Pike County Democrat, Volume 28, Number 44, Petersburg, Pike County, 11 March 1898 — Page 5

TI1RP1E IS FOR SILVER. His Speech in Support of the Teller Resolution. PAYMENT OF THE BONDS IN COIN. Stating lhf> P«oplf for the Purpose of Settling of the Nationttl Debt in Gold Would fie an Injustice—Debtor and Creditor Would Alike Join in M.iintaing tbe Silver Coinage of Our Couutry—The Demonetisation and Itestorutiou of Silver. Senator Tar pie of Indiana, in speaking in support of the Teller resolutibh in the United States senate, said: Mr. President, I shall willingly vote for the resolution offered by the honorable senator from Colorado. I think its introduction timely and oppprtune, especially when We are confronted with a treasure commended to our approval And eonsideiation which proposes to Increase the amount of the national debt by WOO 000,000 or f40O.OQO.OOO by retiring the treasury notes now in circulation among the people as money by refund- i ing them into rational bonds. Under the ^circumstances, sir, I think: It is not only, not-in derogation of the j national honor but In affirmance of the public faith that we^shoulu declare, and complete the declaration, that these bonds are payable in coin, not i in gold, and that we should favor and enforce the policy of the free coinage of the standard silver dollars, in which, by the express terms of the contract. All the bonds of the United States are now payable. It would, sir, be certainly an act of injustice to tax the people for the purpose of paying the national funded debt in goid. None of our taxes are payable In gold. Neither the internal nor external revenue Is levied or collectible iu gold. The only method by which we could procure gold to pay the tKmded debt would be by the sale of other bonds for that purpose. Thus we should make an endless chain worse than the one we have, an endless chain of bonds and bondage, entailing upon ourselves and our posterity' a perpetuity of debt and servitude.

KspectaHy Is this action unjust in a rare where our present law provides that all bonds issued or to be issued shall he payable in coin, silver or gold. Prior to the passage of the act to strengthen the public credit in ISSSh the bonds of the rhited State? were payaije In ,*ny lawful money. This is shown and conceded by the very passage of that enactment, since if they had been payahh in silver or gold before the act there would have be. n no object in providing for their payment in « ojn. Th>' bondholder was much ben.filed by the a<*t making his obligato.n* payable in coin. It was a change in the contract made f*>r his advantage, certainly not for the interest of the pe< pie or the government. The public credit of the I'nited States depends only, on a single factor, the abibtv . f th< people to pay f* dvral , taxes. .What addition was made by the , • passage of the act of f$t8> to the wealth or resources of this country? What \ did it a id t.» th*- value of land or to that of the .products of labor? How much did it increase or enlarge the abi tty of the taxpav-r t > pay the tax s b-yted airau.st■Mm’ N<t in the least— not to the extent of a penny's worth. Strengthened *t»•* i’.iblk ( (editor. Th • act of iSi® did not and could not stlengthen the pubii credit. It did str* ngthen the pubii. creditor, it gave him the preferred creditor. Pensions* 'notaries and all other kinds of expenses of th<- government s.r«- payable in any lawful money, in legal tender paper currency. The bondholder can not now be p dap that manne* He has done nothing To earn or d.serve this prefer- ^ rno* lit; a b'-gain is a bargain. Let us turd by it. He is entit’ -d to what the eon.ract requires, nothing more, t.othiuc lless^-ihe ra; ment in silver stan l* td dollar* of the amount of the obligations which h- ‘holds against the fed err.1 treasury.

