,000 595,000,000 1,443,000,000 Belgium. 64,000,000 60,000,000 124,000,000 Switz’rl’d 17,000,000 15,000,000 32,000,010 Italy 140,000,000 72,000,000 212,000,000 Greece... 2,700,000 2,700,000 5,400,000 Spain.... 130,000,000 70,000,000 200,000,000 Portugal. 30,000,000 10,000,000 40,000.000 Germany 325,000,000 211,000,000 536,000,000 .Austria.. 45,000,000 75,000,000 120,000,000 Sweden.. 15,000,000 5,000,000 20,000,000 Denmark 14,000,000 5,000,000 19,000,000 Netherl’d 28,000,000 57,000,000 85,000,000 Bussia... 124,000,000. 124,000,000 Turkey.. 40,000,000 35,000, OX: 75,000,000 Eouma’a 103,000 11,000,000 11,163,000 Total. $i,032,785,641 ;2,025,365,75f :5,658,151,404 Notwithstanding the existence of these great facts, if we were obliged to believe the statements and arguments of the gold men of this country we should be driven to suppose silver to be an evil thing in our country and throughout the world, and that it is especially discredited in the commercial countries of Europe. The Director of the Mint, in his annual report now before us, shows, on the authority of our foreign Ministers, that in Great Britain and Ireland, with their $580,500,000 in gold, their $95,000,000 silver, and their $199,160,115 of outstanding bank notes, all are taken in business transactions at par; that in France, with her $848,000,000 of gold, $595,000,000 of silver, and her $574,675,197 of outstanding not~s of the Bank of France, the gold and silver and notes of the Bank of France are at par and a legal tender; that in Belgium, with her $64,000,000 of gold, $60,000,000 of silver, and $89,000 in nationalbank notes, they are at par with each other; that in Switzerland, with her $17,000,001 of gold, $15,000,000 of silver, and $24,960,304 of bank notes, they are at par with each other ; that in Spain, with her $130,000,000 of gold, $70,0 ;0,000 of Bilver, and $1,737,533 in notes of the Bank of Spain, “gold, silver, and the notes of the Bank of Spain are at parthat in • Germany, with her $325,000,000 of gold, $211,000,000 of silver, $33,602,327 in Government notes, and $252,655,564 in bank notes, the coin and paper are received indiscriminately at par; that in Austria-Hungary, with her $45,000,000 of gold, $75,000,000 of silver, $139,211,632 in Government notes, and $147,659,937 in bank notes, “the notes are received at par with silver. Gold is used for trade purposes, and only on special agreement.” In Denmark, with her $14,000,000 of gold, her $5,000,000 of silver, $3,752,000 notes of her silver bank, and $19,561,000 outstanding national bank notes, "the gold and silver coin, as well as the notes of the national bank, are taken at par.” In the Netherlands, with her $28,500,000 of gold, $57,000,000 of silver, $3,885,860 in Government notes, and $77,790,254.in bank notes, “coin and paper money have the same value in circulation.” The foregoing table and the facts just presented enable us to understand the injury to mankind which must result from the degradation or abandonment of silver as money. The Secretary of the Treasury in his recent annual report states that about 54 per cent, of the world's metal money is silver, and that about 46 per cent, is gold. If these estimates are to be relied on (and they are ceitainly accurate enough for the illustration I have in view), then there is in the world $3,780,000,001 of silver money and $3,220,000,000 of gold money. Now, the values of commodities and of all bonds and other securities are regulated and controlled by the amount of this money of the world. If we subtract the silver from the amount of metal money in the world, wo shall therefore have but $3,220,000,010 bv which to measure all values and all di bis. The result must be that all bonds and securities, national, State, municipal, and corporate, will be about doubled in value as compared with tbe labor and property out of which they are to be paid, and all labor and property would be reduced about one-half in value. And it Bhould be constantly kept in mind that all these debts are to be paid and can only ■lie paid by labor, by the toil of men and women. We cannot realize what the amount of the

[ world’s debts are by looking at the aggregates. | The human mind cannot embrace their full | meaning. We must adopt tome mode of looking I at the details in order to understand what such j figures mean. Take the $35,000,000,000 of indebtedness above mentioned and imagine one man set tocount it dollar by dollar, and that he could count S6O per minute, $3,600 per hour, $28,800 per day of eight hours, and three hundred and ten working days in the year, it would require three thousand five hundred and twenty-five years and a fraction for him to count that snm. Tbe oredit jrs of these enormous gams seek to double the value of their investments by the demonetization of silver. It is a quality of greed and avarice to overreach themselves. If they could succeed in doubling the amount of labor and property necessary to pay these debts, they would render their full payment impossible in the present condition of the’ world. Great Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden are the great creditor nations. The United State', AustriaHungary, Bussia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, India, Egypt, Moxico, Brazil, and the other South American States, and