Mexico weekly ledger., 1893-08-24

school but that fools will learn in
no other.
Gentlemen on the other side ad-
nit that there is not enough money
in the country, for they rejoice with
US that gold is now returning to this
country they try to make us be,
lieve that the annual output OF gold
available for coinage is constantly
increasing, and they ask us to JOIN
them in passing a law authorizing
the national banks to issue bills up
to the full limit of the par value OF
the bonds on deposit.
The first source of increase which
they SUGGESTIVE return OF gold
from abroad-may or may not be
permanent; the second source OF
increase, the growing annual output
of gold available for coinage, IS
without basis of fact, as conclusive
ly demonstrated by the gentleman
from Utah last. Saturday; and as to
the third ource of increase-the
leave to the national banks to issue
more bifls-we are not particularly
enamored with the idea of placing
ourselves absolutely at the mercy OF
the national banks and give them
power to expand and contract the
volume of the currency at will.
[Applause.l
And at best this proffered in
crease of the national bank circula-
ton is a delusion and a snare be-
cause it is a historic fact known OF
all men that they will not issue
notes up to the 80 per cent limit as
they can now do under the present
law.
These gentlemen stard here day
after day and assert that nobody
wants silver money, and that no.
body will have it. Nothing could
be further from the truth. The
people take it; the people use it;
the people love it. A silver dollar
will buy as much of the necessar-
les or luxurles of life as a gold or
paper dollar, and if it had been
fairly treated by the Secretaries OF
the Treasury it would be this day
at par, and even above par, as 1t
was in 1878. Give us unlimited
coinage of silver at the old ratio of
l6 to l and it will st once jump to
It's old position, side by side with
gold. If France, with a much
smaller population, territory, and
business than we have, can sustain
and uphold seven hundred millions
of silver at a ratio of 159 to /,
certainly, with our growing popu-
lation, with our expanding bust
ness, with our undeveloped terri
tory. we can maintain at the ratio
of Is to l all the silver we are
likely to have.
THE CRIME OF 1873.
The history of silver can be
brlt fly told. From the days when
Abraham fed his focks and herds
on the plains of Palestine gold and
silver both had been the money
of commerce and of civilization
until 1878, when the silver dollar
was surreptitiously struck from
the coinage of the country bv leg
islative legerdemain, by a NJ ichi-
~avellian trick, by a confidence
game that will put to blush the
boldest three-card monte man upon
the plains, by a species of juggling
that would cause the most expert
Japanese artist to turn green with
envy. Laughter
From that day to this there has
been nothing but trouble, turmoil,
vexation of spirit, elimination and
recrimlnation on the money ques-
ton.
That vas the most astounding
piece of legislation ever enacted in
any civilized country since the
morning stars first sang together.
So far as a now be ascertained,
nobody demanded it, and only a
small and select coterie knew that
the silver dollar was demonetized
until some months after the tell
deed had been accomplished. Such
men as Allan G. Thurman, James
e.. Blaine, William NJ. Stewart,
James A. Garfield, DanielW. Voor-
hees, William D. Kelley, Ulysses
S. Grant, and others of high char
acter, must be believed when they
solemnly asseverate that they did
not know that that Infamous bill,
with the innocent title of "Regu
lating the MINT" struck down one
halt the money of the world.
To this day no man has ever Civ
en- a cogent or satisfactory reason
for that unparalleled act of confs.
cation-for that Is precisely what
it was-bald, heartless, wicked con
hscation; for, let it never be for
gotten that at the identical moment
when that bill was passed the sil-
yer bullion in a silver dollar was
worth lO3 cents in gold [Applause.
1t was not a ''dishonest dollar"
then, it was not fiat dollar"
then it was not a $50 cent dollar"
then, as the gentlemen claim it is
now. Pass a law to put it back
where the conspirators of 1873
found 1t, and it will rise to par
again, and constitute the main.
stay of the Government and the
people In every crisis of their fate.
True, silver has apparently gone
down since then, but everything
else that III farmers have to sell
has gone down with it. In 1873
wheat sold at 81 AZ per busnel, and
now 1t sells at about SO cents Der
bushel. And the following table
tells the remainder OF the sad, sad
story.
Year. Wheat. Cotton. Silver