* .i nui ■ tne jut ir* tn? puu- 5 ' iic4' r< c t was ar anomaly extraordi- | r.arv .n ts tenor :n-y well ho conceded j wh*n tt is considered that ft was one! wholly new. unhear-1 of before in our ’ bran- ml policy. Ti e {treat civil war ; had l-'-en fought and ended in victory. 1 Tit*- public credit had successfully passed ! through the mi st prolonged and serious ! strain to which it had ever be- n sub-j Jected wtthoul any aw that our bond* should be payable in coin. After the J war. in time *>f profound peace, after 1 all danger to the national credit had overpassed, this special novelty found i favor. Coin was made synonymous; with solventy. Coin, silver or gold, was • .dee laud to be the ,.n’y money in the ! payment of our funded debt It is quite clear that this ne ve! enactment was not to stand alone. It was the beginning of a series of cna- tmen?s whjrh had for its, Object to set apart the funded debt as a coin <b-bt. to be l»ald not only in coin, but in coin of one kind—pold That there is a close historical and yet closer financial connec- i tlon between the act so-called to j strerKth.cn the public, credit and the act i passed In 1873. which by fraud or stealth . demonetised silver, is plain from a \ study of their common origin and the Joint purpose of the two acts. The act of 1873 demonetized the standard silver ‘ dollar. In barely four year? !>efore. the act strengthening the public credit had made the b >nds ray able in'eoin The act of INK1 made th*> bonds pay- ( able in coir.. This was one step taken, j I from coin to gold. The act of 1S73 closed the mints to the coinage of the standard silver dollar. There was at that time only an inconsiderable amount of standard silver dollars In existence— not enough to pay the interest on the bonds—and as the act of 1873 discon- j tinued their further coinage.-there was] nothing left but the gold dollar and its multiples with vhich to pay the bonded debt. After the passage and approval of the act of IS73 the whole amount of the national funded debt became payable Ingold coin alone, because under the Joint i operation of the acts of 1869 and 1S73—: the former providing for the payment j In coin, the latter prohibiting the mint-! Ing of any but one kind of coin, gold— the man) millions of bon is then outJKandtftg were not payable except in

I ■ i gold. This transmutation of paper bonds into gold exceeded anything in the history of the Rostcrucians of the Middle Ages; it outstripped all the glowing romance In the search for the philosopher's stone, both in its celerity and effect. The transmutation was made in the incredibly short time of four years. It required little time and small movement. In one time and two piotions the gold appeared alone, the silver vanished, and the debt so remained a gold debt for five years afterwards. Public Sentiment Revolted. Public sentiment and the opinion of all political parties revolted against this condition of the funded debt payable alone in gold. In 1878 there was a restoration of silver to the coinage of the mint by providing for the coinage of the standard silver dollar, in which, under the act of 1889, the funded debt j was payable. The movement was ao far backed by the honest resentment of the people that this measure for restoration passed both houses of congress by' a two-thirds vote against the veto of the president—of the president—showing the very early origin of that hard and fast solemn league and covenant" between the gold power and the president of the United States. There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother to the treasury. It is the man In the golden mask. In my Judgment, the coin bonds of the government, payuble now in silver, are! a principal element in the financial question. The national funded debt] held by the syndicate of debt and gold, j which are the same in action and iu- i terest. is one'of the main keys to the j monetary position in the United States. < If we. on the*one hand, were to aban-1 ion silver and permit a change in the! sontract so as to make the bonds pay* tble in gold, the syndicate of gulqf iron Id lose their interest to a certain, md very large degree in the coinage I luestirm hire. They would rake their j 1*00,000.000 in gold and quit. On the: other hand, if we maintain the bimetai?! ic standard in the payment of the | funded debt and enforce it by opening | the mint to the free coinage of siiver,! the syndicate of debt would change front immediately. They would become1 instantly as zealous and ardent friends j of the standaVd silver dollar as the sen - j ator from Colorado w ho introduced this resolution or the si nator from Missouri! who reported it. >

