The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-09-12

uA0O u0OLS, SlN0 liz q SbdIlOd4O "hANA
depreciates and give me prices which
rise.
"Of all conceivable systems of cur
rency thatsystemi is ~assuredly the worst
which gives you a standard steadily,
continuously, and indefinitely apprecl-
ating, and which, by that very fact,
throws a burden on every man who de-
sires to promote the agricultural or in
dustrial welfare of his country, and
benefits no human being whatever, ex
cept the owner of fixed debts in gold"
It is a well known fact that greater
fluctuations in the supply of gold have
been experienced in the history of the
two metals than has ever occurred to
silver. From 1851 to 1871, a period of
twenty years alone, the gold produced
in California and Australia amounted,
by careful estimate, to at least 81, $780,
900, a sum that was about equal to the
worlds stock already or hand. In
twenty years the gold supply Of the
world was dOubled-a thing that lever
happened to silver-yet the whole of it
was quickly absorbed in the circulation
of the world, and no attempt was made
to demonetize gold. There were a few
men, about as wise in their generation
as those who have recently tried to de-
grade silver, who did speak of demon
etizing gold; but it was not done, ex-
cept in one or two small European
states.
1t is strange to me that this is not
perceptible to every thinking man, and
it is still stranger to me that men will
undertake to prove the impOssibility
of our maintaining the value and
parity with gold of an honored silver
dollar, supported by the law and
pledged faith Of a great nation, by
constantly citing the example of the
difficulty Of maintaining q ~discredited
and abused dollar with all the world
and it's own Government at the head
d~enOuncing it as dishonest.
We must take into consideration,
also, in arriving at a fair conclusion
on this subject, the possibility Of main
tanning silver or a free coinage basis,
that even should the supply of silver
supposed to exist in u mines within
reach Of the miners be as great as it is
alleged to be, yet the total production
would not keep pace with the increase
Of the population, of commerce, Of rail
road lines, the growth of cotton, Of
grain, OR of pig iron in the United
States. To calculate upon a supply Of
S1lNC4 VI Guy uL4AAAS C4SO uPOL1 O1O bCS4S
that population and human energy
will stand still in our country is, Of
course, erroneous. [ reckon. likewise,
it will have to be admitted that in re-
gard to stability silver, measured by
the chief products of commerce, has
been infinitely more stable than gold,
and these staple products are the true
measures of both gold and silver and
not ore for the other.
Complaint is sometimes made in this
Chamber, as elsewhere. of the hard
ship attending the fact that capitalists
have to be governed like other people,
and that it is hard for a mans earnings
or accumulations TO be subjected to the
casualties and incidents of a Presiden-
tial or Congressional election. There
seems to be an idea that, so far as CAPT.
tai is concerned, Prince Bismarck was
right when he said that imam could
not be governed from below"
And a Mr.. Horace White, who as
sumes to be an authority on financial
questions, said in the Forum of August,
1893, that it was perhaps happy for a
people like India that its high finances
should be directed only by a few. all
of which means that the man who has
only a debased silver dollar or a token
so cent coin in the world should not be
permitted, through his Representatives
here, to have any say in the laws which
are required to govern capital, or in
other words, ne should not be allowed
to dabble in high finance" l do not
subscribe to such doctrines. If we are
Democrats we will not believe it or
utter it, but try to treat every man as
having an interest in this Government
and a right to participate therein, and
with all our power to educate him in
his great duties.
Mr.. President, I fancy that those
who are shouting over the action of
the House of Representatives in
passing the bill to repeal this law
without conditions, and are glOri-
flying the President for calling us
together and giving us a message
containing no recommendation except
to repeal this law-I fancy they little
know what is before them. The doc
trines of Prince Bismarck and Horace
White have not yet become a part Of
the common law of America; thank
God, there remain others to be con.
suited besides those professors Of high
finance
1t was said that the string of the bow
of Ulysses warned him of approaching
danger by singing a song of battle and
of strife. Let me say to those conspir-
ators against the welfare Of the com
mon people, that before th5y shall fin
ally succeed in their unhallowed de-
signs, and drive them through ''the
valley of the shadow of death" to at
tain the single gold standard, in order
that the conspirators may grow rich
on human suffering, they will see many
a field of political battle and hear the
roar of much political strife.
In this fair land the thunderbolts Of
Jove dwell still with those whose voice
is as the voice of God, and the bow of
Ulysses is yet in the peoples hands,
and IFS n~niver ia flIf Il with death