Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-08-23
EXTRACTS FROM VESTS SPEECH.

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we stand now face to face with the great
question of bimetalism or single gold
standard. The time for makeshifts and
and evasiona and subterfuges has passed.
No man in this country is so ignorant today
that he does not know that under the circum
stances and with the declarations made by its
advocates. the unconditional repeal of the
Sherman act stamps forever upon our fnan.
cial policy the single gold standard. Not one
single silver dollar will ever be coined in this
country again if we permit the purchasing
clause Of the Sherman act to be repealed
without guarantee as solemn as the great
necessities of the people that silver shall con-
tinue to exist in the United States as a money
metal.
| have supported the free coinage of silver
principally upon the ground that oppose all
class legislation. l have never been per-
haps 1t has been my obtuseness) able to see
the business 81 permitting man who owns a
gold mine to go to the minis, the common prop
erty of the people, and coin his gold without
expense and deny tho same privilege to the
owner of silver mine, who Is an equal owner
in the minis of the country, and who possesses
| q product which, under the Constitution, is a
money metal. If it is proposed now, and we
are rapidly nearing that issue, to strike down
silver as a money metal in this country, dis
tinctly state that shall be found in favor of
bimetallsm as established by the Constitution
| of the United States and by the traditions of
the American people.
Mr.. President, am anxious to avoid the
slightest misstatement or to make any unjust
criticism on the present administration of my
own party. 1 do not feel myself at liberty
oil, Yho, hos
desire to meet the responsibilities imposed on
me as an American citizen to refrain from
stating emphatically my absolute conviction
that we must determine now the question of
bimetalism or the sold standard as presented
| to us by the President
Mr.. President do not conceal from myself
the desperate character of the contest which
has come on us. II recognize the fact that the
money power of the civilized world through
fits authorized opponents is against silver today
as q standard metal. l do not attempt to de-
Jude myself into the opinion or impression
that we are not entering upon doubtful issue
1t has been the history of finance in all ages
of the world that Capitalization and consoli-
dalton managed in one way or another to i'm
press itself upon the destinies of all people.
1t is known as well bs the names eff the differ
|
few men, not exceeding perhaps one dozen.
world and can make and unmake even Kings
and Emperors. obliterate frontiers and change
the destinies of the human race,
England in 1915 overthrow Napoleon l. and
the younger Pitt plunged the English people
into vortex as was supposed then by in
telngent men of absolute bankruptcy in order
q nf ha
people. Scarcely had the battle smoke clear
ed away from the field of Waterloo and the
shattered columns of the Old Guard been bro
ken in flight when England In 1916 went to the
gold standard and an enormous debt had been
created Today the consuls of Great Britain
govern the Empire: all investments, all trust
money, all the financial interests of the coun-
try represented by the consols and the
condition of the body polite Gibbs and flows
with the rise and the fall of the consolidated
debt of Great Britain, =
We are told. Mr., President, that overpro-
production is the cause of the fall in silver in
price today; that it has not been legislation
but that natural causes. the law of supply and
demand, have brought silver down to it's pres
ent value In the markets of the world.
Let me ask my friends, the monOmetalists
one question; Was there an over production
of silver in 1873 when II was demonetized in
this country by striking the silver dollar from
the coinage of the United States? Had there
been over coinage of silver so as to glut the
markets and bring down its price under
natural rules? We have the authority OF the
distinguished Senator from Okio (Sherman),
Of the Secretary of the Treasury today, Mr.
Carlisle, and of the reports of the Treasury
Department, that but 100000 of standard
dollars had been coined in the United States
from 1892 to 1873. We put but s., 10000 In cir
oulstion, and not so many, because the re-
ports OF the Director of the Mint from year to
year show that the coin of the country goes
into industrial pursuits and is used by
the jewellers and artiticers in precious metals,
and portion of that eight millions must have
been so used
Yet with this inconsiderable amount coined
by this government from 1872 to 1873 it was
deemed necessary in the latter year to strike
out silver from the coinage of the United
States. Mr.. President we have had many ex-
plantations OF that legislation. If, in the heat
OF discussion, l shall use one word today
either partisan or personal, withdraw 1t now
in advance. am not here to indulge in re-
elimination or to make charges which l do
greatest question which has come before this
country since the States divided in regard to
their construction of the Constitution. A
great Frenchman said: LET me write the
songs of a people and care not who makes
their laws" Give me the money of the peo-
pie and care not who makes their songs, No
power can be vested in any tribunal so great
as that of controlling the money of the peo-
| pie. :.
The present Secretary of the Treasury said
in 1873 when discussing the question upon
which have the honor now TO address the
Senate; II know that the worlds stock of
| precious metals is none too large and see no
reason to apprehend thatit will ever become
| So"
| Mr. Cockrell: Is that Secretary Carlisle?
MIR, Vest Yes. He continued; Mankind
will be fortunate, indeed, If the annual pro-
duction of gold and silver coins shall keep
pace with the annual increase of population.
| commerce and industry. According to nv
view of the subject the conspiracy which
seems to have been formed here and in Eu.
rope to destroy by legislation and otherwise
from threc-sevenths to one half of the metallic
money of the world is the most gigantic crime
of this or any other age. The contamination
of such scheme would ultimately entail
more misery upon the human race than all
the war. pestilencc and famine that ever oc-
Cured in the history of the world. The abso-
lutte and instantaneous destruction of half the
entire movable property OF the world includ-
ing houses, ships. railroads and all other ap.
panccs for carrying on commerce. while il
would be felt more sensible mt the moment
would not produce anything like tine proIong-
ed distress and Reorganization of society that
must inevitably result from tho permanent
humiliation of one-haf of the metallic money
of the world"
Why, Mr.. President, for sane men in coun
try that stands on the bedrock of independ
ence 10 put themselves in the hands OF the
monarchies of Europe,in the hands of the gold
lnanipulators, who, at any time can fix the