The advocate and Topeka tribune., 1893-10-04


My friends, we are told that the treasury
and the country through the treasury has
lost vast sums OF money in buying 20 cent
silver and storing It in our vaults. Now.
let US see the facts about that. Maybe we
have been driving better trade than we
thought II that bullion has gone into dol
lars, It will pay the governments debts. II
has done so upto this time at least, but /
do not know what 1t will do II you succeed
In your schemes, but up to this timei It will
pay dollars worth Of debt, public or pri-
vSte, anywhere In the nations when 1t Is
coined into standard silver dollars.
How much have we lostl Have we lost
anythingP Every ounce in the treasury
bought below S1.29 an ounce its coinage
value, is so much gain. Instead Of issuing
bulletins to the people showing the great
loss in the purchase of silver, why do not
they say that the government Is 80 cents
ahead ON every ounce Of silver that 1t has
purchased, and that the government Is
800, ,OO0, 900 ahead by the purchase Of silver,
instead Of sending out reports that the gov
ernment has been loser by the transaction
But supposing we had been loser. Sup
posing, Mr.. Speaker, that we had as gov
ernment chartered one of the ocean grey
hounds sailing from New York and had
loaded every ounce Of silver In the country
that has been produced since 1873 to the
present time, had bought that silver for
$3.50 an ounce and had that shipto sail Just
of beyond the banks Of Newfoundland and
gone into sufficiently deep water where you
could not reach soundings and sunk 1t to
the depths Of the ocean, where 1t would
have remained forever beyond the reach Of
man, what would have been the effect on
the producers Of the United StatesP
The silver Mines.
The highest production Of silver in any
year has been $78, 100000. We will say it is
e75, 100000. But we produce 45O,OO0,0O0
bushels Of wheat a year, which since the
demonetization Of silver has fallen from
$1.20 to "a cents per bushel. The American
farmers have lost from 60 to 20 cents q
bushel on wheat. The price has gone down
because England can come here and take70
cents worth of silver and measure it against
bushel Of wheat in India, just as we'll as
che could do when it was worth $1.20 before
we demonetiEed 1t by legislation and de-
graded and disgraced it by our silly and
wicked follies. Now, then, Mr.. Speaker,
we have loss of 80 cents a bushel on wheat
Il want to make my statement modest,
We have loss Of 30 cents bushel on 450,-
900 bushels Of wheat q year, which
makes loss to the American farmer Of
&225, 100000.
am not here talking for the silver mine
owners Of Idaho, Colorado, Nevada, Mon
tana and Utah. do not know them. They
are only small factor in this question. /
am looking to the producers of wheat and
corn, cotton and tobacco, and all thewealth
Of the nation. We have lost e225, ,0O0,0 600
each year In the value of wheat. Why, II
we had bought that 75, 900, 900 ounces of sill
YER and sunk 1t in the depths of the sea, 30
that England could not have got it at 10
cents an ounce, the American wheatgrower
would have been gamer of S225, 600, 900 an-
nually. W. produce 2,OOO,0 900 bushels
Of corn, and corn has fallen 28 cents q
bushel. Wheat is the great staple, the
great leader, and corn is but follower Of
wheat among the cereals. Now, then, /
will say that we lost 20 cents bushel on
corn, and 30 our American growers of corn
have lost e4O0, 100000 annually upon their
crop Of corn, 80 that If they had bought
all this silver and sunk it the corngrowers
would have been 1926, 900, ,0O0 to the good.
We produce 8, ,212, ,000, 900 pounds of cotton
annually, and in 1873 your cotton sold at %
cents pound. Today it is bringing Z and
8 cents. You have lost 10 cents pound on
every pound Of cotton, and IL the cotton
producers had bought all the silver and
sunk 1t in the depths Of the ocean they
would have been each year e210.O0O,OOO
ahead on the transaction. In these three
leading articles Of production In the Union
q will not 20 through more of them) the
loss to the producer each year has been