Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1893 — FREE SILVERITES COUNCIL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FREE SILVERITES COUNCIL

Large Gathering of White Metal Advocates. -pr|| rhe Proceedings—BmilnßwuSom« of the Prominent Mon In ___ _ =4 -j-s Tf* • —t" The national convention of the Bimetallic League met at IQ o’clock, Aug. 1, to Chicago,with a larger attendance than an? previous assembly of like character in the history of fii\ancial agitation. Among the prominent men in attendance are Gen. A. J. Warmer of Ohio, Congressmen Bryan of Nebraska, Bartine oflowa, Gov. Waite of Colorado, Senators Stewart of Nevada, Mantle of Montana, Shoup and Dubois of Idaho, Gov. Kolbe of Alabama, T. M. Patterson, of Colorado, Editor Goodwin,

of Utah, H. G. Taubeneck, and a long list of well known people. The convention was called to order by Chairman Warner. Mayor Carter H. Harrison made an address of welcome, strongly .endorsing the purposes of the convention, which was responded toby T. M. Patterson. Allen W. Thurman, of Ohio, was elected chairman and delivered the following address: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention—The fight between those whef believe that the circulating medium of this country should be hard monqy—that is, real money, gold and silver, ana paper redeemable in the same —and those who believe in the use of soft money—that is, paper promises to pay—money redeemable In other promises to pay—is on. The late demand in the East to nave the Government issue bonds, and the cry that is now made for the unconditional repeal of the Sherman law. charging it, regardless of facts, with all the ills that flesh Is heir to, ought to make this perfectly apparent to every thinking man, for should the Sherman law be repealed without substituting anything in lieu thereof, it means the final destruction of silver money as a measure of value, and no mast can tel) when it will ever be again restored to its former place. No matter what may be said of the contrary, this means for years and years to come, its reduction to token money, after which the issue resolves itself down simply to the question whether the paper money of the country is to be issued by banking corporations upon the debts of the people, or upon other kinds of corporate securities, or whether it is to rest on the broad and safe basis of gold and silver.

This is so, because gold alone certainly cannot afford a sufficient basis upon which ihe amount of circulation medium required by the people of this country, can safely rest. If this is not so.why is it that we see this tremendous scramble for the yellow metal? If there is not oaly a*ufticient amount of gold with which to carry on the worlirs commerce, but also a sufficient amount upon which the credits of the world can safely rest, why is it that whenever any of it, to any amount, begins to flow from one country to another—that is, simply obeys the natural laws of trade —we immediately hear cries of distress? Yet, every one knows that we do, and to regain ft exhorbitant premiums are paid for it. If things are as they should be, why is there any danger because a certain amount of metallic money leaves the country? Wo do not give it away, uo we? On the contrary, do not those who take it give value received for it? And is not this what money is used for? If this be true, and I defy any one to prove to the contrary, why,..then, is It dangerous to use it, and more, wjiy ls.it particularly dangerous-to use it out of the United States, if, by so doing,we can obtain more in exchange for it than we could If we only exchanged it among ourselves? , Money in this sense is simply an exchangeable commodity, just like any other commodity, and if it is advantageous at some time to exchange our commodities with people other than ourselves, why it is not so with this one? When things are in a normal condition, no harm can follow, but when they are not normal, when the basis upon which things rest is not an ample one. then it will prove dangerous to have any of this basis taken away. But this proves nothing other than under such conditions it is dangerous to use money in the way in which it was intended to be used, and when you can not use things in this wav, something is decidedly wrong. That is the condition existing to-day, I - most firmly believe, and therefore, If onr circulating medium is to rest upon gold alone, practically tfee whole of it will be based simply upon faith, and faith means fiat money. At the close of Mr. Thurman’s remarks loud calls were made for Mr. PoWderly and in response the labor leader made a brief speech favoring free coinage at the rate of 16 to 1.

Ignatius Donnelly, of Minnesota, followed in a speech of an honr’s duration, in the course of which he indorsed the recent speech of Gov. Waite of Colorado. A mass meeting at night was addreseed by Senator Stewart and Congressman Bryan. At Wednesday morning’s session addresses were made by ex-Senator Hill and others. Senator Allen, of Nebraska, made a brief speech In which he pledged the i People’s party to the cause of silver. “I do not come here to talk politics,” he 6ald, “but I want to say that so far as the Populist party is represented in the United States Senate it will not be found wanting. [Applause.] Wfe may not understand the parliamentary maneuvering as well as some, but I tell you we will be in sight of the fox all the time. [Great laughter.] Our party is pledged now and all time for free cbinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1. Gov. Waite, of Colorado, after repeated calls, responded at great length in a very forcible speech. In concluding, he said: ’* vVho U Grover Cleveland and who Is Benjamin Harrison, and who are their supporters In Wall Street and Chicago, that they dare assume to drive into poverty.and exile hplf a million of American free men? There is no use crying peace when there is no peace. Most dangerous tyranny Is that enforced under the forms of law. Our weapons are arguments and ballots; a free ballot and a fair count. If ee money power shall attempt to susin its usurpation of our rights by strong Hods, as in other lands, we will meet

