The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-09-14

| MI vance. 10 ECU KNOW CndC 1t
would, sir. l have almost concluded,
and if the Senator will permit me l will
take his statement and insert it as a
part of my remarks.
Mr.. Cockrell. l was going to read the
statement.
Mr.. Vance. Very we'll.
Mr.. Cockrell. The production OF gold
was $2,21O, 961 ,206, while the coinage
| of gold was $2,787, 714,679, or 1916
| 753, 473 more than the entire produc-
| ton of gold. The production OF silver
was 81, 400, 760,533 while the coinage
| of silver in the world during the same
| period was 50, 1922, sos, 351, leaving only
about S7S,OOO,OOO of silver uncoined
during the whole time.
Mr.. Vance. l am much obliged to the
Senator for his statement. 1t is in the
line of my remarks.
An ingenious writer in the Journal of
American Politics for September, 1898,
Mr.. George Canning Hill, estimates upon
a very reasonable basis that the loss of
Southern planters Oh cotton alone, from
1873 to 1890, has been at least $S3,-
OOO, cooper year, or $4,41O,O 100000 in
seventeen years. For the same period
he estimates the loss of the wheat-grow-
ers of the United States at 100000
900 per annum, or 81, O,OCO for
the seventeen years. These are samples
of what has been inflicted on the people
by the wicked war on silver money; and
the estimate may be continued by con-
sideratiOn of all other leading articles of
production of field and forest and NINE
Nor is gold more stable as a standard
than silver. Hear what a distinguished
English statesman says. Mr. Balfour,
in October, 1892, used the following wise
and timely language, showing that gold
is less stable than silver:
But there is another point, namely, the
| utility of our monetary system as perma-
nent record of debts and obligations, last
ing through long periods of time. Can we
claim that great quality for standard
which mOnOmetaliSts admit has appreci-
ated in some fifteen to sixteen years no
less than 80 to So per cent, and of whose
appreciation no man living can prOphesy
the limits? A monetary standard of which
this can be said does not fulfill the very
elementary qualities which we require in
a monetary standard.
have no desire for imitation. Give me
| standard that will remain constant and
ask no more, but do not put me off with
a standard which rises 35 per cent in fif-
teen or sixteen years. If have to choose,
| if l am given the unwelcome choice be-
| tween standard which appreciates and
standard which depreciates, between a
system under which prices are lowered
| and system under which prices are raised,
| then, in the interest of every class in the
| community, not excluding the owners of
| fixed debts, give me standard which de-
| preciates and give me prices which rise.
! Of all conceivable systems of cure ncy
that system is assuredly the worst which
gives you standard steadily, continuously,
and Indefinitely appreciating, and which,
by the very fact, throws burden on every
man who desires to promote the agricul-
| tural or industrial welfare of his country,
and benefits no human being whatever,
except the owner of fixed debts in gold.
1t is a well-known fact that greater
fluctuations in the supply of gold have
been experienced in the history of the
two met ais 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 $780,
100000 sum that was about equal to
the worlds stock already on hand. In
twenty years the gold supply OF the
world was doubed-a thing that never
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 demone-
tizing gold; but it was not done, except
| 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 great nation, by constantly citing
the example of the difficulty of maintain
ing discredited and abused dollar with
all the world and it's own Government at
the head denouncing it as dishonest.
We must take into consideration, also,
in arriving at a fair Inclusion on this
subject; the possibility OF maintaining
silver on free coinage basis, that even
should the supply OF silver supposed to
exist in our 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, ofrailroad lines, the growth
of cotton, OF grain, or of pig iron in the
United States. To calculate upon a
supply OF silver or anything else upon
the basis 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 regard
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 one for the other,
Complaint is sometimes made in this
Chamber, as elsewhere, of the hardship
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 Mr.. Horace White, who assumes
to be an authority on financial questions,
said in the Forum of August, 1898, that
it was perhaps happy for people like
India that it's high finances should be
directed only by few, all of which means
| that the man who has only a debased
silver dollar or 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, he
should not be allowed to dabblein " high
| finance" | 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 endeavor with all our power
to educate him in his great duties.
Mr.. President, 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 glorifying the President for call
ing 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 doctrines
OF Prince Bismarck and Horace White
have not yet become part OF the COM
mon law of America; thank God, there
remain Others to be consulted besides