k lit- i.'m iur nauHtiai urm isj c* \ closely allied fraternity, few in number, but vast in influence and in the circuit of its jaiwer. Never since national debt was first invented in tlm last fiiur centuries have they lost an investment or discounted, its value in any quarter of the glob'*. They make common cause in the collection scour- ! ity and solvency of debt incurred by; any and all governments. They would take a summary vengeance In their own way ur>»n any government which would intervene to d; sc red it the silver coinage of the United States in which their bonds are payable. All th* <e fund creditors would concur in the policy of sustaining the paying and purchasing power of that coinage. What- vcr might be the fortune of silver coin els where, that silver coin of the United States in which the bonds of the syndicate are .payable would by rens rt of the vast interests pledged and : engaged in its behalf be coupled at its: full nominal .face value Debtor and j creditor would alike unite in maintaining the silver coinage of our country, and would together Join in a great act of justice, honesty, honor and integrity in upholding and fulfilling the terms of the original contract, by w'hlch th< se bonds are payable in silver. Both parties., the government and the! people of the United States, by their obligations, the holders of the funded debt with the enormous amount of SSW.POO.bO© at stake, would be pledged i to the maintenance of the silver dollar coinage of this republic. Payable iu Silver. Two hundred million dollars of that debt w as contracted quite recently, and ; it Is not only payable In silver by the { text of the act of Uf»9. but expressly announced as payable in silver by the contemporary action of. congress at the time when the loan was made. There was an effort by direct bill make Suture issue* and the new Issue* .f w h .-V I ha\ sp-*k. n : • ■ in go’. Tt was defeated in the s- nate by a very’ larve majority. And yet. not satisfied with this discomfiture, the president of the United States then in office., backed by all the prestige and power of the treasury, came here with his message to ad vis- us that these bonds, the recent bonds. should, for reasons which ! he gave at that time, be made payable in gold, and in gold only. The senate ! rejected that advice, as it had defeated the bill which attempted to make the bends payable in gold. ,

wnai. tn**n, qin inr oonuooiurrs uw when they bought the first, and espec'ally when thev bought the last and recent issue of United States bonds? They paid in "cold above par for the; fare value of th'se $2**0 000.000 of bonds payable in silver coin In other words, they l>ought the right, thirty years after the date of these bond?, to demand and receive from the treasury of the United States the nominal fact value of the bon is in s'andard silver dollars and the whole $**>.->''" -K^UbJect to the same covenanted condition. What. then, is the estimate, what is the judgment and the belief of this syndicate of gold as to th« real value of the standard silver dollar? They believe, and they have backed their belief with their money, that the standard silver dollar is now a lawful, sound coin, worth its face value, and that thirty years from row- It will be of th° same value—an equivalent for the gold that they cave m the purchase of their Irfvvts wh^frt they pa’ 1 their bids. Stir. I return to.a consideration of that partial restoration of silver in 1878 of which I have spoken. There were In that enactment two limitations—one on the amount to be coined, the other on the legal tender quality of the dollar coined. Both of these limitations were the result of~the compromise between the friends and the enemies of free sllved coinage. The limitation on the legal tender quality of the.dollar is contained in th*e phrase making it a legal tender for the^ payment of all debts “except where otherwise expressly provided in the contract.” Syndic*tc Not SurcfMfnl There is no doubt that at the time of the passage of the enactment the syndicate of gold designed to have a section in It similar to jthe section in the statute of frauds, requiring all contracts above the value of $50 to be in writing, and requiring in that Instance all debts I

