Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-05-30

Just as the committee had been com.
pieted, the tall form of Secretary Car.
isle emerged from the stage. In an
instant delegates and spectators,
women and children, were on their
feet, and mighty shout went mp. II
was succeeded by q yell yet dear to
southern hearts. and then again with
q voiiey OF cheers, with waving of hats
and canes and other Accomplishments.
The ovation continued for several mo-
ments, and was renewed when the Sec
rotary OF the treasury was formally
presented.
Silence having been with difficulty
restored. Mr.. Carlisle began his speech,
the delivery of which occupied pre-
clsely one and half hours. He spoke
with unwonted energy and made few
references to his notes. He was lis
tened TO with profound attention, the
audience being apparently anxious to
grasp and follow the trend of his argu-
ment and the mass of figures with
which it was supported. and there
were few interruptions of approval
until toward the close. Then when
with quivering forefnger he declared
that the hard-earned savings of the
poor ought not to be sacrificed to the
avarice of wealthy mine owners or the
ambition of aspiring politicians, his
hearers fairly went wild, and when, In
his peror1tion, he urged that there
could be no prosperity for one section
at the expense of the other, but that
all must stand or fall together, it
looked for moment as though the en-
thusiastic audience would storm the
platform.
Synopsis OF Secretary Carlisle's Speech.
1.-THE proposition to revolutionize our none
tary system and destroy the credit of the gov
eminent and the people at home and abroad.
unsettle all exchangable values, and obstruct
the trade OF our people among themselves and
with the peoples of other countries challenges
the intelligence, patriotism and commercial
honor of every man. No matter what may be
the real purposes and motives of those who
make the proposition to legalize the free and
unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio OF 16 to
1. these are the consequences involved in their
scheme. In no other part Of the country will
the consequences OF such a policy prove more
injurious to the material interests OF the peo-
pie than in the south.
ACTUAL STOCK OF BULLION.
although we have the gold standard in this
country, our actual stock Of gold bullion
and coin amounts to only about one-third
of our actual currency. We have about
3625. 100000 gold, 1897 652,S73 in full legal
tender silver. 8346681. 900 in old United
States notes. 3i49,5s4,4 AL in treasury notes is
sued on purchase Of silver bullion 500. 7I9. $50
in national notes, and S76 169. $50 in subsidiary
silver coin, making in all 81 S04, 707 763, exclu
sive OF the minor coins, and every dollar of
this vast volume OF currency is kept equal in
To IN. 4I1{
that every man who receives silver dollar or
paper dollar in exchange for his products, or
in satisfaction of debt, gets just as good a
dollar as the man who receives gold. This is
the monetary system and this Is the financial
condition which the advocates of free coinage
at the ratio OF IS to now propose to revolu-
tfonize at once by change in the standard OF
value, so that the whole mass OF circulation
left for the use of the people would be reduced
to about one-haf the purchasing power it now
has.
CAN WE GO IT ALONEs
''The proposition now pending before the
people is: It is proposed that the United
states, without the cooperation or assistance
of any other government, shall provide by
law that all silver bullion or foreign
silver coins that may be presented at
the mlnts by individuals or corporations.
foreign or domestic, shall be coined, at the
public expense, into silver dollars. at the ratio
silver shall be considered equal in value to one
pound of gold, and the weights OF the coins
shall be adjusted accordingly-and that the
coins so made at the public expense shall be
delivered to the owners of the bullion, or for
eign silver coins. as the case may be, and all
the people of the United States be compelled
by law to receive them as dollars of full value
in the payment Of debts due them from their
own fellow-citizens and from the citizens or
subjects Of other countries. My own opinion
is that after we had passed a certain limit the
more silver dollars We coined the less they
would be worth because the imitation itself
would still further diminish their purchasing
power.
THE RATIO.
by the act Of f792. which was our first COIN
age law, the legal ratio between gold and sill
yer was fixed at Is to 1. when in fact the true
15h to 1. and the result of this very
small generalization of silver in the
coinage was that gold went out Of
circulation and we had practical silver mono
metallism until after the passage of the act Of
1884 For the purpose of restoring gold to the
circulation. congress, in 1884, changed the ratio
from Is to to is to 1, and as this was an over
of gold in the coinage, silver left the
and from that time on until 1878 we
had practically gold recommendation, when
ever we had any metallic basis at all for Our
currency.
ONE COIN MUST GO.
"The important fact, conclusivel1 established
by the history of financial legislation and its
effects upon the circulation of the coins of the
metals, is that whenever one of them is over
valued relatively to the other in the coinage
laws, with free coinage or coinage upon equal
terms, and both are made legal tender, the
coins OF the undervalued metal will be driven
out of circulation and out of use as money
in the country where the unequal valuation is
made.
THE free coinage Of silver would not for
q long time add anything whatever, even
nominally, to our stock OF money; On
the contrary, the immediate effect OF such q
policy would be contraction to the extent of
fully one-third Of our present volume Of cur
rency by the expulsion Of about S625, COO 600 in
gold. and it would require more than fifteen
years to supply its place with silver dollars.
STANDARDS OF VALUE
'sIt is argued that the existing standard of
value ought to be abandoned, because, since
1873, prices Of commodities have fallen, and
will continue to fall. IL the standard is main
tanned, so that it has been. and will continue to
be, more and more difficult each succeeding
year to pay debts; that this fall in the prices
Of all commodities is attributable to the appre-
citation Of gold. and that the appreciation in
the value Of gold has been caused by the alleged
Of silver. presume. however,
that the most ardent advocate of free coinage
would be willing to admit that the invention
and use OF labor-saving machinery extension
Of our railroad systems, improvement of our
and the great reduction in the
rates of carrying freight (etc.. etc.,, the
rates Of interest paid for the
use Of capital, and many other things, have
affected prices in some measure, and yet they
ignore all these great influences in their argu-
ment upon the subject, and attribute the lower
prices of commodities to a single alleged and
inadequate cause.-The appreciation of gold.
THE PEOPLE ARE IN DEBT.
ssOne of the most effective arguments made