to the afternoon as fit lows: Whereas, Bimetafnm is as Snetont m human history, ns for more than thre* thousand yean gold and silver have come down (broogt the ages hand-in-hand, their relations to eaeh other having varied but a tow points fit ail that fast period ol time, and then almost to variably through legislation; and - Whereas, The two metals are named together, Indissolubly united; In the constitution of the United States as the money basis of this country; and « Whereas, Stiver, one of these ancient f metals, was in the year 1873 without any previous demand by any poiMcar'party, and by any part of the people, or even by any newspapers and without public discussion whatever, stricken down from fit# place it had occupied since the days ol Abraham and the Pharaohs; under circumstances of such secrecy that many Senators and Representatives, subsequently repeatedly and public!v declared - that they did not know until tong-after-ward that so grave and great a change had been made in the financial system founded by the fathers of the Republic; and Whereas, The debates in Congress show that the parentage of tho-measure was ip part ascribed by the friends of the bill to one Ernest Seyd, a London banker, who. It is claimed, was sent over to Washington by the moneyed classes of the Old World to secure its passage; and Whereas, President Grant, who signed the bill, declared that he did not know that it demonetized silver, and, Whereas, The purpose of this attack npori one of the two ancient precious metals of the world was, by striking down one-half of the money supply, to-wit, silver, to double the purchase power 01 the remainder, gold, by Braking irthe equivalent of everything possessed or produced by the labor of man, thus reducing the price of ail commodities, arresting enterprise impoverishing tne toller and degrading mankind; and, Whereas. The awfnl consequences thus prophesied are upon Abe people of the whole world, for we stand In the midst of unparalled distress and in the shadow of impending calamities which are beyond estimate. In the midst of these-conditions the daily press are clamoring for the repeal of the act of, 1890, called the Sherman act, although the repeal of that act means the stoppage of the issue of more than three million dollars of money every month, the shutting off of the supply of the funds for the business of tne country, to the midst of the terrible conditions which surround us, and ignoring the fact that to held the balance level between the debtor and creditor classes the supply of currency must increase side by siqe with the increase of popnlation and bbslness. and In this nation the growth of popnlation Is at the rate of about 33 per cent, every ten years, while the Increase of business Is much greater. . Therefore, in view of'all these facts, w* declare: 1. That there must be no compromise of this question. AU legislation demonetizing silver and restricting the coinage thereof must be immediately and completely repealed by an act restoring the coinage of the country to the conditions established by the soundness of the Nation. 2. We assert that the only remedy for pure metallic financial troubles is to open the mints of the Nation to gold and silver on the equal terms at the old ratio of sixteen of silver to one or gold. Whenever silver bullion can be exchanged at the mints for legal tender silver dollaftweyth one hundred cents that moment 412. X grains of standard silver will bo worth I<X> cents; and as commerce equalizes the price of all commodities throughout the world whenever H2H grains of the standard silver are worth 100 cents to the United States they will be worth that sum everywhere else and can not bo bought for less. 3. That while the “Sherman act’’ of July 14,1890, was a device of the enemy to prevent the restoration of- the ootnage, and is greatl? objectionable because it continues the practical exclusion of silver from the mints and reduces it from a money metal to a commercial commodity, nevertheless its repeal without the restoration of free coinage would stop the expansion of onr currency required by our growth in population and business, widen still farther tne distance between the two precious metals, thus making the return to bhnetalism more difficult 4. We assert that the unparalled calamities which now afflict the American people are not due to the so-called Sherman act of 1890, and in proof thereof we call attention to the fact that the samo evil conditions now prevail over all the gold standard world. We are convinced that, bad as is the state of affairs in this country, it would have been still worse but for the Sherman act. 5. That we would call the attention of the people to the fact that In the midst of all the troubles of the time the value of the national bond and the national legal tender money, whether made of gold, silver or paper, has not fallen a particle, and we denounce the attempt to nncondition • ally repeal the Shetman law as an attempt to secure gold monometalism in flagrant violation of the last national platform of all the political parties. A lenthy exposition of the ideas of the committee was also reported for the consideration of the convention and was inanimonsly adopted. After a number of speeches by Mr. Donnelly, Cyclone Davis, of Texas, and Congressman Bryan, the convention, on motion of Gen. Warner, adjourned sine die.

GOVERNOR WAITE, OF COLORADO.