Above the value of $50 to be payable ta gold, and gold only. Thia would have Included, inclosed, and shut down the national bonded debt to its compulsory and perpetual payment in gold. The syndicate were not successful in procuring that legislation. They were compelled to accept, because they were driven to accept, the wot^i instead "‘except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract.” That is a limitation upon the legal- j tender function of the silver dollar, butj It leaves the silver dollar still a legal j payment for any bond of the United ■ States, because no bond of the United j States is included in the phrase “except1 where otherwise expressly stipulated ’ in the contract." We have made no | bonds payable in gold. The gold notes i and bonds provided for in the clause j quoted are all contracts between pri- I vate parties. No bond of the United States is madej payable in gold, and, therefore, under the act of ISIS, the standard silver dollar was restored to its functions in the same manner as when the act of 1S69 was passed, when it was declared to be coin—a coin in which payments of! ''bonds could be made. One of many proposition? submitted ' to us quite recently, and commended to j our careful Consideration, under the j shape of monetary or financial reform, j sets out with the proposal to make I monetary or financial reform, sets out j with the proposal to make all contracts payable in gold. This, of course, in-; eludes the national debt, and I believe j the language purposely devised in order to Include the national debt, without regard to its effect as together debts. It would have seemed harsh to state that “all bonds Issued by the United States shall be payable in gold:’’ but it would i seem not so selfish and exclusive to say. j on the other hand, as this proposed en- i actment does, that all contracts shall be payable in gold. That effects the pur- j pose of gold payment of the national debt without exposing the exclusiveness ' of which I have spoken. j Tn a further section of this same pro- ; posed enactment, indorsed by one of j these monetary commissions, they say j that they leave untouched the status of ! the standard silver dollar and of the j currency now in circulation in ,-fhis j country.

I^et us compare these two sections together and see what truth, or what honesty, or what provision for a sound monetary system there is in a comparison of these two sections. The first section provides that all contracts shall be payable in gold. The subsequent section pretends that it would not disturb the status of the standard silver dollar: but the debtpaving and legal-tender status of the standard silver dollar depends upon the observance of the act of 1S7S. It is legal tender in all ^contrac ts "not otherwise specially provided for;” but when you provide that all contracts shall be payable in gold, the national debt, as well as all other obligations, come under the phrase except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract,” and the silver standard dollar is left without the debt-paying quality in relation to the national debt or any other obligation. Such is the effect of the duplicity plainly set forth in one of these proposed enact iron ts. There is cne mark. Mr."President, one Indication, cue sign for all generations, of the true relative value cf the precious metals, silver and gold, ami there is but one sign of such real value at any sr> n time—It Is the ratio. The ratio is the official expression, the deliberate legislation, or administrative opinion of the government making ar.d maintaining it, upon the proportionate value of silver and gold .compared with each other at the time when it is made fer purpose' of coinage. The ratio is not. and never has been, affected by the -current prices in the market of either gold or silver bullion, subject as they both are to constant changes, but it has always been fixed by taking careful account of the stock of silver and gold in ^ise in the world at the timeef any proposed change, waiting patiently for the effect of the gradual distribution of this stock, taking into account the added product of both silver and gold during the period sinue the establishment of the last ratio, and averaging the value of each In the long period of a century pr two centuries. No ratio has ever been established for any other reason or for any other cause.

Sliver Will Be licttuml. I have a profound conviction that silver wjll be r* stored to its-free and full functions as money, not by any international unit ratio, but by each country upon its'own ratio and for Us own reasons. as it has been coined for centuries before our time. The differences in the ratio have been so small because they are fixed upon the consideration of the same natural causes—production, increased or decreased. of both metals with the incidents of distribution in the world of coined naoney. For this reason changes in the ratio have been so slow and gradual that no man in any ordinary business has ever lost or gained anything by such changes, whether he did business in the nineteenth, eighteenth, or seventeenth century. Only the very largest dealers in gold or silver bullion have been either gainers or losers by any change in the ratio made for these normal and natural causes. Arbitrary legislation or action for the direct purpose of artificially affecting the price of silver or gold bullion, such as that of 1S73 in this country and others, had not before our day been resorted to. There is no such act in any former age, and such arbitrary hostile legislation has never affected any change in the ratio, not even in our day. because It is not founded on natural causes and hats po connection with either the increase or decrease of the gold or silver product. The ratio was-advanced from 3 to 4 points during the twelve hundred years from the Christian era to the century immediately preceeding the voyage and discovery of Columbus, from 9% to 10. which it was at the time of the Christian era, to 11 and 11 Vfe in one or two countries, to 12 at the time of the discovery of America. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, in 1500. near the time of the Columbian voyage, but after it, the ratio stood at an average of 12 to, 1. That was the general average. It x ig not precisely the same in any thre centuries. The ratio changed afterwards, in the period from 1492 to 1792. the year of our first coinage, in three hundred years, from 12 to 1 to 15 to 1— only 3 points. In our own national life of one hun

