St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-02-19
FRIENDS OF WHITE METAL.
Advocates of Silver Coinage Asi-
tate Their Hobby.

Advocates of Silver Coinage Agi-
tate Their Hobby.
New YORK, Feb. 1S.-A mass meeting
on the silver question was held tonight
at Cooper union under the auspices of
the committee appointed at the national
silver convention at st. Louis last fall
to agitate the question Of free
coinage or the placing of silver on an
equal value with gold. Gen. Edward
Curtis, of San Francisco, had the meet
Ing in charge, and with him were Gen.
| a, j. Warner, of Ohio, chairman of
Ex-Assemblyman Thomas Fitch, of
Nevada. Gen. Curtis called the meet
ing. to order and Ex-Postmaster-Gen-
eral James was elected chairman.
MI. James made brief adj
dress. and said he felt hon
ored in being called to preside
over the meeting. His leaning, how
eyer, had always been in an opposite
| direction, or, in other words, he had
always believed that standard values
should be measured by gold yard
wished to hear both sides of the silver
| question. The following gentlemen
were then announced as vice presidents
of the meeting: Edward Pierre
pont, eX-Mayor Grace, John Thomp-
son. FL. K. Thurber, ex-senator Warner
Miller, James B. Colgate, John Straiton,
Z. +. Cox, f. 0. Boyd and u. Burnes.
All these were on the platform except
Messrs. Pierrepont. Grace, Miller and
Thurber. Gen. Warner was the first
speaker. He said that nothing could
concern the people more than money.
he presumed all would concede as
FACT NOT TO BE DISPUTED
that the present range of staple COM
modities in the world was as low as in
1S4S and 1S49, or before the gold dis
coveries in California and Aus
tralla. To-day to get dollar the
farmer must give three measures Of
wheat and the manufacturer three ton
OF iron to get as much gold as two mea-
sureS would exchange for in 1878. Is the
change in the goods or in the measure?
There are now the same number of
grains in the gold dollar as there
was in 1878. A change in money may
come by increasing or decreasing its
value, or in increasing or decreasing
its weight. Take the period of tWenty-one
years previous to 1878, when the pro-
lection of gold and silver was at
rate of $4,000 900. During that period
wealth increased as it never did before.
There was an outburSt of phenomenal
prosperity. In 1878 prices began to
fall, and then continued to fall
and became less than when gold was
discovered. From 1878 down TO now
Germany, Italy and the United States
have not only absorbed all the gold that
has gone to use during that period, but
have compelled redistribution OF the
gold in other countries. In three
decades the population will be greatly
increased. Where is the money to
come from for the increased demand?
The product of gold thirty years from
now will not supply each person with
25 cents worth with which to fill his
teeth. But this is the prospect the gold
magnates hold out to us. Are we to
stand this? Are the debts of the world
to be discharged at the prices of the
products of 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 unsuitable than
piracy. Where is the right OF
one class to change the measure
OF another? Why, if it bad
been proposed to add another metal to
gold and silver to cheaper money, the
people would have cried out against
the fraud. Is it any more justii-
able to change the measure la such
way that it would not be found
out. 1t was done not for the benefit of
the world but for small minority. Ex-
Warner. He said there was no
longer any problem of honest finance:
but that it was only rascality
that seems to tangle up the multi
plication table. 1t is truth, he said,
that the value of all things should be
measured by money, and money by its
quantity. Whatever might be said OF
paper money mutations, no instances
could be recorded in all the his
tory of the civilized world where an III
jury to industries was done by an in
This is because it IS an imitation
which in the nature of things
would be a benefit to its producers.
In 1865. at the conclusion of the war.
the industries of the South were pros
trated and the industries of the North
unsettled and perturbed, From 1866 to
1878 we were busy
KNITTING UP THE INDUSTRIES
that the war had unrayelled, aud Great
ing and re-creating homes all over the
country. There was no reason for ill.,
reference in this work. There was no
excuse for the decentralization of silver.
Explanations have been offered but the
truth is that gold recommendation was
jockeyed into the federal statutes. 1t
was inserted therein by fraud. 1t
has been stated that the omission of
mention OF the silver dollar in the
act of 1878, was the result of an ac-
cident. The manipulation, not of the
bill, but of the congressional engrossing
clerks in 1878 was an adroit and farsee-
ing scoundrel who was probably acting |
~ Fl.ANsf lnn RI ia, al
Bismarck and the German government. |
The growth of this nation has been phe- |
nomenal, hut the Industries have been |
captured by the few as fast as they have |
been created by the many. It's slavery |
we have to-day in the North as |
well as the South. 1t is created |
and sustained by machine more pow
erful and complex than that which our
armies overthrow. Labor runs the |
earth and hammers 1t into ponderous |
forms and glittering blades. 1t is the |
ton from poverty and want. Some one |
in the audience at one portion of Mr..
Fitch's speech asked how President
Harrison stood on the question. Mr.. |
Fitch in replying said that Mr.. Harrison |
had dlsregarded the silver planksin the |
platform on which he was elected. |
He might, he said, however, IN time |
give the people justice. 1t would |
be well. said Mr.. Fitch, for
all the future presidents of both |
parties to turn their eyes TO the West.
The new states would soon turn the
tables on New York as the pivotal state.
While New York might continue to
deal the cards, the new states would
take a prominent part in the shuttle.
Extreme Unction Administer