People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 May 1896 — HARVEY ON SHYER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HARVEY ON SHYER.

A Masterly Discussion of the Sob* Ject of Bimetallism. OPENING OFTHE CAMPAIGN. The Author of Coin’s Financial School Before an immense Ohio Audience. ROTH METALS NECESSARY AS MONEY. A Review jf the Monetary Legislation Throughout the Civilised World - Cause of a Flfty-Cent Dollar—A Remedy for Hard Times. Atr. W. H. Hapey, author of Coin’s Financial School, spoke at Greenville, 0., on Saturday, the 16th instant, to an immense out-door audience, excursions having been run over all railroads centering at that point- No attempt is made to give the effect of the speech on ‘the audience. Its plam words are submitted to the calm judgment and intelligent consideration of the reader. Mr. Harvey spoke as follows:

Mp. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Members of the Order of the Patriots of America: I have come to your county to speak here to-day, io encourage your unselfish citizens who have raised the standard of an order intended to regulate the civic conduct of the. nation and to free our government from the control of til selfish organizations. When great questions have pressed themselves upon the United. States, the people of Ohio have been true to the traditions of Jefferson and Lincoln. When questions affecting the liberties of the people and the existence of the republic have demanded a verdict, the people of Ohio have spoken intelligently on the side of humanity. Individual selfishness crystalized into laws has been the cause of the downfall of all republics. When the people of a republic, by example and training, become worshipers of mammon, ail laws are made and construed for the accumulation and protection of property interests, and the principles of humanity are neglected. It. is the crucial period in the history of a republic. In the history of the world, no people of a republic have ever successfully met and overthrown the spirit of selfishness. In the history of popular governments, selfishness has manipulated the law-making power and absorbed the property of the people into the hands of the few. Then came distress and riots and the claim that the republic*was a failure, and then came monarchy. The reason why this is possible is because the people, as a rule, do not understand how laws affect civilization. Let me illustrate what I mean In a simple way: Under the feudal land laws of Europe, the right was given the land owner to settle his land on the oldest son, to descend Indefinitely from oldest son to oldest son. It was called the law of “entail.” Under that law, less than one per cent, of the people became owners of the land and 99 per cent, of the people became tenants, among whom our forefathers were numbered. They, our forefathers, fled from these nations, where they had protested in vain againßt these laws, and provided In our constitution against estates entail. In this Instance, it can be readily seen how law molded the civilization ol those people. For, there is no such thing as an advanced or an advancing civilization, the masses of the people are tenants and not the owners of homes. And, while we can understand how a law, in that instance, molded civilization, the 'people as a whole living under It did not understand its effect on their civilization, and protected.and defended it. The landlord’s influence extended to his butler, his household servants, his favored tenants, his’ attorney, merchant and others who catered to his wealth and gave undue importance to his opinions.

Spirit of Mammonism. It Is a spirit of mammonism that causes us to worship wealth aqU the opinion of those who possess wealth. The men of wealth are the best business men we have, but the least capable of understanding the principles upon which a republic is founded. The men to whom I refer wish laws that encourage unbridled selfishness. Such men in time become the enemies of a republic. Their opinions are not the opinions that the masses of the people should follow. We are living underflaws that are making their Impress upon our civilisation; that, if further permitted, will result as fatally to our republic and to human happiness, as have the feudal laws of Europe and any that have overthrown the republics of the past. We have learned, however, In thls£-epub-lic, what the people of other republics discovered too late to save their free institutions—that selfish interests may capture not only individuals, but organisations. More than one political organisation In the United States is to-day struggling in the toils of a selfish class. The unselfish people are looking on with mingled feelings of anxiety and humiliation. The unreeling of the weeks and days is now bringing us to the time when manhood will sit In judgment on the action of the pretended leaders of the people: when men will decide for themselves whether their political party is to carry them with selfish Interests. Chief among the laws affecting our civilization, defended by selfish Interests, Is our financial laws, and that brings me to the subject uppermost In the minds of the American people. I am going to present to-day, in the brief space of a speech, the side of the people in this issue, now on trial In the republic. I do not hope to reach those who are seeking to promote their selfish vanity, or those who are consciously seeking to promote their selfish Interests. My appeal will be to the unselfish American people, who recognise the principle—that man serves himself best by promoting the common good. What TbasuM Jefferson Mid. Thomas Jefferson once said that men were but children op the subject of finance.