«in*d years the ratio has changed 1 point, and that change ha# been hail a point at a time—first from 15 to 15Mu ■ and lastly from 15}£ to 16, where it stands today and will stand. But Europe in this same period Of one hundred years, from 1792 to 1892, has changed the ratio only one-Walf a point, the average ratio being there latfe to 1. It has changed the ratio in one hundred years from 16 to 15t2. The two centuries immediately succeeding the discovery of America witnessed the largest addition to the world’s stock of silver that has ever occurred. For a long period of years the treasure ships of Spain, sailing twice a year—every six months—carried not only large amounts of silver in the hands of officers, crew, and passengers, but those ships were freighted with silver bars, with silver plate, and with silver ingots on public, royal account, as we freight ships today with lumber or with coal. Lasted Forty Ycm This larg<e transmission of silver, the semi-annual voyage of the treasure fieets from the Americas to Spain, lasted about forty years. It represented not only the mining and the smelting of that time, but the silver hoards of ages accumulated by the Aztecs and other native American tribes, which had become prize of war to the Spaniard. The consequehce was that the coinage of silver, the Spanish milled, pillared dollar, became cosmopolitan in its character. j It- went to China. :o India, to every part of Europe, carrying with it. as the historian testifies, new life and vigor into every departmer t of business and enterprise. It came to the colonies, now the United States, and to the colonies then. of Spain in Central and South America, it was everywhere distributed. and this distribution was perma-j nent. I recollect in ray boyhood, as gentlemen'here of mV age if;ay recollect. and even younger manhood, seeing occasionally this Spanish milled; pillared silver dollar. It; was rare, but it was a testimonial of the world-wide circulation which had been given to the post-Colum'oian coinage of silver by Spain in the mints of! the old and the, new world.

u hat was* the effect upon the ratio of this !arg<. increment of the stock of; silver of the World, exceeding in quan- | tity and value all succeeding additions to the world's silver? It has been here-i t of ore noted, but I will restate it. Tak- , ing into account, as the fixation of the ; ratio always does, the contemporaneous supply of gold, and waiting patiently the effect of distribution, the ratio, as1 before noted? changed three points in j three hundred years—one point in one hundred years—sone point in each of the two centuries wherein this vast, transmission of silver had been made from the new world to the old. Mr. President, it is useless, it is almost absurd, to talk about the present product of silver being an over prod- \ uction, or to assert that silver in its value has declined from any such nat-! ural cause. The unchanged ratio of 16 to I. the unchanged ratio of 15V1* to 1 untouched, makes this demonstration clearly apparent, and confounds the falsifier who attempts to justify his pretension that the true value cf silver has fallen by overproduction. At this point Mr. Turpie said: Silver was first demonetized by Or eat Britain in 1816. but it had not fallen in price. The-bank and government know that silver edintd at 15VV to 1 is worth as much as it. was In 1816- The only time gold left France was when it was sent to the relief of the English bank and government. The gold standard in Croat Britain had. failed and French bimetallism came to the rescue. India just now ooupies a prominent position biinetaUism came to the rescue:! He then Continued: The Monetary ConuuKnion. Again. We listened, in the very able and interesting report of the ex-mem-ber of the international Monetary commission. to a detail of the facts of their negotiations, in which it appeared that the republic of France had offered to go to the free coinage of silver, and preferred to do it, on the.r old ratio of to 1. That was a solemn public proposition by the government of the republic of France, made only a fewmonths ago. I will not enter into formal’ laudations of the French financial system. ,

