The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1892-06-17


places its stamp upon it, IL becomes as
good as gold, whether It be gold, silver
or paper
Sir, it is held by some that paper
money must have specie or bullion to
back IL to make 1t good, and this bill Is
based upon that idea. make no objec.
ton to it upon that ground, but, sir,
this is not absolutely necessary. The
Republic of Venice had nothing but pa
per money! issued upon the faith of the
government alone, for six hundred years,
and it was perfectly good. And, sir. did
not France only few years ago, when
she, by reason of war, became indebted
TO Prussia billion of dollars, after all
her specie was exhausted in the payment
of the same, issue five hundred millions
of paper money on the credit of the
government. alone? And she grew pros
porous and happy and paid her debt be-
fore il was due. am neither repudi-
ator nor an infiationist, but with all our
wealth and credit it seems TO me that we
can issue a. much money ON paper as we
really need-that is increase the actual
circulating per capita to its old standard,
and that il would be as good as gold,
but with silver equality restored, this,
in my judgment, would be unnecessary.
Some of our Democratic friends tell us
that this bill is all right, but It is bad
policy TO pass II now. am no friend to.
policy, because / regard 1t the natural
enemy of principle. Mr.. Clay, our great
commoner, once said that he would rath.
err be right than President. But aside
from this the emergency is upon us.
Our constituents are in distress, and |
feel that this bill will give great relief.
If Congress ignores the people, the peo-
pie might ignore Congress. / challenge
any gentleman on this floor to point TO
time when the Democratic party failed
TO strike blow for financial freedom.
But it is claimed that the President will
veto this bill If we pass 1t. That is no
excuse for us. Let us do our duty; let
us still be true to the people, to the his
tory, traditions and legends of the Dem
ocratic faith, and he can do ~ he pleases.
Again, it is said that If this bill passes,
our country will become the dumping
ground of all the silver in the world.
Sir, we had free bimetallic coinage from
1892 to 1878, period of eighty-one years.
and no calamity overlook us. Such ar
guments are chaffI sophistry and the
sheerest nonsense. The world has no
more silver than we can use in our bust
ness. Our experience for those eighty
one years prior to 1873, in my humble
judgment, hangs bow of promise in the
political sky which assures us that this
country will never be destroyed by a
silver deluge We can coin all that
comes, place our eagles upon it, and send
it forth with our fiat on It's mission of
mercy TO the laboring classes. by giving
them adequate return for their products
and labor we can enable them TO dis
charge their mortgages and debts. Then,
sir, the eagle engraved upon an honest,
constitutional dollar, containing 4l21
, grains, may be truthfully styled the en-
blem Of our liberty.
, II you continue 10 legislate 10 increase
! the purchasing power Of money by max.
/ ing IL scarce and consequently decrease
| the price Of labor and production, the
ultimate result will be the pauperism
!. and degradation Of our people and their
! lands will go where their money has
/. gone. Then we, like England, will be
D owned by relentless landed aristocracy
and, as their tenants, bear the yoke ol
y slavery and disgrace. The history OF
Z the world demonstrates conclusively that
y when the farming classes lose their land,
they lose their liberties. The republic
y may then exist In name, but in nam,
only. We should not only encourage
4 our farmers to hold their homes, but a
r far as we can We should enable them I,
z do so.
/ No nation, Mr.. Chairman, can main
o tain financial system based upon IL
n debt, as we have attempted to do undel
4 our miserable national banking system
by suffering them 10 issue money upon
u the bonds we owe them. Because, wher
G the bonds are paid the banks must cease