Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1892-03-31
SILVER DEBATE.
Silver Giants Lock Horns In the
House.
Mr. Bland Opens the Discussions In Fa vor
of His Bill For Free Coinsge-Messrs.
Williams, Harter and Others
Speak in Opposition.

In the national house of representa-
tives on the 22d Mr.. BANDS free coin
age bill being the special order, Mr..
Bland, chairman of the committee on
coinage, took the floor in favor OF the
measure.
This BILL" said Mr.. Bland, in open
ing the discussion. proposes to go
back a hundred years in the matter of
coinage. 1t was just hundred years
ago that the wise founders of this gov
eminent adopted what we call the
double standard They provided for
the coinage of gold and silver without
Limit at the minis of the United States;
that silver should be coined the same
as gold and should have the same ad-
vantages and the same recognition.
The silver dollar should consist of
81 400 grains of silver. precisely the
dollar of silver that is called for in this
bill This bill provides that gold aud
silver shall be coined at the ratio fixed
by the act of 1887, which was called
the ratio of 10 to l. or, more exactly.
it is Is. 90 to This bill provides that
gold and silver shall be equal at the
minis [Applause1.
''In order that this equality should
be preserved. it is necessary that silver
should be put on the same plane, in re-
gard to the issue of certificates of the
mint, as gold. To-day the law provides
that gold bullion may be taken to the
mint of the United States and certifi-
Gates issued to the owner. or that he
may be paid for 1t in money. It is not
required for its coinage"
Mr.. Bland said that he had agreed
to, and would propose later. an amend
ment to that portion of the bill pro-
viding that coin notes shall be issued
as rapidly as bullion is deposited. He
would move, at the proper time. to
amend by providing that the coin notes
shall be issued as rapidly as the minis
found it practicable to coin the bullion.
In arguing for a greater volume of
money, Mr.. Bland said that he would
admit that the refined system of credits
which has grown up in the country
does to a certain extent economic the
use of money, but in the end the day
of payment of these obligations always
comes and we must have money. In
1881, when we had passed bill for re-
funding the national debt, the national
banks of the United States sur
rendered SIS, 900, 900 into the nation
al treasury, for the purpose of
inducing veto from the PRESIDENT
threat which effected its purposez7and
the result of this withdrawal ofsSS1S. :
600, 900 from circulation put in terest up
in New York at the rate of one cent a
day. Notes and bonds are not money
they are conveniences The whole
fight over this issue is between the
capitalists, who demand interest, and
the people, who demand money instead
OF interest fGreat applause.
The gentleman denounced the peri
odic attempts for international confer
ences and international agreements
every time the free coinage ofEilver is
proposed. Are we to be ShackTed here
by the apathy of the governments of
other nations? Is our financial system
TO be regulated, not by our own ideas
of Justice and our own conveniences
but by the conveniences of other ma
tions? The moment this great govern
ment declares for the free coinage of
silver the other commercial nations,
too, will solve that question. Self
interest will COMPEL them to do so.
Inc restoration of silver means the
restoration of it the world over. Gold
and silver have been the servants of
civilization since civilization began
They are twin brothers and when you
sever the ligature both are dead. Be-
fore gold can leave this country there
must be some other form of money
restore silver if gold is taken
from circulation prices will go
down in proportion and that
necessitates money from abroad to pur-
chase commo titles here that go down
because of the contraction of money.
Everything will be cheap The man
who holds his gold is simply holding it
for silver; for silver viii take the
channels of circulation. Gold is ty-
rant. Gold won't tolerate any compe-
tition. He must dominate or he will
have nothing to do with your finances.
Let silver be coined once and see what
the result will be then. You bring
him to the level of theG9ommon people
of this country. Applause. To the
level of silver where he ought to be.
You may have to pay a little more if
you have the two metals at par, but
let us remember that as a rule when
money is plentiful prices are good
You may have to pay little more,
but labor, after all, is the only money.
Wall street is to-day demonetizing
labor and wheat and cotton. This bill
remonetizes them ALL"
Mr.. 3land then explained the last
section Of the bill providing that when
ever France opened her minis to free
coinage OF silver at ratio of 155S to 1,
the United States should adopt that
ratio. He called attention to the fact
that for seventy years France had by
hes open mints fixed the price on both
metals and kept them on an unvarying
parity of Is j. to l. To allay any APP
prenension that might arise because of
the French ratio being 15]1 to 1, while
ours was 10 to 1. it was proposed that
the United States should adopt the
ratio of 151E to 1 whenever France did
SO. Continuing, Mr.. Bland declared
that the action of the government of
the United States on the free silver
question had been an invitation to Eu-
rope to go on the gold standard. We
began silver's characterization in 1878
and in all our efforts to restore silver
we had been defeated by limitations
When a free coinage bill was passed in
the house in 1878 bv a two-thirds ma
Jority and sent to the .enate the same
idea of an international agreement was
injected into the question, and mean
while we provided for the purchase of
from s.. ooo,o 900 to 81. 600. 600 q month
The last congress passed an act to pur-