The clarion., 1886-04-21

The resolution passed the Senate BY
vote Of 42 to 20, and the House by
vote OF lS9 to 70. II is conclusive tha
the contract between the Goverumen
and the boadhoiders makes the boad
payable in either coin at the option o
the Government. And vet, in the fac
OF law so plain that q ayfaEing man
though a fool, could not err therein. il
administrations have arbitrarily assumed
that the bonds are payable only in gold
aud with gold only they have been pay
ing them, principal and interest. b,
this reckless disregard of the law anc
favoritism to privileged class the peopl,
who pay the taxes for the support OF tht
Government have been defraaded.
The opposers of the coinage of silver
are not agreed among themselves as tc
the proper remedy for the evils which
| they assert il Is producing. Some pro
| pose to suspend It's coinage temporarily
| thinking no doubt, that it Will be a long
stride toward permanent demonetiza
tlon. The Lohdon Economist, an in
| tiuential organ of British opinion
says that the argument that its
temporary suspension will force Englano
AMI Germany into bimetallism is with
cat foundation; that the effect will be
directly the re erse; that it will bt
accepted as an admission on the part o.
tue United States that bimetallism is a
failure. The proposition is shrewd
invention of the demonetizers, who b. :
lleye ii the backward step is once taken
1t viii never be retraced.
Others propose to add more bullion
to the silver dollar, in order, as they
assert, to equaiize its value with the
gold dollar. A difficulty in the way OF
this proposition springs out of the nature
of contracts, which make the existing
silver dollar a fixture.
The public debt of the United States
in round numbers Is 81 500, ,000, 900, TO
say nothing of the billions OF State
county, mun;cipa and private indebted
ness. Assume that the silver dollar l.
worth but so cents, and add twenty
cents to it, and the national debt will be
increased $500, 900, coo. TO that extent
the tax payers world be robbed.
1t was said by Alexander Hamilton
that ''in fixing money standard
government cannot depreciate the exist
ing measure OF contracts 10 the injury
of creditors, nor appreciate them to the
detriment of debtors" If the com
mercial values of the two metals must
be equalized, let the gold dollar be
decreased. Gold has gone up Silver
has not gone down. 1t has the same
purchasing power that it always had,
its unfriendiy treat
ment by the constituted authorities of
the land.
Mr.. BLAND. 1t has greater purchas
ing power than ever before.
Mr.. BARKsDALE. / will accept the
statement of my friend from Missouri.
There is no man whose knowledge of
this subject is superior to his.
Even If new relation was established
between the two metals, there is no
certainty that it would be permanent, or
that the nations that had discarded
silver would restore it to it, monetary
functions.
| apprehend that while the addition
of more grains to the dollar would un-
settle values, defraud the debtor class,
discredit the silver coin already in cir
culatioD, and throw the currency into
disorder, it would not produce per
manent equation III the commercial val
ue of the two metals. History shows
that there have been constant fluctua-
tiOn in their values In Greece, centu-
rles before the Christian era, the relation
of gold TO silver was | TO 10. In the
paliay days of Rome, when her eagles
flew where thev listed, the relation was
/ to Is. In England it was to 15A. In
France and the Latin countries it is |
to Ms. In Mexico and the Central
American States it is / TO l6 la the
Asiatic countries the relations are va
ried, but in no instance is the difference
so wide. In the United States, during
the first half century of the Govern
ment, under the law framed by its
founders, it was l to 10. 1t is nor l to
10. And finally the American dollar of
4I24 grains standard silver, is the equal
in weight and fineness to the dollar
coined by any other nation on the globe
Mr.. Speaker, / will support the bill
which aims to bring back the Govern
ment to the position from which it de
parted prior to 1873 the coinage OF
both metals on equal conditions. Ma
ture has adapted them both to the uses
of money, and mankind IN every age
and cline, with unerring instinct, has
oDeyed her law. As money, they have
been the contemporary of all ages.
They were the metallic money of the
American colonies; and when the Union
was formed they became the money OF
the Constitution, as that instrument and
the statutes founded upon it attest. The
trainers of the law of 1892 designed
tha. no preference should be given to
either metal. The country rested con
tent with ,he plan of the fathers, until
the Bondhoiding Directory and other
interested classes conspired 10 overthrow
it. To the opinion of the gentleman
from Maryland Mr.. Findlay], that
gold is king" l will oppose the testi-
mony of the ages, and the example of
our fathers, all expressed in the incon
troveTtible statement of an eminent
writer upon monetary science, before
hose researches the learning of that
distinguished gentlemen will pale its
Intellectual fires, that the history o. ali
ages, and that science whose inevitable
laws human society strictly observes,
though no pen has formulated them,
prove that gold and silver are equally
good. Mankind has ever used both, and
will ever use both, despite local and
temporary exceptions" Gold may be
crowned king by the plutocracy and
privileged classes OF Europe, but in this
country of free thought, free speech,
and free action, public opinion, like a
thunderbolt, will shiver its scepter to
atoms. Applause.