The Portland daily press., 1894-02-26

Dixie has either left that sunny land
or is devoted to other pursuits than
craftsmanship.
/ want to say here that this speech is
unprepared; that if had had time to
think it over and trim it down, / might
not say things that perhaps 1T were
wiser not to say, but | believe them,
and as | believe them | speak them.
The Southerner of today is not what
your fathers were. They were men of
college training. of disciplined minds.
men of high ideals, with the knowledge
that gives power and love of study and
research, and the familiarity with his
tory that are the toundatlon OF all trne
craftsmanship Not SO the men of the
South today. The Southerners of the
present may be divided into three
classes the men of brains who have
come North; those who have stayed at
home and devoted themselves to indus
trial development because they were too
poor to come North; and those others,
who, being fit for nothing else nave
turned their attention to politics. And
what is the result OF the performances of
this latter class?
One Southern man is battling today
for the idea Of his life. He is trying to
coin the seignorage. He might as well
try to coin a vacuum. HIS supporters
are SouthernerS and a hitherto undlS-
GoH6EGu anu uHClUsSluefi SptC 60 ILOiii uhO
West. Can you Imagine any other basis
of national credit than intrinsic value2
The silver dollar was not made to rep
resent the market value of a dollar, and
less than the full weight of silver was
put in it, The difference between the
real and the sham value is the seignor-
age, and this it is that your Southerners
propose to coin into more money. LII all
the silver in the Treasury were sold at
market value it would cause deficit OF
500, ,000, 0OO. | said it was like coming
vacuum. 1t is worse 1t Is like trying
to coin negative quantity on the other
side of the vacuum. Yet your represent
tatives would do this thing. Gentlemen,
public credit cannot be maintained un-
less you can teach your fellow citizens
of the South that there is no royal road
to value. Get your Southern Represen-
tatives to rise to the standard OF those
great men W ho, from the foundation of
the government down to 1861. stood in the
Congress of the United States not only
as statesmen representing the whole
counry, but as men who understood that
the fundamental principles of value and
property were the creations of higher
power, which no man. by act Of Con-
gress, can undo or overturn
Other representatives of Southern in
terests have succumbed to the fallacy
that the appointment to the Supreme
Court DenCn is local question TO D6
settled between the President and some
local politician. l had supposed that
appointment to the Supreme Court was
a matter of national concern, to be filled
without reference to loyalty or partisan
prejudices, and not to be made a football
for ward politicians to kick from one
end of the country to the other. Go and
tell your Southern people that Calhoun
and Benton and Rives and the grand
old Southerners of former times would
have abandoned their senatorial honors
and have gone back home in sackcloth
and ashes rather than to have degraded
the great commission which they held
from their States into servitude to
mere petty politician, without states
manship, without breadth or power of
intellect. without character, without
the right to speak for the great State of
New York.
] know your Southerners in Washing
ton. | know them to be honest, truthful,
gallant But also know them to be
ignorant. 1t is the only word that fits;
blank. Grass Ignorance. Almost in a
solid body, with few honorable excep-
tions, they gave their votes to the silver
bill. That is the work of your South
Today. That is Southern craftsmanship
at the end of the nineteenth century.
That is ignorance; that's what it is,
ignorance, that goes forward with the
dangerous strength of its own convic
tions. There is no fool like the fool
who rushes in where angels fear to
tread.