The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1895-05-18
GIANTS AT DEBATE.
Professor Laughlin and William II
Harvey Meet on the Rostrum.
DIVERGENT VIEWS OF FINANCE

Both sides of the Money Question Pre-.
sented at Chicago by Men Who Are Ac
knowledged AS Leaders Among Mono.
metallists and Bimetallists.
CHICAGO, May IA stirring political
encounter took place last night, hardly
paralleled in the west since the famous
struggle between Lincoln and Douglns,
just on the eve of the civil war. The com
bntants were two ginnts of the opposing |
sides in the raging financial con troversy-
j. Lawrence Laughlin. professor of po |
litical economy in the University of Chi |
cago, the favorite authority of President |
Cleveland. and William H. Harvey, author |
of "Coins Financial School"
The spacious rooms of the Illinois clut |
on stately Ashland boulevard were
crowded to suffocation when the president, |
DR.. Homer NJ Thomas, read the PROPOSE
tion to be discussed as follows
Resolved, that the United States should
at once enter upon the free coinage OF
silver at the ratio is to l, independently OF
the action of any other nation"
For the affirmative Mr. Harvey said in
part 1.-THE first reason why am in favor
of independent action by this country Is
that we should not be subjected tc
the influences of the governments OF
| Europe If people can be reduced to pow
erty, and the prosperity of the United
| States can be ruined by hanging to the
financial policy of Europe, then we can be
| reduced to the same condition by financial
| legislation as war of conquest would re-
duce u.s.
"Our friends, the mouometallists mostly
| say, we admit bimetallism would be good
| if we could get international bimetallism.'
In other words they agree that there is
something radically wrong, but claim
that we are tied to the financial policy of
Europe Where there is necessity there
is remedy. The governments of Europe
are plutocracies. They squeeze the lemon
for the people about every so often. The
few control class legislation and the
masses are bewers of wood and drawers of
water for the titled few. Now, If finRn-
cial legislation is one Of the classes of
class legislation by which the many are
robbed and the few are enriched, then it
is one of the institutions of the European
governments that we as a nation of peo
pie, republican in FORM should declare
our independence.
This nation can have an Independent
financial system without any reference
whatever to the balance of the world, and
can carry on It's own commerce with other
governments of the world notwithstand-
ing. Primarily, balances of trade are set
tied with trade. We give them our wheat
| and we take their silks, and the balance
that we may owe them or they owe us
will be settled just as the merchant be
tween the importing points may agree to
| settle it. There is no such thing as an in
ternational money
"What we want is bimetallism, and
scientific bimetallism is this: Free and
unlimited coinage of both gold and silver;
these two metals to constitute the primary
or redemption money of the government
The money coined from both metals to be
legal tender the payment of all debts
The operation as to which of the two
moneys is 20 be paid in the liquidation Of
debt to rest with the debtor.
1--WE would again make the standard
| silver dollar the unit of value, as it wa:
before 1873. We would make gold coins
of the value of so many silver units Oi
: dollars, as the law existed prior to 1873
: Silver is the peoples money.
1--WE would allow no private individual
to dictate to the government what its le
| gal tender money should be. There wa
to be no two yardsticks The rich man.
| money-gold-wa recoined when tn,
commercial ratio changed to interfere
with the legal ratio.
1.-THE bank of Rothschilds in Englan,
is now behind the United States treasury
They are our financial agents; our tinan
cial managers. We are paying them tn
princely snlary of SS,09O,O 900 for each siI
months of their valuable services. w
are in the hands of the pawnhrokers o
Europe. Put silver in competition wit
gold as quick as possible. The extra de
mand for silver will raise its value
Everything will advance in value a
once"
o Professor Laughlin, replying for tn
negative, said:
"There is no more essential need of an il
creased amount of measure with which I
compare goods than there is or should
"a number of yardsticks equal to the nun
ber of yards of cloth In a store.
1.-The idea ofsupposing that much none
is required in order to have someth in
with which to measure goods is as absur
as to suppose that Is community mu
have hearers in number equal to the pO
ulation What is important is that Il
goods when expressed in terms of con
mon demoninator Of value are today O.
changed in enormous Quantities, mainl
without the use of any money III
necessity of au increasing quantity
money Is growing less important with II
development of this system of exchange
From 92 per cent. TO 95 per cent OF tran
actions are performed by this machineI
without the use of money, and recent II
vestigations by the compUrollerof the Gu
rency show that 81 per cent OF reta
transactions are similarly performed will
out the use of money.
I'VE express the value of goods in tern
Of money, but then VIC really exchani
them almost entirely by means OF the
posit currency. Transactions expressed
terms of money are based not upon col
but upon the goods bought and sold Co
only is means of going from one set
goods to another Prices since 1873 has
not fallen because OF the lack of none
- Silver has fallen about 80 per cent. as COZ
pared with very modest fall In the pri
l of commodities. Silver does not have .
-.