, 1892-03-24
THE FIGHT WAKES WARM
Silver Men Renewed the Tus-
tie Again Yesterday.
Mr.. Pierce Eloquently Advo-
Gates Free Coinage,
While Its Opponents Predict
Its Direful Consequences.
House.

WASHINGTON, March %. = In the
house today Congressman Pierce of Ten
nessee, spoke on the free coinage of silver
In the course of which he said:
There are gentlemen of New England
who say if we pass the free silver bill,
New England will send IN unbroken
body of republican representatives to this
hall and that they will give up the force
bill. L say to you, gentlemen from New
England, that we democrats of the
south and west measure our action by
democratic rule, and Thomas Jefferson
having said that the cardinal principle of
democracy was a submission to the will
of the majority fairly expressed. we,
when the majority speaks, bow to it and
support the nominee and platform that
the majority presents. That is our kind
of democracy" Applause.
Pierce spoke OF the clouds of gloom
that lowered over the south when the
force bill passed the last house and went
to the republican senate; when the press
informed them that President Harrison had
pledged himself to use his official in
fuence to carry through that measure.
But, said Pierce, the clouds began to
break away and through the riffs we saw
the grand, glorious, brave, patriotic re-
publican senators of the west standing
between their party and the liberties of
the people. By their votes tie Force bill
was defeated, and L say to you, gentle
men from New England, that the same
men stand there today as a bulwark be
tween the republican party and the in
terests of the people. With this relI-
ance we do now force the bill and demand
this house to give to the people a full
measure of redress for the wrongs done
IN 1872" Loud applause on the demo
cratic side.
Lynch of Wisconsin, Stout of Michi-
gan. and Fitch of New York, earnestly
opposed the bill. McKeighan of Nebras-
ka said that before entering upon a dis
cussion OF the bill he wished to discuss
the minority's report, which had about it
the perfume of a banking house. The
report was begotten of ayarice and Its
f%ruition was the spoilation of industry.
The CRY about the 70 cent dollar was a de-
l;berate attempt to Stubborn public con-
science. A standard silver dollar was
made of one hundred cents. and the clap
trap about the 20 cent dollar was simply
an assault on the dictionary.
Free coinage WOULD W1De out tne ulS-
parity between the coin and bullion value
of a dollar and our silver dollar the world
over will be of the same value as the
metal in it. What the value of a dollar
would be as expressed in gold may be
another question, for competent students
insisted 1t would restore the old ratio
between gold and silver bullion. The
gentleman from Ohio (Harter) had sent
out notices to the Grand Army post Is
asking them to protest against the pass
age of the bill. He (McKeighan) had
been an old soldier and he could not forget
that he had enlisted when gold and silver
were the only legal tender currency.
He received deprecated paper and
never heard a howl from the fellows who
represented the banking interests of the
country. This dupIIcity did not fool old
soldiers. The people hat he McKeIghan)
represented we're not anarchists. They
were not opposed to the accumulation of
wealth, but they believed that wealth dis
tribution, If permitted to follow natural
laws, would be proportional to skill,
economy and labor employed. That man
must be blind who did not see that
wealth was becoming a great political
power in this country.