the British colonies are the great debtor nations of the world. Many of these nations, tspicially those of Europe and Asii, have vast standing armies and great navies, which it taxes all their resources to their utmost to keep up. Indeed, Spain, Italy, AustrioHungary, Bussia. Turkey, and Egypt axe only able to keep np their armies and navies by borrowing more rnonoy and incurring additional debts. And their people are oppressed an l kept in that ignorance which spring' from toil and poverty to feed and clothe these imnies and in paying the interest on present debts, without tbe hope of being able to reduce tbe burden by paying off the principal. If tbese cormorants were as wise as they are avaricious they would see that the success of their policy in demonetizing silver would defeat the payment of these debts, and would in all human probability produce a degree of oppression and distress in many of thase couniries which would cause civil commotions likely to shake many thrones and hurl ruling dynasties from power." And if they could succeed in this country, the distress which would necessarily follow ’ would cause an indignant and outragd paople to drive the men who brought it about from place and from power. While the people of the monarchies of the Old World may be compelled by vast standing armies to submit Jo robbery by the capitalists, monomet dlists of this country would do well to rememb r that ours are still a free and intelligent people, who will not consent to become the slaves of avaricious, mercenary, and corrupt men. PAUSE PRETENSES. The gold men pretend that our silver dollar is not full weight, that it is a cut dollar, that it is a dishonest dollar, and, tnerefore, wrongly imposed on the people. One answer to this is, that it has the same amount of fine silver in it that has been in the American silver dollar from 1792 to this time, ninety-three years. Another answer is, that the purchasing power of the silver dollar is now about 25 per cent, greater than it was in 1870. when it was above par with gold. The difference between the price of gold and silver is the result of the conspiracy between bondholders add bankers and the legislative and administrative departments of this and other governments for several years past to increase the value of gold and,to degrade silver for selfish and mercenary purposes. Another false pretense is, that silver cannot be put in circulation and has to be hourded in the National Treasury. It is hoarded there to some extent because the Secretaries of the Treasury from 1878 until now have, in violation of law, refused to treat it as money and to pay it out to the public creditors and in this way put it in circulation. But let us look f urther at"this. We are told by the President and by the Secretary of the Treasury that there has been $215,000,090 of silver coined up to date ; that $50,000,000 of this is in circulation in the form of coin; that $93,000,000 is in circulation in the form of silver certificates. This is a convenient form for its circulation, prevents loss from abrasion, and gives the people at large the benefit of all certificates lost or destroyed. That leaves in the vaults of the Treasury and out of circulation $72,000,000. The Secretary of the Treasury shows in his report, page 13, that there was on the Ist of November, 1885, in gold in the Treasury the sum of $142,338,589.29. Now, we have heard no complaint from the gold men about the hoarding of this large sum of gold in the Treasury. He also shows that the available assets in the Treasury at that time, excluding fractional coin and other unavailable items, is $259,437,431.25. Fifty million dollars, it is believed, would be a sufficient reserve, coupled with the incoming revenue, to meet the current expenses of the Government. That sum taken from the available revenue would, leave $166,849,695.74 available for the uayment of th:: public debt. Why should we not extinguish that amount of the public debt and relieve the p3oj)le of the burden of paying tbe interest on that sum and at the same time throw that large sum of money into circulation to give increased activity to production end to business, anl thus stimulate and give fuller reward to industry aud enterprise. I undertake to say we do not do this because it is to the interest of the national bunks to prevent the payment of the public debt, and they have so far controlled the policy of the Government in this respect; thus sacrificing the best interests of the country and of the people, whose labor creates its wealth, to furnish bonds as a basis for banking and to gratify the inordinate j.raed of a rich class of consumer- who create nothing. It may be said as a partial answer to this, that the law of 1675 aud of 1832 has sat apart $100,000,000 in the Tre usury for the redemption of tbe outstanding legal-tender (greenback) notes. If that law is to continue to encumber our statutebooks, we wo ild then, on tbe basis I have suggested, only have $66,849,095.74 available for the payment of the public debt The payment of this sum, howevir, would reduce considerably the public burdens and give greatly increased activity to business and enterprise. In 1878, when the bill was passed providing for the coinage of silver dollars and making them a legal tender, we were warned in awfully solemn terms by bondholders and bankers, and by newspapers and members of Congress who represented their interests, that the coinage of silver would drive the gold out of the country and produce at an early day the most fearful financial distress and disasters. These dismal predictions have from time to time been repeated ever since by the mme persons. These direful prophecies have gone on for eight years. I present a table furnished me by the Acting Director of the Mint, showing the amounts of gold coin and bullion and the amounts of silver coin and bullion exported and the amounts imported during the fiscal years 1878 to 1885, inclusive, as furnishing a conclusive answer to this scarecrow declamation:

l M • o* . CXrQ r-H ,Q rQ H «W »t 3 «M ®rrt “ frt ® ° 3 °g o g p & m a m 3 m 3 m * "3 Ssg 0.9 g Is.aa |.flg o p,0.2 fto.2 r 0.2 p 0.2 “ n« rt k « -« a Ol - 1 Ro" fa tS fa »S fa 1878.. 812,976,281 89,204,455 810,490,599 824,535,670 1879.. 5,624,948 4,587,614 14,671,052 20,409,827 1880.. 80,758,396 3,639,025 12,275,914 13,503,894 1881.. 100,031,259 2,565,132 10.544,238 16,841,715 1882.. 34,377,054 32,587,880 8,095,3)0 16,829,599 1883.. 17,734,149 11,600,888 10,692,242 20,219,445 1884.. 22,831,317 41,081,957 14,594,945! 20,851,426 1885.. 26,691,096 8,477,892 1G,550,G27i 33,753,633 301,02:5,100113,744,813 103,914,953 172,145,209 From this it will be seen that during this period, covering the whole time since the coinage of standard silver dollars was resumed in 1878, wo have imported $301,025,100 in gold and exported 1113,741,813 in gold, showing that during this period we have imported into the country $187,280,257 in gol l more than we have exported from the country. This table also shows that during that i>eriod wo have exported $103,914,843 in silver, and that during the same time we have imported $172,145,209 in silver, showing that in this lirno wo have ex port od from the country $31,709,745 in silver more than we have imported into it. This I submit fully explodes this stock argument of the gold monomotallists. Another of the bugaboos which these money sharks and their representatives have used to frighten us into gold monometallism was that Europe would dump all her depreciated silver into this country, and in exchange take our gold out of the country. This table is a full answer of fact to that theoretic scare-crow: During the last fiscal year wo imported $26,691,696 in gold and exported $8,477,843 in gold, allowing that during the last year $18,213,853 more in gold w’as brought into the country than was taken out; and that during the same year $16,550,953 in silver was imported and $33,753,633 In silver was exported, thus showing that $17,202,680 moro of silver was sent out of the country during that year than was brought into the country. Now that the theory that silver coinage would drive the gold out of the country has been so

conclusively exploded, the representatives of the bondholders aud bankers tell us that our Treasury reserve is going to be changed (am golu to silver. It will be observed that th< ir fears, the dangers they predict, the evils they say arq to befall the country, ara always going to happen on account of some undeveloped thing wnich is to cc:ur hereafter, aot because of facts which do exactly exist They argue as if we were to have either a gold standard and a gold Treasury' reserve or a silver standard and a silver Treasury reserve. In fact, we- ought to have neither, and instead of either we ought to have the double standard of gold and all ver, and a Treasury reserve of gold and silver, just as we now have. How are the gold monometallists going to reconcile these pot< nt official facts with their theory that bilver is driving or will drive geld out of tne country ? So long as the balance of trade is in our favor gold will flow into the country; when the balance of trade shall be against us, both gold and silver will go out of the country. I submit the foHowiug table furnished me by Mr. Burchard, Direo xir of the Mint, on the 20th June lust, to show the annual increase of gold in the United States from the Ist of January, 1878, the year in which we recommenced the coinage of silver dollars, to the Ist of January, 1885. I have not been able to obtain the amount to the Ist of Junuury, 1886. It also shows the relative amount of gold and silver each year, and the amounts in the United States Treasury and in circulation. An 1 ■in another and conspicuous form it overthrows the theory that silver is driving gold out of the country. I prefer to illustrat' my arguments by great, authenticated facts like those shown by these tables rather than by false though ingenious theories, which sometimes amuse and often deoqive us. Statsment showing the estimated amount of gold and silver coin and bullion in the United States on the Ist of January, each year from 1878 to 1885, inclusive, the amount in the Treasury. and the amount in active circulation :