If they beheved that the fail in the price of silver was due to its overproduction. or to any other natural cause, they would nht and cousd not either allow it* further coinage or its tree coinage upon any condition, either of operation or co-operation. To admit or to retain in the circulation of France, with co-operation or without co-opera-tion. many millions of silver coin, and at th^ same time declare that this vast volume of money was worth half its face value, is a blasphemy against the people and the government of the republic of France. Such action would disturb their whole system. Such a currency would be unsound, unstable. They have no such currency and never had any unsound money in France under the present republic. The French government declares and asserts in the act and fact of payment and redemption of its notes that its silver coin is in ail respects solvent at its full face value. In so doing it squarely contradicts that monstrous falsity of the gold trust that there is anr true cause or genuine reason for a change of ratio, or for the non-user of silver as money at the existing ratio in this country or any other. Jt is no wonder, under these circumstances. Mr. President, that the United States still makes and continues to utter its bonds payable in coin, not in gold, and that those silver bonds of the United States bring a premium in the markat. It will be noted in the same address ofstfce late member of the International Monetary commission that non-co-op* ration, and that by a single power, is the obstacle in the way of the European remonetization of silver. It is not the 'artificial and compulsory reduction in the price of silver bullion. Where jt Is tumid. That Is not once spoken of. It is the intense opposition of the syndicate of gold to the abandonment of their longmatured scheme for the spoliation of the wealth of the world by the debasement of one-half of its specie currency. It is not in the mine or in the miner, or his silver product, less or more, that the hindrance to free Coinage, is found. It is in the mint, the British, foreign mint, which U owned, controlled, apd

( enslaved by the gold Interest and influence. In the same able speech <of the honorable ex-commissioner there are sortfe detailed accounts of the recent English financial policy -in relation to their extensive and very populous province of India. Some time since in India the British government demonetised silver and adopted the gold standard. But quite recently they have made a change in the ratio, conceded to be wholly local and provincial, and have commenced recoinage of silver. They have changed the ratio from 15% to 1 to 22 to 1. And they have made an order In council that this change shall operate upon current payments into the Indian treasury, thus compelling the 400.000.000 people an that province to pay an immense sura in dues, taxes and in debts in silver, at a less value than they had received it, at a (less value than the British government had before coined, uttered, and paid it to the Inhabitants of India. Sir. this is an act replete with every element otf injustice and misrule. This act has behind it the right of force, but not the force of right. For ages the people of India have used silver as money, not because they have no go!d4|but they will not use gold as money, even when it is coined and offered to them. They hive the silver habit, as many people in the United States have. They like to see and handle that “’coin. For ages and generations they have preferred it, they have hoarded it. so that it is an axiom among writers upon coinage that siilvex flows constantly to India and that it never returns. Perhaps *.n this order of the British government thtre may be some sU.,ht admixture of patriotism with pelf. They perhaps have availed themselves of present circumstances to counteract this historical current of silver to the 'Indies, and to say that they will make silver flow back, at least so far as the cotters of the Indian treasury. It may be so. But the spoliation of India has been such a familiar and often-recur-ring feature in English policy as scarcely to attract attention. India is not a constituency. It is only a dependency. It has no representation in parliament. Its people have no vote or voice in the administration of its financial affairs. It falls an easy prey to English tyranny and oppression. But just now Tndia. in the zone of finance and in the wide horizoh of the money theme occupies a very distinct and prominent position.

