Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-04-01
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MIR HEMPHILL ON SILVER.


In the debate on the Silver question, in
the House of Representatives, on the 10th
ultimo, the following proceedings are re-
ported:
Under the special order the limited de-
bate on the adverse report on the Free
Coinage bill was begun, and the floor was
taken by Mr.. James, of New York, in oppo-
sition to the bill.
Mr.. James promised hisspeech with what
he stated were few words of personal ex-
PLANTATION. People were wont to look to
lawyers and professors and political leaders
for legislation on financial questions instead
of to business men, such as he was. The
result of this looking to lawyers, professors
and political leaders was that now the coun-
try was in slough. The Car of State was
very nearly ditched. This was not ques-
tion of doing something great; it was a
question of getting out of something bad.
It was not question of making good time
it was question of getting the wheels out
of the slough; it was question which busi-
ness men ought to solve. If the business
men had dealt with the silver question, the
team of the State would not have been STALL
ed in the mire as it is now. They should
have spoken out and insisted that their
advice should be followed. They should
Join their forces for the judicious handling
of great questions. The so-called demorali-
zation of silver had been from the start, a
great blunder. Coinage under the Bland
act should be suspended, for continuance
of that coinage was but organized chaos in
the United States. The coinage of silver
under the Bland act had been from the
beginning, and was now, colossal business
blunder; and he believed that had it not
been for the passage ofthat bill, silver would
have been remonetized long ere this-both
in the United States and Europe.
He went on to argue that Germany,
France and England were in condition
where little pressure, such as the suspension
of coinage in this country, would force them
into adopting bi-metalism. For the United
States to fix day for the suspension OF
coinage, unless there was an international
concurrence before, that time was sum-
mons which European statesmen could ig-
more.
Mr.. Seymour, of Connecticut, followed on
the same line.
Mr.. O'Donnell, of Michigan, branched off
from the coinage question to advocate
proposition to encourage the production OF
sugar in this country by system of bounties.
Mr.. Hemphill, ofSouth Carolina, said that
the question before Congress was as to the
best method of restoring gold and silver to
a parity as money metals, and he advocated
as means to this end the appointment OF
q commission to secure an international BIZ
metallic union. The present standard OF
silver dollar had neither dollars worth OF
silver in it, nor was it promise to pay a
dollar in the future. Every time that the
Government bought so cents worth of silver
and stamped it as dollar it stamped false
hood on the face of its own coin, and robbed
the man to whom it was paid. Congress
should not require the Secretary of the
Treasury to perpetrate this gross injustice,
and by forcing silver on the country even
tually put gold at premium and drive it
out of circulation.
Mr.. Tillman, of South Carolina, suggest
ed that greenbacks, national bank notes,
silver and gold alike paid debts and taxes.
Mr.. Hemphill replied that greenbacks
and national bank notes did not pretend
to be real money, and no man accepted
them as such. They were promise to pay
in the future. But man who took a gold
dollar or silver dollar had the right to re-
ly on the honesty of the government, and
when he took silver dollar worth 80 cents
he was fooled thereby. This country had
never been double standard country. The
people had been prosperous and happy in
the past and this had been confessedly un-
der the single standard of value. There
could be neither justification nor excuse in
forcing upon the country monetary policy,
directly in the teeth of past history, and
one which threatened to unsettle value, dis
courage business and stop the wheels OF
progress simply for the purpose of main
tanning financial delusion among the peo-
pie.
He would be glad to see two kinds of coin
floating together at par at a proper ratio,
but if the country must have gold or silver
alone, he much preferred the former.
There was sl2 gold per capita in the coun-
try against 81 in silver. The United States
had been confessedly gold using country
since 1884, and no reason could be assigned
for such change in policy as would reduce
our metallic money to One-fOurth of its pres
ent value.
If this were done what would become of
the great debtor class? Had any plan been
suggested by the silver men by which
this policy could make one dollar do the
work Of four? If farmers were to be paid
for their cotton in silver worth so cents,
the day Tor their prosperity was in his
opinion, forever gone. The relative value
of silver and gold would be fuctuating
in the future, as in the past. The cot
ton grower must make allowance for that.
By the time the deduction was made from
the value of cotton for freight, insurance,
weighing, the difference in value between
silver here and gold in Liverpool, there
would be little or nothing coming to the
men who soldit. He asked the gentlemen
who represented Southern constituents to
consider we'll before they adopted policy
which turned the agriculturalist over to the
tender mercy of money sharks. A goo
deal had been said about the stock jobbers
of Wall street. If there was one thing
they delighted in it was fluctuating mon
ey market. The great fortunes of Wall
street had been made almost entirely when
gold was at premium and when the bus
iness of the country was conducted on fuct-
uating currency. That had been the key
note of the millionaires. Referring to the
RI ffiru1tx, of oatfipo tho cfap6 ar6 dollar in