Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1892-09-29

my constituents, irrespective of party or
political utilization. have been for the
free coinage of silver from the outset, and
I am free to say that after having OBJ
served the operations of the act of 1878, I
am more than ever convinced of the wis
dom of that legislation and of the futility
of the accusations by which it was assailed.
The people Of the country that represent
hare lost their reverence for gold. They
have no longer any superstition about
coin. Notwithstanding all the declara-
tions of the monometalists; notwithstand
ing all the assaults that have been made
by those who are in favor of still further
Increasing the value of the standard by
Dhich their possessions are measured, they
know that money is neither redlth nor cap
ital nor value, and that it is merely the Gre
alton of the law BY tOhich all these are
estimated and measured. We speak, sir,
about the volume of money and about its
relation to the wealth and capital of the
country.
Let me ask you, sir, for moment, what
would occur if the circulating medium
we're to be destroyed. Suppose that the
gold and silver were to be withdrawn sud-
denly from circulation and melted up into
bars and ingots and buried in the earth
from which they were taken. Suppose
that all the paper money-silver certif-
Gates, gold certificates, national bank notes,
treasury notes stacked in one mass
at the end of the Treasury building and
the torch applied to them and they were
to be destroyed by fire and their ashes
spread-like the ashes of Wyckliffe-
upon the Potomac, to be spread abroad,
wide as its waters be. What would be the
effectf Would not this country be t0orth
erdctly as much as 1t is toddyf Would
there not be just as many acres of land, Just
as many farms, as many days Of labor, as
much merchandise and as much property
Improved and unimproved, as there is to-
dayf
The result would be that commerce
would languish; the sails of the ships
would be furled in the harbors the great
trains would cease to run to and fro on
their errands; trade would be reduced to
barter; and the people finding their ener-
gies languishing, civilization itself would
drop, and we should be reduced to the con-
dition of nomadic wanderers upon the
primeval plains.
Suppose, on the other hand, that, instead
of being destroyed, all the money in this
country were to be put in the possession
of single an-gold and paper and
silver and he were to be moored in mid
Atlantic upon raft with his great hoard,
or be stationed in the middle of the Sa-
hara desert without food to nourish or
shelter to cover, or the means of transport
tation to get away. Who would be the
richest man, the possessor of that gigan-
tic treasure, or the humblest settler upon
the plains of the West with dug-out to
shelter him and with corn meal and water
enough for his daily breadf
Doubtless, Mr.. President, you search the
Scriptures daily, and are therefore familiar
with the story of those departed politi-
clans of Judea who sought to entangle the
Master in His talk by asking Him if it was
lawful to pay tribute to Cesar or not. He,
perceiving the purpose that they had in
view, said unto them: "Show me the trib-
ute money" and they brought Him
penny. He said: "Whose is this image
and superscription?" And they replied,
"C@sar's." And He said: "Render unto
Cesar the things that are Cesar's, and unto
God the things that are Gods"
l hold, Mr.. President between my
thumb and finger, a silver denarius, or
"penny," of that ancient time, bearing
the image and superscription of Cesar.
1t has been money for more than 20 CEN
turtles. Imperial Cesar is "dead and
turned to clay" He has yielded to a
mightier conqueror, and his eagles, his
ensigns and his trophies are indstinguish-
able dust. His triumphs and his victories
are a school-bOy's tale. Rome herself Is
but memory. Her marble porticos and
temples and palaces are in ruins. The
sluggish monk and the lazy lazzaroni
haunt the senate houses and the Coli
scum, and the derisive owl wakes the
echoes of the voiceless forum, but this
little contemporary disc of silver is money
still because it bears the image and super
scription of Caesar. And, sir, it will CON
tinue to be money for 20 centuries more,
should it resist so long the corroding
canker and the gnawing tooth of time.
But if one of these pages here should take
this coin to the railway track and allow
the train to pass over ii, in one single in
slant its functions would have disappeared
and it would be money no longer, because
the image and superscription of Caesar
would have disappeared.
Mr.. President, money IS Ue cIcdfoH ~
ldio, and the American people have learned
that lesson; and they are indifferent to
the assaults; they are indifferent to the
argument; they are indifferent to the as
pensions which are cast upon them for
demanding that the tdio of the United
States shall place the image and super
scription of Cesar upon sirer enough and
gold enough and paper enough to enable
them TO transact without embarrassment,
without hindranee, without delay and with
ont impoverishment their daily business
affairs, and that shall give them measure
of values that will not make their belong
ings the sport and the prey of the specu-
lators.
Mr.. President, this contest can have but
one issue. The experiment that has be-
gun will not fail. 1t is useless to deny
that many Irregularities have been toler-
ated here; that many crimes have been COM
mitted in the sacred name Of liberty; that
our public affairs have had scandalous
episodes to which every patriotic heart
diverts with distress; that there have been
envy and jealousy in high places; that
there hare been tredcherous and lying plat
forms; that there have been shallow COM
promises and degrading concessions to
popular errors; but amid all these disturb
ances, amid all these contests, amid all
these inexplicable alterations, the path OF
the nation has been steadily onward.
At the beginning of our second century
n M W