1878. | 1879. 1880. 1881. 1882. 1883. 1884. 1885. I In the Umtsd States — Gold coin $218,000,000 $273,000,000 $327,000,000 $395,000,000 $487,000,000 $524,000,000 $552,000,000 $563,000,000 j Gold bullion in mints and New j York assay office... 10,671,164 5,275,424 61,634,318 95,260.851 87,977,602 51,981,432 66,406,346 63,422,646 Total gold coin and bullion. 228,671,164 $278,275,424 $388,634,318 $490,260,851 $574,977,602 $575,981,432 $618,406,346 $626,422,646 Silver coin 65,000,000 95,000,000 128,000,000 157,000,000 186,000,000 213,000,000 242,000,000 264,000,000 Silver bullion in mints and New York assay office 3,374,982 11,057.140 4,492,421 6,183,224 3,607,829 4,468,193 5,661,841 5,665,758 Total silver coin and bullion. $68,374,982 $106,057,140 $132,492,421 $163,183,224 $189,607,829 $217,468,193 $247,661,841 $269,605,758 In the Treasury — Gold coin and bullion $116,520,934 $135,382,639 $157,790,321 $156,742,095 $172,617,467 $171,504,568 $219,014,739 $234,975,851 Silver coin and bullion 6,853,789 30,557,533 56,542,114 79,142,799 99,161,408 125,006,727 151,207,884 181,362,978 Total $123,374,723 $165,940,172 $214,332,435| $235,884,894 $271,778,875 $296,511,295 $370,222,623 $416,338,829 Outside of the Treasury — i Gold coin and bullion $112,150,230 $142,892,785 $230,843,997 $333,518,756 $402,360,135 $404,476,864 $399,391,607 $391,446,79-) Silver coin and bullion 61,521,193 75,499,607 75,950,307 84,040,425 90,446,421 92,461,466 96,453,957 88,302,780 Total $173,671,423 $218,392,392 $306,794,304 $417,559,181 $492,806.556 $496,938,330 $495,845,564 $179,749,575

THE DANGERS OP BRITISH AND GERMAN EXAMPLES. We are asked to follow the lead of Great Britain and Germany in the demonetization of silver. The policy of those countries is simply the policy of their rich men, bondholders, bankers, money-lenders and persons who have fixed incomes. The poorer and middle classes in those countries have little or no voice in such matters. In those governments these classes are useful as soldiers, in killing each other in dynastic wars in which they have no interest, and as laborers, operatives, and tax-payers to support royalty, aristocracy, and other privileged classes. They are not expected or allowed to deal in statecraft- and great financial questions, and must be content to bear the burdens put upon them for tho benefit of the privileged classes and the rich. Here we have a different theory. And if these imitators of English and German policy can have their way a few years longer, I fear it will be only a theory with us; that our boasted system of free, popular, constitutional self-government will become a matter of history, but will no longer be the existing pride and glory of every true American heart. Their whole political theory and system are different from ours. Theirs are governments of force, whose rulers are sovereigns and whose people subjects. Ours is a government of consent, whose people are sovereign and whose officers are servants. And we should think well before we follow the examples set by them in political and financial matters. A government of the people, by the people, and for the people is the last and highest development of political science. It means that it is the government of a people who are all sovereigns and equal before the law. It means that we are to have no royalty, no aristocracy, either of rank or wealth, no classes enjoying privileges not common to all. It means a "government in whioh every citizen is guaranteed all the fruits of his labor except what is necessary for the support of government, and in which no man’s prosperity can be lawfully taken from him and given to another without his consent. Such a government Is only practicable among a free people of a high order of intelligence and virtue, and could not long exist among a people wanting in these qualities. It grieves me to say that while in many of our State constitutions we declare that perpetuities and monopolies are contrary to the genius of a free people, we are today the worst monopoly riddtn people, I think, in the civilized world. And if railroad monopolies, bank monopolies, and protective-tariff monopolies continue to rule this country a few years longer, as they have for tho last twenty years, and to transfer the property of tho country by the hundreds of millions of dollars annually from tho oppressed many to the privileged and protected few, I fear that our government, hitherto tho asylum of th# oppressed of all lands and the home of the free anu happy, will become the prey and the -spoil of the rich few and of their corrupt and despotic associates. The abolition of one-half of tho metal money of this country and the adoption of a policy which will require twice as many days of labor, twice as much of the products of labor, as are now required to i>ay all debts, public and private, which will greatly increase the wealth of the few and as certainly increase the poverty of tho many will bo tho longest stride ever taken toward the overthrow of our political system and tho establishment in its stead of a government of fraud and force.

Is it the immaturity, not to say manifest greenness, of our statesmen tliat emboldens the wily bondholders and bankers of Europe and America to urge this Government to not only ceasS the coinage of silver hut to establish a new ratio based upon its present depressed gold valuation? —San Francisco Chronicle. - Overproduction is impossible while multitudes are suffering for need of said production. The idea is absurd and preposterous, A sensible remedy consists in measures affording constant employment and liberal wages. Alleged overproduction will then be consumed.