St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-11-28
The Wall That Goes Up from
the st. Louis COnven-
ton.
Augmented Coinage Of Silver
a Preliminary Step to Free
Coinage.
Senator Stewart, OF Nevada,
Makes a Distinctively Off
Hand Talk.
He Urges That CONGRESS- Be
Brought to Its Senses at
Once.

once.
| ST. LOUIS. Nov. 27.-Gen. Warner
1 welded his silver gavel at 1920 this
morning. and the silver convention got
TO business at once. A vast number of
resolutions covering the monetary and
coinage questions poured into the hop
per of the committee on resolutions to he
! properly reduced and coined into author
| itatiYe expressions of the convention.
Upon resolution advocating the pas
sage of law requiring national banks
To deposit bullion as security for circu-
| latiOn, Mr.. OLDER. of Colorado, made a
speech which aroused great enthusiasm.
He declared that such law would
make the national banks the friends
of silver, instead of, as now, its enemies.
Instead of circulation of SIS per capita,
! he derlared. this country needs 500 TO ell
| able the great mass of debt payers TO pay; 10
| enable the workingmen. the business man.
and all other buyers of goods to pay cash: to
| enable the millions OF mortgaged people 10
| pay their obligations. Unless speedy action
| is taken By congress financial reyol.
| ution will occur which will convulse the
! world. few men hold the struggling mill
| ions by the throat through notes and mort
| cages. and as means of general rel eff ap.
peal to every man that owes a dollar; 10
| every man that buys goods on credit. as well
as every voter, to use his influence with his
| congressman o have him favor silver bull
| ION deposit and. at least, a largely increased
| silver coinage
At the conclusion of Mr.. Olber's
| speech the secretary read a paper 10y
| John Thompson, vice president of the
Chase National Bank OF New York, adj
1 vOcating an augmented coinage for sill
| yer as a preliminary step to free coin
| age. The writer claimed that the bene-
tits of this augmented coinage would at
| once become so apparent that lit would
| pave the way to free coinage by acrla-
mati0n." The paper closes as follows:
| Therefore, / say the characterization of
| silver has been and is a wicked preference
| given to the creditor over the debtor classes,
| and it is this that is driving our middle
| classes into poverty and enabling million
| aires to multiply their millions. Nothing. in
| my opinion, will save oar people from d
| social revolution so surely as the full re-
| monetization of silver and giving If all The
| advantages now given to gold"
| Hon. r. P. Bland. of Missouri. was
then introduced. a Montana delegate
| proposed three cheers for 1.-THE hero of
| the silver coinage which were giveli
with will. Mr.. Bland's address was a
full history of silver and gold coin
| age in the United States. ''What
would be the effect of the free
coinage of silver by the govern
| ment of the United States" was the
TOPIC for discussian which MI. Bland
| spoke to. He declared that free coin
| aye would settle the silver question,
| very greatly relieve the debtor class.
| The speaker touched at some length
| tha -
| France and England and stirred the
| convention to enthusiasm when he said
| Il think am warranted in saving that
| taking into account our vast territory. our
| great wealth and demands for money for
| development. we are stronger, not only than
| France, but Germany and Great Britain III
| cluded. We need no aid or monetary league
| with them."
He declared that what was needed was
| courage in legislators to break lOosP
| from the monetary domination of Europe
| and stand upOn oIlr own resources. The
| next topic, "WOuid this country become
! the dumping ground for the surplus
| silver of the world, il there be any sur
! plus?" was the subject of paper by
Thomas Jordan, of New York.
Congressman Symmes made short
! speech and was followed by Senator
| Stewart, of Nevada, whose ringing re-
marks evoked frequent outbursts of ap-
pause. The senator's address was a
| distinctively of-liand talk, and seemed
to suit the delegates much better than
the printed papers to which
| they had previously listened.
Among other things Senator Stewart
said: ''During the deliberations thus
| far. have been profoundly impressed
with the fact that the question of money
is involved in these proceedings, and in
| order TO understand what ought to be
done we must confine ourselves to the
elementary principles that govern
| money.
| CIVILIZATION WITHOUT MONEY
is impossible. No progress whatever
has been made towards civilization
without the use of some medium of ex-
change. The individual by himself.
however strong he may be, cannot be-
come civilized or maintain civilization.
The most intelligent and strongest men
| amongst us, isolated in the will
derness, is comparatively una
bic to maintain civilization. We
must avail ourselves of the efforts,
labors and intelligence of others. There
must an interchange of commodities.
In early times and among the savages
efforts have been made to obtain some
medium of exchange. The people of
some nations have had cattle and
Others grain and others shells. and
the Chinese had the bark of the
mulberry tree stamped in a peculiar
way. The Africans have various kinds
| of tfinkctS. Nations have tried lead.
iron and copper. but finally all civilized
| and semi-civiliZed nations have decided
on silver. The use of silver is pre-
historic. The first we heard
of the use of silver was as money.
| Gold was first used as an Orna-
ment. By and by we find gold is used
as money. The two metals are peculiar
they are imperishable. Nothing can
destroy them. Their qualities are en-
| tirely similar. Consequently the two
metals, gold and silver. are termed the
| precious metals. For 5000 years or more
! they have been the metals out OF
which money could be manufactured.
| Now. ] say as long as a dollar can be
| manufactured out of given quantity of
| silver or a given quantity of gold, 1t
| makes no difference to the owner what
! bullion he has. With either he can get
dollar. and with that same dollar he
can buy the same amount of labor OF
| property. When Rome rose to
| GREATNESS BY CONQUEST,
she persistently gathered to herself the
treasure of the civilized world. The
| excavations in Spain bear testimony to-
day of mining operations conducted
1000 years ago that exceed anything in
modern times. Two thousand years
has not been able to hide the landmarks
which she then made In the
search of gold, or to efface
the history j.. of the cruelty
she perpetrated by her armies in en-
Shaving men in the mines of Spain. But
as she went on aeeumulating gold prop
erty was going up, the whole empire
was employed during several centuries,
and until the time of Augustus, when
she was i'm her zenith, it is eSti-
mated that she had from eigh-
teen hundred to two thousand
millions of money, gold and silver
in circulation in the Roman empire.
She, besides this. had a vast amount of
plate. Then came internal dissensions.
Mining ceased, the empire was rent In
twain, broke up in fragments and in
vaded. Money was borrowed and lost,