In Sat^H'tioii to Foreign Rule. India juts out like a promontory of rock into the sea of this debate, because it is the first and only place in the world where, to use the language of the honorable secretary of the treasury of the United States, the gold standard is more plainly djeolared and applied in the financial policy of the country. It is the, only place where the full programme of the gold standard has been begun and entered upon; a programme which arrogantly demands not only that the world shall be deprived of the further use of silver as m*>n.-y of final payment, but that the silver now in use shall be discounted and discredited for the profit of the gold trust. Atul yet the British government of today might say. as Lord Clive said In his time. ‘ Charge me With fraud and peculation! My God. sir^I am astonished at mj moderation.” The millions of India are in hopeless., helpless subjection to foreign ride. They are in tlie attitude of waiting—waiting to be pillaged Why did the English gold standard rulers stop at 22 to 1? Why did they not fix it at 32 to 1. so that they might clip the roupee one-half and make an end? They had the power absolute. They had nothing to fear. The military and naval forces of Great Britain, under the flag of England. were there at their services to enforce the gold standard, to make it more plainly applicable to the financial policy of India. No. they had nothing to fear. However, the British government did have a remnant of shame. They were loath, very loath, to face the people at horn**, to face the ^public of all Europe upon such a grand larceny proposition as 32 to 1. W hy does not the British government change the ratio at home in the United Kingdom? Why does it not clip its own coinage, the crown, the shilling, and sixpence, as it-has clipped the rupee of India? Many a time and oft have the Princes of the Palace of Gold met in conclave to consider this question. How can we ever peisuade the people <r>f‘the United States to discard their standard s:lver dollar and to issue their bonds payable In gc'd as long as we alow in every count;y in Europe this vast amount of silver . oin. coined at a half point below their own! to circulate at its full face value? Often have they considered that. Many a time has this golden cabal discussed the proposition of changing the ratio and of clipping the silver coinage oj Europe. As far as legislation is concerned, they can entirely control It. Why have they not made the change in ratio and why have they not imposed the clipping of the coin? i

MIOUK1 naTU 30 rr»r. The powers of the sold trust pretend that patriotism. hon?sty and righteousness demand the permanent demonetization of silver and its perpetual debasement. The powers with those motives behind them should have no fear. Yet the gold rulers, of Europe have fear —naked fear and trembling. It is not conscience which makes cowards of these chieftains. Neither is it shame which makes them hesitate. They know that this pretense of a fail in the real value of silver, based upon the salted and bogus price which they have fastened by their own action and procurement upon silver hulllon. is a spurious and base* pretenses. They know this, but what hinders them in the further movements of the gold campaign Is that they also know that the masses of the pdcpie of Europe are fully aware of the falsehood contained in this pretension. The day that the gold trust might decree a change in ratio and the rate of discount^ upon the current silver coinage. countless multitudes of silver users having these coins in their pockets and in their purses, small in detail, but m 11tons in the aggregate, would rise in every market of.the world tD defy and defeat this gigantic act of ngpine. For a few days there would be no coin quotations; but when the quotations reappeared, those of silver coinage would be at par at the old ratio. The | money changers would hit driven from

their position, and the raid of the fol# trugtjvotild be heard of no more. But thl8*WDuld give to the syndicate and ail otn^fs a most terrible distrust and suspicion of the miscarriage of their scheme. Justice, honor, patriotism have very little natural kinship with gold. They have a very old and innate relationship to the multitude of mankind, on which the history of our race, in the course of God’s providence, has often shown and vindicated. Why do not the followers of the gold standard in this country propose a change of ratio and a discount upon current coinage? Our ratio is 16 to 1. There h stands. The world has its history by heart. Woe .all know it was a growth and is a growth —the growth of better times than these, founded upon the action of better and abler men than in ,the last. ten years have darkened with their shadows the doors of the treasury. The gold trust has circulated the falsehood that our coin is worth but hall its value. Why not propose a change in the ratio? Because the ratio is established by the averages of centuries, and the ratio takes no notice except of natural causes: and. like the Pharisees of old. they fear the people. Should Restore Silver. Seeing, then, that the syndicate df „ gold in Europe, the lords of its whole life and action, fear tp take any step in the direction of changing the ratio or reducing the coin value of silver in the 1’nited States or elsewhere, we, should’here in all confidence restore silver to. its full free function as money, and retain our bonds for the present and in all the future, if, unfortunately, we have0 ever to give afev others than those now in existence, payable in coin, not in gold, and this policy we may pursue without let. loss, or hindrance from any foreign power or foreign interest. We are entitled to the freedom of the mint within the constitutional limitations of gv'ld and silver as we are entitled to the^freedem of speech and the freedom of the press. We can not rightfully be deprived of this liberty of the mint by domestic legislation, much less by foreign laws or alien and foreign influence. The .foreign magi, the high priests in the innermost shrine of the temple of gold, aliens to this government and enemies of this republic, the rulers in the synagogue of millionaires, do not deigu to argue the question of free coinage. Their contempt of the opinions of the people and their representatives is not concealed. It ts manifest. s These high priests, such as those who dictated to the British geevernment its recent policy of rapine in India, are men of few? word® and of many dollars. I

