The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-08-07
the interest to-day than it took five years


ago.
How is the country benefited by nom-
inal reduction of ten millions of inter-
est, when the reduction has been accom-
plished only by adding fifty per cent: to
the amount of labor or property which it
takes to pay it2
The effect of gold prices for labor is
then discussed with much force and clear
ness, and it was shown that gold prices
reduced the price of labor one-third on
that of bi.metalic prices. General Ewing
said:
Fellow-citizens, when the Republican
party started to lead the people by con-
traction to the promised land of specie
payments it never talked about gold
prices and resumption, but only of "spe-
Gle payments" which meant resumption
in silver and gold-each equally the dol
lar, the unit, the full legal tender. Con-
traction of currency and shrinkage of
values were not thought by anybody to
be intended by the stealthy manipula-
tors of our currency to bring prices be-
low the bi-metalic level. But the de-
monetization of silver in Germany and
the United States, and the initial steps of
demonstration by the States of the
Latin Union, practically destroyed the
chief part of the silver half of the cur
rency of the great nations, and caused
such increased demand for the gold half
that the purchasing power of gold rose
between 1874 and December 1878, lit
tie over so per cent. throughout the COM
mercial world. In other words, the gold
prices of land, labor and property
throughout the world sunk over 81 per
cent. Our people, therefore, were not
led back by the resumptionists to the BIZ
metallic level of prices, but in place of
the double standard the single gold stan
dard was set up, and thatso increased in
value that it cost any man 80 per cent.
more in land for labor or products to pay
in gold debt of hundred dollars in
December, 1878, than it would have cost
in 1874. That is, so per cent. was ad-
ded by the demonetization of silver to all
the debts and all the taxes payable by
the people of the United States. I do
not make this statement at random, but
from tables of elaborately prepared each
year BY the "New York Public" the
highest authority in the United States on
prices of commodities. have made the
same statement twice OH the floor of Con-
gress, and no man has questioned its
accuracy.
Now, consider, fellow citizens, the ef-
feet of adding so per cent. to the bur-
den of all the debts and taxes in the
United States. have shown in speech
made in Congress on the 22d of Februa-
ry last that the public and private debts
of the United States which have been
carried ever since 1874 and still remain
unpaid amount to little less than S10,-
000,000,O00. This demonetization of
silver and consequent enhancement of
gold has added, therefore, in the neigh
borhood of S5,0C0,000,000 to the debt
burdens of the people, and as our taxes
for national and local governments
amount to about SS00,000,000 a year, it
has also added $500, 100000 a year, in
practical effect, to the tax burdens of the
people.
Do you wonder that every man who is
in debt at all, and every man who has to
pay taxes, groans under the weight of
these increased obligations? When you
sell your pork at S2.25 a hundred, your
labor at ninety cents day, and other
things in like proportion to pay debts
and taxes, you are enjoying the blessings
of silver demonetization.
Finally, the Republicans claim popu-
lar endorsement because of their avowed
purpose to have no further change in the
finance legislation of the country. They
tell US to let the finances alone, that agi-
tation will only produce mischief, and
that everything is lovely as the laws now
stand.
Fellow.citizens, it is idle to talk about
either party letting the finance question
alone. The Republican party does not
intend to do it. Did it favor the present
law providing for even q very limited
coinage of the old silver dollar? No,
the great mass of the party resisted it to
the utmost. The President vetoed it,
and it was only carried through per-
sistent popular agitation by the Western
and Southern Democracy and the Ma
tionals, before which portion of the
Republican party weakened and voted
for the bill.
Mr.. Sherman says in his last annual
report that the law providing for the
coinage of two millions month cannot
stand without in time overthrowing the
exclusive gold standard. He has pre-
vented the result heretofore by boarding
the coined silver as resumption fund
but he knows there is a limit to the
amount of money which the people will
suffer to remain piled in the treasury,
and that the day will come when they
will demand that very large proportion
of that boarded silver shall be applied
to the extinguishment of the bonded
debt, and in that way the country will
be forced from the gold level of prices to
bi-metalic level. Therefore he says
that the time will soon come when this
coinage of the old silver dollar must
cease. Neither he nor his party has any
intention to permit values to rise above
the low gold level. Hence the question
must yet be settled whether we are to
have and maintain the gold standard
only or restore the bi-metalic standard
by the unlimited coinage of silver.
The two great parties are squarely at
issue on this question. The Warner bill,
which gave the whole profits of coinage
to the government, but provided for
placing silver exactly on par with gold
in respect of unlimited coinage, and of
the issue of certificates for silver bullion,
passed the House after an intense and
protracted struggle, every Democrat but
seyen voting for the bill, and every Re
publican but four voting against it. That
bill will pass the Senate next December
in spite Of the opposition of half dozen
national bank and gold standard Demo
Gratis. The almost complete unity of the
Republican party in the Senate and
House against the bill, with Mr.. Sher-
mans known hostility to it, assures a
veto of that great measure Of relief. The
contemplate cowardice of the Republi-
can party of Ohio in failing to say
word on this great question is at once an
oy;depce that the neonle demand the re-