The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1892-04-14
THE SILVER DEBATE.
Nuggets from Mr.. Harters Speech in
the House March 20.

the House March 20.
Mr.. Harter.-It is increditable that thi
Democratic House will by it's votes a
the close of this debate pass this Blanc
Bill and turn against the poor, the help
less, and the most deserving in the land
two thirds of whom are its own voters
and who look to it, next to God, as thei
friend and protector
/ have heard it charged from the Re
publican side of this House that we are
going to so vote in order that we may be
returned to this House. / want to come
back here as badly as any of you, but
will permit my tongue to be torn out be
fore it gives its assent to measure SC
infamous.
But when we turn our eyes to see the
moving spirit back of this bill, we dis
cover it to be public plumber, pure and
simple. The silver ring and the lobby
see that the United States is buying for
90 cents what it turns out in coin at 129
cents, and they covet the apparent profit
of about $40, 100000 per year resulting.
They know as we'll as Mr.. Bland ought
to know q credit him with gross ignor-
ance as the only excuse for his attitude),
as well as you know and as we'll as
1 know, that practically all of the Ameri-
can silver product goes into the money
stock or supply of the nation, and at the
best the Bland Bill would only take from
the public Treasury this enormous an>
nual sum which, with interest, would
swell in ten years to probably 1890, 00G,-
600 and possibly to $3.50, O0O,O 600, and pour
it into their pockets. They would not
| let this Government have their silver
when it could be sold for trif1e more
than the Mint rate, and now raise the
howl that characterization in 1873 did
| them injustice. Let us see.
! In 1884 the people, by their Govern
ment, said to the silver owners and pro-
ducers: eve will buy all the silver you
bring us at 1920 per ounces" but be-
cause they could get sometimes $50,
| sometimes perhaps 1873 for it, they, never
in the thirty nine years from 1884 to 1878,
brought in practically any to the Cows
decided to withdraw it's offer and close
| it's Mint to them. Now, when their
other customers declined to buy and
| their silver is worth but 80 cents. they
| demand that the Government shall
again step in and practically buy their
unlimited supply of silver (worth really
much less than 80 cents per ounce at
1879 cents, and in doing so wreck the bus
mess of the country and destroy the
comfort and happiness of its people.
/ To describe this as hoggishness is to
| SANDER that useful animal; it resembles
! the greed of Satan rather than the in
stinct of any dumb animal we know of.
They are demanding for what actually
| costs them less than Al cents, and which
| sells nowhere in the world for more than
| II cents, full 100 cents worth of the
property, earnings, or savings of their
fellow citizens, and the Democratic party
is asked to help them catch, bind, and
plumber the people. If it does, and
Heaven blasts it with its thunderbolts,
or God withers it with His curse, the
penalty will scarcely equal the crime.
But see what we have already done
for these people since 1878. We have
bought from them, made market for
and established a constant, fictitious,
and unnaturally high price for 1892, 435, S96
ounces of fine silver at a cost of 105.14
per ounce, so that the loss of the Trea
sury on this, even at the present inflated
market price, is now over $57, 900, and
if the Treasury statements were to show
this silver bullion as an asset, at the
market instead of it's cost value. our
Treasury would appear as it actually is
to-day, bankrupt.
Worse than all this, if we were to at
tempt to sell this silver bullion, stuff
which even Austria, Romania, and India
do not any longer wish to have, as the
basis of their monetary system, the $751;,
O0O, 600 less would be increased to about
$133, OOO, 900, for in what part of the world
can 1892, 435, 1896 ounces of silver, or any
considerable part of it, be sold for 70
cents an ounce, or, indeed, for any price
within reason?
u6 DiduO Dill, Wllll0 CdllCo IlCVN
coinage bill, is really bill compelling
the nation to buy all the silver this ring
can get together, no matter how mucn
it may prove to be, at 1920 per ounce.
1t is easy to see this would utterly and
hopelessly bankrupt the country, and
might in tho end create revolution and
intimately change the form Of our Gov
eminent.
THE GROWING IMPUDENCE OF THE Sill.
YER RING.
But the most singular thing about it
all is the bTazen impudence with which
these bonanza Senators and mine owners
and the great silver ring of the far West
advertise the fact that they do not want
| any silver dollars themselves, and will
| not take any, or put themselves where
| they may be forced to do SO. In Califor-
MIA they have made the taxes payable in
gold.
| In a number of far West States they
| will not let an Eastern insurance COM
| pany do business in them unless it has a
paid up capital in gold. They have also
arranged their commercial business and
| forms Of contracts so that gold alone is
good payment. Loans of money, made
by the chiefs of the silver ring, are re-
payable in gold. At their banks you
will find yourself unable to borrow
dollar unless you make your note paya>
BILE in gold. Only last week, in the
House, delegate from one of these sill
yer regions stated publicly that his Ter
ritorial Government could save $4,000
per year on interest alone by making its
bonds payable in gold and l hold in my
hand here lot of notes representing the
current business of six different States
and Territories, all of which call not for
dollars, but for United States gold-coin
dollars.
In other words, these people are ready
to cheat YOU out of house and home and
give you this kind of notice, yet we are
g., hon nd