T was remfnued of '.fits recently wBFTi a manufacturer asked me what sixteen to one meant? 1 concluded I would try Jefferson’s judgment on him. and asked him what he thought it meant? He replied: “My understanding of it is that you fellows want 16 silver dollars coined to eaph gold dollar coined.” And this was a man regarded as above the average citizen. The money dealers understand money, and the success of thetr selfish legislation is made possible by reason of the people tot understanding the science of money. • >ne reason for the people not understanding it. is because they have not understood be importance of It. or its full relation to : * * xa * : The ImporUWaoe of Money. Money Is the blood of commerce, the lifegiving fluid of civilixation, the vital organism in our Social existence. You can do without wheat, corn, beef, or any other single commodity classed among the necessities of life and yet be healthy and happy; but you cannot imagine yourself a part of civilisation and do without money You can do without wheat by using corn or rice for bread; you can do without beef by using pork or mutton for meat; but you cannot be a part of civilisation an<ldo without money. Without money, society would tro back to barotrlsm. It is the most important factor we have in civilization, and may well be termed the blood of clvilizatipn. It is an lndtapensible necessity to civilisation. Ons of the rules that should t>eapplied?® any necessity, la that be a normal quantity of it. ThereWa necessity fpr so much bread. Th»r? is sso . vi. A- *■ ’ * '

slfy Tor a normal supply oflndffey: ITTBefe were laws, other than the laws of barter encouraging the hoarding of wheat, that operated to store it away in elevators while people suffered for the want of it, you would be in favor of repealing those laws. If there was not enough of it raised to feed tile people, you would be in favor of raising more of tt. If we have laws that encourage the hoarding of money, the greatest of necessities, and diverting it from the channels of trade, by which the people and the nation are made to suffer for it, and to pay black mail in order to get It, you Bhould demand the repeal of those laws. And, If there is not enough money to answer the normal requirement, you should see that more money is made. You should no 4 , leave It to a selfish class of money dealers to say what those laws should be. Money Is Made by Law. A cattle man In Kansas who owns 10,000 head of cattle knows that If one-half the other cattle In the nation were wiped out of existence his cattle would be worth far more to him after that Calamity happened than thcV are worth now. The money dealer knows this principle and he applies it to his business. Cattle are raised by nature and the supply is regulated by the demand. All are free to raise cattle who wish to, but money is an artificial substance and is made by law. The money aeater knows this and he goes where the money is made and gets those laws made to suit his business. It would be a great temptation to the cattle man if he had the power to destroy half the cattle of the world. The t emptation has been too great for the money dealer to resist. Bimetallism Defined. We believe that bimetallism, that relies on two metals for money is a better policy than one that relies on only one metal. We do not pretend to say teat the Intelligence of mankind may not find a better system than both of them, but we do say that to demonetize either of these metals Is a step backward and not a step forward. Bimetallism is the right to use either gold or stiver as primary money. Thus, under such a law, if our trade relations or the Jaws of other nations take our gold away, then we have silver, and no serious injury occurs. And .lie same saving principle applies If our silver snould leave us and gold remained. • The vital principle In. bimetallism is the right tc* use either mciai. If production grow less on one, we have the other, and the twd together furnish a more stable supply of money than either alone can furnish. With only one of them for money, the contraction and expansion of the world's supply, alternating as they will, makes an uncertain and unstable supply. Of the two metals, dollar for dollar, 16 parts silver to one ps rt o' gold, stiver is the most useful of the two. is applied to the most uses, and is the most serviceable to mankind of the two metals. The principle that it Is safer to rely for money on two metals than on one is a jirinciple that we carry Into everyday life. We rely on wheat, corn and rice for bread, on beef, pork and mutton for meat. If one is scarce, we use the other. Under free coinage of both metals, til-

