St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-08-28
SHERMAN ON FINANCE
The Senior Ohio Senator
Makes His First Talk at
Paulding.
Comparing the Republican
and Democratic Silver
PlankS.
Honest John" Has No Use
for Free Coinage OF
Silver.
ALook Backward to the Time
Of His Official Ae-
ton.

L A I4DlNNg Oss nus 80 NSNAi''NS-
Sherman arrived in the city from Van
Wort this morning and held a reception
all the forenoon. The clouds portended a
rain. but by noon fully 1000 people had
arrived in the village. This is Senator
Sherman's opening speech of the CAM
paign, and many visitors from other
cities were also here. At 3 O'Clock,
when Senator Sherman began to speak,
full 5000 people were on. the grounds.
In his speech Mr.. Sherman said:
1t has been said by many persons of
both political parties that this IS to be
campaign Of education. l believe 1t
ought to be so, for the leading questions
involved are purely business questions
affecting material interests common
alike 10 men of all parties. Upon two
great measures OF public policy the
Republican and Democratic par
ties have made a formal and
distinct issue. and these are to be
submitted to the people of Ohio IN No
vembeT, and your decision will have
marked effect upon public opinion
throughout the United States. One IS
whether the holder of silver bullion
NAV deposit it in the treasury Of the
United States and demand and
receive for it one dollar of coined
money for every 81 grains OF
fine silver deposited. The other
question is whether the policy of taxing
imported goods by the government of
the United States embodied i'll our eX-
isting tariff law, known as the McKin-
ley tariff, is a wise public policy, or
whether 1t should be superseded by
what is called tariff for revenue only,
as embodied in what is known as the
Mills bill. which passed the house OF
representatives and rejected by the
senate. Now these measures affect
directly the business interests, the
life and work and labor and prop
city of every inhabitant of the United
States, from the humbleSt toiler to the
greatest capitalists in all the multiplied
EmploymentS of human life, and every
grade of human industry. As one of
your agents or servants, have given to
Them such careful study that | have
made up my mind, but my
opinions are of no import
Rnce unless they are sustained
by the people, the final aIbiter and
Judge of all questions of public policy
arising under the constitution of the
United States.
The Money Question.
Now, you all know that the money in
circulation in the United States-all Of
it's good, as good as gold. 1t will pass
everywhere and buy as much as the
same amount of any other money in the
world. But, and here comes
the first difficulty, the silver in
the silver dollar is not worth as much as
the gold in the gold dollar. The nickel
in that coin is worth but a small part of
five cents worth of silver. And the
copper in the cent is not worth One-fifth
of the nickel in five cent-piece. How
then, you may ask me, can these coins
be made equal to each other? The an
swer is that coinage is a govern
ment monopoly, and though the
copper in five cents is not
worth a nickel, and the nickel in twenty
pieces is not worth silver dollar, and
the silver in SIG is not worth S16in gold,
yet, as the government coins them, and
receives them, and maintains them at
par with gold coin, they are, for all
purposes, money equal to each other,
and wherever they 90, even into for
eign countries, they are received and
paid out as equivalents.
The reason of all this is that the
United States limits the amount of all
the coins TO be issued except gold,
which. being the most valuable, is
coined without limit. If coinage of all
these metals was free, and any holder
of copper, nickel, silver or gold could
carry it to the mint to be coined, we
would have no money but copper and
nickel, because they are
The Cheaper Metals,
worth less than one-fourth of what, as
coin, they purpOrt to be. For the same
reason, if the coinage of silver was free
at the ratio of sixteen of silver to one of
I 4 1 IL,
sixteen ounces of silver are not worth
one ounce of gold. A holder of both
silver and gold would take his silver
to the mint and get a dollar tJr
every 81 grains. He would sell
his gold in the market or export it
and get % per cent more dollars for
gold than he could at the mint. As a
matter of course he would not take his
gold to the mint. Now, fellOw-citizens.
with these simple facts existing, known
to you all, wish to state the precise
issue on this money question between
the Republican and Democratic parties
in Ohio made at their recent state con-
ventiOns. The Republican party de-
clareS that:
Thoroughly believing that gold and silver
should form the basis of all circulating me-
dunn, we indOrse the amended coinage act of
the last Republican congress, by which the
United States is added to the currency of the
people"
Under the act referred to the United
States is now purchasing monthly more
than the entire product of silver bullion
in the United States. and all this bull
ion is represented in our currency by
either silver coin or legal-tender treas
urv notes of the United States. We eX-
pended under THIS act in the purchase
ii 70 hi
year. SO, 1911, S2l, and issued that
amount of treasury notes which
are now in circulation. We thus pro
vided an increase of currency equal to
or greater than, the increase of business
and population of the United States.
The Democratic Plank.
What is the Democratic position?
will read it precisely as stated in thei!
Ohio platform:
I'VE denOunce the demonstration OF silver
IN 1873 by the party then in power as an in
jquitous alteration of the money standard il
favor of creditors and against debtors, tax
payers and producers, and which. by shutting
off one of the sources of supply of primary
money. operates continually to increase th(
value OF gold. depresS prices, hamper indus
try and dispaTage enterprise and we demand
the reinstatement of the constitutional stand
ard Of both gold and silver. with the equa
right of each TO free and unlimited coinage.
Let me first correct some statements
in this paragraph. The act of 1913 wa:
not the act of the party then in power
but it was the act of all parties. 1t was
voted for by Republicans and Demo-
Gratis alike after full consideration fol
three years in congress. 1t was voted
for by every representative from the
silver states. 1t substituted the
trade dollar for the old sill
yer dollar which had not beer
yer coins with which we are familiar
Neither gold nor silver was in circula
ton in 1873, but only greeHDacks anC
fractional notes. In 1875 the Repub
lican party, by a party vote. provided
for the resumption of specie payments
first by substituting silver coin 70
the fractional notes, and OH Jan. l. 1879
by the redemption Of greenbacks il
gold and silver when demanded
coined for thirty years. This was don,
at the request of the legislature of Cali
fOTDi9 and on motion of lie cQDatOrc