The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-06-20
FUNCTION ON rREE COINAGE.

FUNSTON ON FREE COINAGE.
The following is Mr.. Funston's
speech on the silver bill as reported in
the Congressional Record.
Mr.. Speaker, in my opinion no quee-
ton of greater importance than this
one has been before this House since
the great questions growing out of the
war were settled. Along by the side
of principles of human rights and the
maintenance Of the Government lies
its financial system. Our forefathers
believed in this and ingrafted into the
Constitution q clause comforting upon
the General Government the right to
coin money and regulate the value
thereof.
The Importance of the exercise of
this constitutional power of this time
seems to have impressed itself on the
mind of every gentleman In the House.
I know of no one who thinks nothing
should be done. I can not regard 1t as
a party question, nor do regard this
bill as q caucus measure of the Repub-
lican party, for at meeting of the Re
publicans of the House to consider this
bill it was understood and SO express
ed that the meeting was no more than
conference, and was not intended to
bind anyone.
The bill evidently Is a compromise
between the East and the West, and,
following the rule of other compromis-
es, is unsatisfactory to many. And in
fact, Mr.. Speaker, after listening to
kxx-. II hn
come to the conclusion that were all
who have apologized for the bill in ia
vor of recommitting 1t to the committee
with instructions to bring In free
coinage bill, we would have a free
coinage measure passed by this House
before another week. I, for one, am
ready and willing and shall at the
proper time vote to recommit this bill,
with instructions to bring in a free
coinage measure; and If gentlemen on
this side of the House who have been
apologizing for this bill will vote with
me we will have free coinage. Ap.
plause on the Democratic side].
Gentlemen on that side of the House
need not applaud, for recollect when
you had an opportunity to pass free
coinage bill your master, Mr.. Cleve-
land, stood over you with q club and
dared you to do it, and you did not.
[ Applause on the Republican side.
Now, Mr.. Speaker, the alarming
condition of the business of the coun-
try, arising not by reason of the tariff
nor overproduction, as has been claim
ed on this floor, but by reason of an
insufficiency Of currency, demands that
the minis be thrown open and every
ounce of available silver be coined into
dollars. The people are ex-
pecting this; they are demanding this;
aud mark my word, the man from the
West who stands out against 1t will
forever have hung his political "harp
on the willow tree"
The people of the West and South
and Northwest have taken up this
question i'm earnest and they mean that
every man in this body from these sec-
lions who opposes free coinage shall be
made to feel their power at the polls.
Mr.. Speaker, 1 am opposed to this bill
and shall accept it only when l have
found it impossible to get anything
better. The principles of it are wrong.
1t reduces silver from the rank it holds
as coin and stores it away as q COM
modify on which money is to be issued
at its value in gold.
Could anything be more humiliating
to the friends of the silver dollar than
to see Ii Invested of all Its functions as
money, and then stored away In the
basement of the Treasury, dishonored
and disgraced? That we are to have
"a SOC, 900 in paper put i'm circulation
monthly Is the pay we are to receive
for accepting discriminating terms.
But why this bin at all? am con-
fldent the people would be better sat
isfied with the present law If the full
amount of four millions, as provided
for by that law, were put in circulation.
Why not revoke altogether the SEN
tence Of condemnation against
silver and lift it out of its disgrace,
place it upon the same footing with
gold, and send it out among the peO-
pie as currency measured by its own
value, instead of being measured by
gold? Gentlemen talk about 1t being
a dishonest dollar, 72-cent dollar,
and SO forth.
BY what authority does anyone make
these charges? One dollar In silver
may not contain 100 cents i'm gold, but
it does contain 100 cents in silver. One
dollar I'm silver will purchase as much
of the neccessaries of life as dollar i'm
gold, and as much as 1t would at any
other time during the last hundred
years. One dollar in silver to-day con-
tains as much pure silver as 1t did in
1874, when il was made the coin of the
1t has never varied In its
weight of silver, while gold In 1884 was
changed in weight to make Ii conform
to the value of the silver dollar, and
thus, If precedent be law, showing
that silver should be the measure of
value.
Much of the time during the life of
the Government the silver dollar has
greater intrinsic value
than the gold dollar, and it was only
when legislsted against and deprived
of its functions as money that it and
gold parted i'm value to any great de-
gree. And why should not silver 60
down under such circumstances? If
by an act of Congress its use IS table
ware could be prohibited its value
would go still lower, and If its use for
all purposes could be destroyed 1t
would have no value whatever.
Things are valuable only for the pur-
pose they serve. Restore silver to its
normal condition as currency by the
side of gold and gold will have less
value because of its reduced purposes,
and silver will become more valuable
because of its additional purposes, and
thus the two coins approach each 9TH
so nearly in value that there would be
no observable difference.
And now, Mr.. Speaker, ifthe charge
be true that the silver dollar is only
worth seventy-twO cents, 1 ampuzzled
to know how the gentlemen who make
that charge are to explain TO their con-
stituents the justice Of forcing the Dor
70 wer to pay 100 cents for every ~