When they speak, they lie. When/ they are silent, they steal. Their posl/ tion is not one of argument; rather of naked, swollen insolence. They say to the people of the United States. “Pay your debts in gold or we will withdraw credits and enforce collections.” Neither the people or the government of the « United States need pay the slightest attention to this menace. The United States have only to act, in answer to this threat, by standing by the existing contract, to freely coin silver with which to fulfill that con- ; tract to see these braggarts of the gold trust abandon their threats and inso-lence-do see them compelled' by their own interests and hv the prudehti^l fear and care of their own investments to maintain the face value of the standard silver dollar as fully as we ourselves could wish or desire. What have the people of the United State? to gain by joining this unholy alliance which would exclude silver from our mints and make our bonds payable in gold alone? * We produce within our own territory one-third of the silver ^bullion of the world. We have 50O.0CC.00® of standard silver dollars, either in coin or the paper representation of it. in circulation, in daily use as standard money. Much More I* Needed. We need much more, not only for the account of the national debt, but of the uncounted millions of private debts * which must at some time be paid out of the profits of the business of the people now everywhere depressed and * embarrassed by the threatened approach of the single gold standard, that standard of money and values which Hamilton and his illustrious contemporaries declared more than one hundred years ago to be too narrow and restricted for American policy. - ;

<>rta;r.Iy we have tnus iar ~gaineuy*“—• nothing by our approximate approach^ to or reluctant dalliance with the gold« standard. Executive dalliance with \ this gilded peril has already cost the people sums, almost incalculable-. Our a gains by this attempt to aid the gold trust have been on the minus side. Our losses from its further continuance and more plain application cannot now be even estimated, when values,"of all kinds have shrunk to the lowest point, when prices have been shriveled to the uttermost farthing, when' wages have been scaled down to the last extremity, when the great army of unemployed has received its last recruits, when the national honor has been disparaged by the debasement of our silver coinage, when a so-called stable currency has been issued, upon neither gold-nor silver. but upon that mysterious and Indescribable myth called “resources.” tkeA, and not till then, we can make sdfne reasonable calculation of the fdSses incurred by thb adoption of the single! gold standard. For my part I shall vote for no scheme or pretended monetary or financial reform which Is not founded upon the free coinage of silver and gold as full legal-tender money of the United States, and which does not provide that the standard silver dollar of the present fineness' and ratio shall be lawfully payable and receivable in liquidation of all bonds of the United States and in satisfaction of all nates and obligations of the treasury. whether they be funded or fundedI shall join hands, with no conference, with no commission, which seek by mere ex-post facto verbal artifice and indirection to change not only the constituticn but the laws and contracts of the United States in the interest of foreign powers and of alien trusts. With all due respect for monetary conventions. conferences, and commissions, we of the Democratic party prefer to give our confidence to the people, We put our trust in the people for the past, present, amd future, knowing that the people, ag they are the most powerful, so are they the most pure, the most unsubsidized. disinterested, and constant guardians of the public f^ith and of Uk* national hopor. . — -