Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-02-19
THE FRIENDS OF SILVER
A Big Meeting Held at
Cooper Union.
THOMAS L. JAMES PRESIDING
Speeches by General Warner and
Hon. Tom Fitch in the Inter-
est of Bi-Metalism,

sociated Press Dispatches to the HERALD.
New York, February 1S.-A mass
meeting on the silver question was held
tonight at Cooper Union, under the aus.
pices ct the committee appointed by the
National Silver Convention at st. Louis,
last fall. General Edward Curtis, of San
Francisco, had the meeting in charge,
and with him were General Warner, of
Ohio, chairman of the national silver
committee, and ex-Assemblyman Thomas
Fitch, of Nevada. General Curtis called
the meeting to order, and ex-Postmaster-
General James was elected chairman.
Mr.. james made brief address. and
said he felt honored in being called to
preside over the meeting. His leaning,
however, always had been in the oppo.
site direction, but he was in favor of free
speech, and wished to hear both sides of
the silver question. The following
gentlemen were announced as vice. -presi-
dents of the meeting: Edward Pierre
pont, ex. Mayor Grace, John Thompson,
II. K. Thurber, ex-senator Warner
Miller, James B. Colgate, John Stratton,
G. F. Cox, F. O. Boyd and q. Burnes.
All these were on the platform except
GENERAL WARMERS ADDRESS.
General Warner was the first speaker.
He said nothing could concern the people
more than money. He presumed all
would concede, as q fact not TO be dis.
puted, that the present range of staple
commodities in the world was as in 1S4s
and 40, or before the gold discoveries in
California and Australia. Today to get a
dollar the farmer must give three meas
ures of wheat, and the manufacturers
three tons of iron to get as much gold sc
two measures would exchange for ia
1878. Is the change in the goods or in
the measure? There are the same num-
Der of grains in the gold dollar as in 1873.
A change in money may come by increas-
ing or decreasing it's value. or in increas-
ing or decreasing its weight. Take the
period OF twenty-one years previous to
1873, when the production of gold and
silver was at the rate of $162 900, 900.
During that period wealth increased as il
never did before. There was an outburst
of phenomenal prosperity. In 1878
prices began to fall, and they con-
tinued to fall, and have be-
come less than when gold was
discovered. From 1873 down to
now, Germany, Italy and the United
States have not only absorbed all the gold
that has gone into use during that period
but have compelled q redistribution of
the gold in other countries. In three
decades the population will be greatly
| increased. Where is the money to come
from to meet this increased demand d?
But this is the prospect the gold mag
mates hold out to US. Are we to stand
this? Are the debts of the world to be
discharged at the prices of products oi
the fourteenth century? No. Congress
will be called upon to right the wrong
done in 1873, by restoring the coinage of
silver. Why, that act of demonetizing
silver was no more justi6able than
piracy. Where is the right of one class
to change the measure of another? Why,
if it had been proposed to add another
metal to gold and eilver to cheaper
money, the people would have cried out
against the fraud. Is it any more justi-
fable to change measure in such way
that it would not be found out? 1t was
done not for the benefit of the world, but
for small minority.
TOM FITCH SPEAKS.
Hon. Tom Fitch followed General
Warner. He said there was no longer
any problem of honest finance, but it
was only rascality that seems to tangle
up the multiplication table. 1t is true,
ho kL.f i..z II
should be measured by money, and
money by it's quantity. Whatever
might be said of proper money imitation,
no instance could be recorded in all the
history of the civilized world where in
jury to industries was done by the in
creased coinage of gold and silver.
This is because it is imitation
which in the nature of things
would be benefit to the pro-
ducers. In 1865, at the conclusion of
the civil war the industries of the South
we're prostrated and the industries of the
North unsettled and perturbed. From
1865 to 1873 We were busy knitting up
the industries that the war had unrav-
eled, and creating and recreating homes
all over the country. There was no
reason for interference in this work,
Suere was no excuse Tor the demonetiZa-
ton OF silver. Explanations had been
offered, but the truth is gold monomet-
alism was jockeyed into the Federal
statutes. 1t was inserted there by fraud.
1t had been stated that the omission of
the mention of the silver dol
lar in the act of 1873 was the
result of accident. The manipulator.
not of the bill, but of the Congressional
engrossing clerks in 1873, was an adroit
and far-seeing scoundrsI. who was prob.
ably acting under the direction and in.
fuence of Bismarck and the German
Government. The growth of this nation
has been phenomenal, but its industries
had been captured by few as fast as
they had been created by many. 1t ia
slavery we have today in the North as
we'll as in the South. 1t ia created and
sustained by machine more powerful
aud complex than that which our armies
overthrew. Labor runs the earth and
hammers it into ponderous forms and
glittering blades. 1t is the toll of labor
alone that guards the nation from
poverty and want.
HE GIVES HARRISON SLAP.
Soua one in tha aI1dianca of ona ,o,,