WILLIAM H. HARVEY.

ver and gold are fir competition with ea'-Ii other to supply the demand for money 8o long as pork and mutton are in com petition with beef, for meat, beef cannot rise unduly In value and threaten the health of the nation. And gold could not, as it is doing now, threaten the credit of this great nation if silver were In competition with It as money. You hear us called "silver men.” As If we were opposed to gold? We are called silver men, because silver is the metal demonetised, and we ate trying to resore it to equal rights with gold. We arte in favor of putting the white metal on an equalitv with the colored metal. To do this, does not mean that we put the country upon a silver basis. It means the right to make primary money from either metal, and in this way one relieves the strain upon the As we have two eyes, one to relieve the strain upon the other; two ears, one to relieve the strain upon the other, and for the same reason two openings In the nose; two lobes to the lungs, and two ventricles to the heart; so is this great necessity for money supplied by having two metals, one to relieve the strain upon the other. And, having the right to use the two, does not mean monometallism. What Monometallism Is. The right to use only one metal as primary money, as is the law now, is monometallism. It is like a man with one arm, one leg, or one lung. Monometallism is a one-lung monetary System. Bimetallism is the right to use either or both of two metals. Only one may be In use at a time, or partially one and mostly

th© other. If 'one Arrows scarce, or is cotnered by speculators, we may use the other. If under bimetallism, one is in use more than the other, it is because it is the most accessible, and this fact may save our monetary system. If gold leaves us and goes to Europe, under bimetallism, it does not hurt us. it, fold. would in such a case (with silver taking its place with us), go to swell the supply of primary money in Europe and increase the price of products in the world’s markets, and thereby increase the price of our exports to those same markets. Under bimetallism, the exportation of gold does not hurt us. Under gold monometallism. Its exportation deprives us of the only primary money metal we have.* Bimetallism Is the right to use either metal as primary money. • And that was the law up to 1873. Option of the Debtor. Under this bimetallic law. the debtor had the option as to which of the two metals he would pay In. Thus the demand was regulated by the delator. The government exercised the same option as to Its creditors. The demand was thus applied to the metal that was most plentiful. If silver became the cheaper by a slight fluctuation, the demand was thrown upon It. thus restoring the parity between the two metals. If gold was the cheaper, it was used, and the demand brought It back. There is no better recognised principle than the law of supply and demand regulating values. It was the law to which bimetallism was adjusted, and to make It self-operative, the option was given to the debtor, who would always put the demand on the more accessible or cheaper metal, and this prevented any material fluctuation In ihe commercial value of the two metals. We have bad the effect es this law In the official reports of governments for 2Coyears prior to 1873, and the fluctuation, one dollar as compared with the other, was never to exceed three per cent. What Sixteen to One Means. finder this law, with us, 371V* grains of pure silver were put In a dollar, and, 23 1-5 grains of pure gold were put in a dollar, 16 gold dollars to weigh as much as one silver dollar. That is what, sixteen to one means. In other words, anyone bringing 37114 grains of silver »to the mint bad it coined into a dollar, and anyone bringing 23.22 grains of gold to the mint had It coined into a dollar And as long as Inis was the law, no man was willing or did sell that much stiver or gold for less Shan a dollar. Foreign Inducements at times caused much of our gold to leave us, as it Is doing now, but we had silver to fall back on, and then again when much of our silver left us, we had gold. Thus we walked down the century on two legs, from 13 poor colonies to 36 grand states. During all of that century, the metal In the two dollars never varied more than three per cent., and could not, under the Inexorable law,of supply and demand, with the mints open and the hands of our debtors on the governor that controlled Tile demand. And the fact that we had two metals to rely on gave us more money and a safer system than If, we had relied .pn Continued on Page Six.