The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-09-16

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ise to " gold coin or silver coin o.
eoual val a to the same nominal sum in
rold. cu.not believe that this state
ment will 'e 1enied.
Congress saw & low veH.j ago that II
was going to be difficult to keep up the
equality or e uivalency OF the dollar in
the two met. Is; so it dropped one OF
the metals, ex 'ept as a subsidiary coin,
and left the II, tional standard OF value
embodied in the other, namely, in gold.
Now. the fact lat in 1873 we adopted
A device to prese we the constancy OF the
value of the dolla does not by any means
signify that we meant to change the old
obligation so that men to whom the Gov
(rnment owes money can lawfully be
aid in money OF different value.
By monetary changes abroad and by
mining developments mt home, 1t has
hrppened that to day, by reason OF the
fluctuations in the relative values OF the
two metals, silver has so depreciate'
that if it were II Nv legal standard pt
payment of all amounts the employees
and other credi ors of the Government
CO.. be comp, lied to accept seventy
ni.e cents as ull payment for every
dollar due the II, and thus they would
be swindled to the extent OF tw1nty-one
cents on the dollar by being compelled
to receive sill er rather than gold, or to
the extent of ten cents on the dollar by
uP wing them silvo. rather than Treasury
notes. And the most amazing feature
of the case j that some good men, hold
ing these TIaces of high responsibility,
do not see That this would be ruinous IN
its results the credit OF the nation.
Let it DE remembered that we are
solemnly bound by the act OF 1869 to
pay in co or its equivalent Dare any
man say that we can pay in this so
greatly teprecated silver and really
obey the law of equivalency which wc5
the basis and spirit of the statute Of
1862 lie denies the princir .e OF
euu..valen, who proposes to pay this
silver con-. He violates tle law who
violates the essential object OF it
equivalency.
Ii YOU insist on pay ...s-: :" silv"", Zen
I insist that your silver dollar must be
equivalent to your gold dollar. Do
gentlemen consent to maintain equlva-
lency in the two standards and then
pay in silver? Manifestly not. Their
incentive is gone the moment they are
asked to pay one hundred cents on the
dollar Some one has said that there
is an innate desire in the human mind
to get a chance to cheat somebody A
great minister once said that there were
two things in human nature which
when united always made iniquity com
plete-one was the desire to do dis
honorable thing, and the other was the
opportunity to do it. 1t has happened
in the fluctuations of these metals that
there is now a notable opportunity to
cheat several millions of men by adopt
ing the baser metal as the standard OF
payment, and thus accomplishing n
swindle Oh so grand q scale as to make
the achievement illustrious. By the
proposed measure one-fifth OF the enor-
nous aggregate of public and private
debts can be wiped out as with a sponge,
This nation owes ~, 2,l000O0000, and
private citizens of the United States prob
ably owe S2,500,000,000, possibly more.
At the present moment the relation of
debtor and creditor in the United States
involves nearly S5,000,000000 1t is
proposed by the amendment OF the gen
tleman from Indiana Mr.. LANDERs that
at one fell stroke one-tifth Of all this
enormous sum shall be wiped off, re-
pudiated, and that this process shall be
called honest legislation! Since | have
been in public life | have never known
any proposition that contained so many
of the essential elements of vast ras-
cality, of colossal swindling, as this.
l do not charge that such is the purpose
of the gentleman but such, in my
Judgment, is the effect of the amend
ment proposed But aside from the
political ethics involved in this scheme,
we should consider its effects upon the
business OF the country.
Gentlemen may remember the finan-
cial shock of 1887, the later shock of
1857, and that still later in 1873. Con-
ceive them all united in one vast crash,
and the financial ruin, the overthrow
of business would be light in compare
son with the shock which would follow
if the principle here proposed were
adopted. By principle improperly
called "Gresham's law" for it was
known as far back as the days of
Aristophanes, where two legal stand
ards Of value are put in circulation in
the same country, the less valuable al
ways drives out the more valuable.
Put in operation the provision now sug
gested, and all our gold coin will leave
the country us fast as it can be carried
abroad Do this and a revolution in
our monetary affairs utterly unparallel-
ed in the history of our nation will
follow. The gentleman from Penn
sylvania, Mr.. KELLEY,] in his re-
marks, gave the key to the philosophy
of this proposed legislation. Why"
said he, "what does man want to do
with silver when he can have some-
thing made of white metal that the
thief will not care to steal?" What is
the meaning of that? 1t is that he
wants money so cheap and so value
less that nobody will care to steal
it.
Mr.. KELLEY. / was speaking not
of money, but of household utensils.
Mr.. GARFIELD. 1t amounts simply
to the grim summary of Thomas Car
lyle, the theory of "cheap and nasty"
quantity at the expense of quality,
glittering sham at the expense Of real
ity.
The SPEAKER pro tmpoe. The
gentlemans time has expired
Mr. KELLEY. Does the gentleman
from Ohio mean to say speak of white
metal for money? If he does, he will
compel me to denounce his statement as
false.
Mr. PHILLIPS, or KANSAS.
Mr.. PHILLIPS, of Kansas. Mr..
Speaker, there are several features in
the bill reported from the committee
which it behooyes this House carefully