The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-21

deprecated silver dollars will buy. Ny
position upon this subject is that when
the labOrer receives dollar on account
OF his wages he has a right 10 be as
sured that it viii purchase as much in
the market as any other man dollar. or
IT he desires 10 lay IT up FOR use in time
OF need he has a right 10 be assured that
[ IL VIII be worth as much when he wants
70 spend il as it was worth on the day
he earned il.
But gentlemen. the free and unlimited
coinage OF silver would not secure for
the use OF the people at any time any
addition TO their stock of actual money,
but would simply give them less valua-
Bile money than they have now. To call a
, Decent piece a silver dollar and declare
II to be the standard of value would add
nothing whatever TO its purchasing power:
II wound sim require ten OF them 10 pur-
chase what a real dollar will purchase
now, and prices of commodities expressed.
| IN dollars would appear 30 have been in
creased ten-fold, when. In fact, nothing
would have happened except the debase-
ment of the dollar. An actual increase
In prices resulting from an increase in
the volume of sound money in circula-
ton is quite a different thing from NOM
inal increase In prices resulting from the
use of a deprecated currency, and no
/ al p AliltlA upon the SUBJECT OF prices can
be sound that does not recognize the dis
tinction between them. The proposition
Of our free coinage friends Is to double
prices nominally, bur at the same time
to have them paid in money intrinsi-
cally worth only one-half as much as il
was before the prices were doubled, and
! confess my inability TO see how this
would help anybody.
You have been detained too long al
ready, but in view of the determination
exhibited in some quarters to criticise
my personal record upon this question
rather than answer my arguments, l
think my Old friends here at my old home
| have right to expect at least a brief
reference TO that subject. il is proper
| in the first place. to say that my oppo-
siton to free coinage is not dictated by
| any prejudice against the use of silver
as the standard Of value merely because
it is silver, nor by any preference for the
use of gold as the standard merely be-
cause it is gold, for If the conditions now
existing were reversed. if silver was our
standard of value and gold was dcprc-
ciated in value as silver now is, /
would be as much opposed to a change
| from silver TO gold as ! am now to a
| change from gold to silver. The preser-
walton Of the existing monetary unit and
measures of value upon which the con-
/
the wages Of labor have been adjusted is
| the vital thing involved In this cOntro-
versy, for II the standard is preserved,
everybody is willing to use and will use
| every available form of currency that can
be kept equal to ii in value. As long as
there appeared to be reasonable ground
| for the hope that silver could be raised
| TO a parity of value with gold at the ratio
Of l6 to ], by the separate action of the
| United States, | was willing to make the
| experiment but | was never willing to
/ make it by legislation providing for the
| free and unlimited coinage of silver at
/ that or any other ratio. The only speech
l ever made in congress on this subject
was delivered in the House Of Representa-
| tives more than seventeen vars ago, at
! time when the value of the bullion con-
| tanned in a silver dollar was only about
| seven cents less than the value Of the bull
| lion contained in q gold dollar. and I. to-
gether with many other opponents of free
| coinage, believing that a restoration of
silver to our mnts would bring il to a
parity with gold, supported a measure
providing for the limited coinage of sill
yer dollars on government account. not
on account of private individuals and cor
| porations as Is now proposed Fifteen
years experience, however, demonstrated
that those of us who believed in 1878
! that a larger use of silver by the United
| States would enhance it's price or value
were mistaken. Instead of increasing the
| price of silver, it continued TO fall with
greater rapidity than before, notwith-
standing all the efforts made By our gov
/ eminent to uphold it, until now the
| bullion contained in a silver dollar is worth
only about half as much as the bullion
contained in a gold dollar. The conditions
| have entirely changed since 1878, and do
| not understand that even our free coinage
/ ~. tn
| tend that any legislation by this country
alone could place silver on a parity with
| gold at the ratio Of IS to /. On the con-
/ trary, they insist that the free and unlim-
| tied coinage of silver at that ratio would
| give the people cheap money, and agree
with them that it would have that effect
but it would not be cheap money if IL were
equal in value to gold The speech made
| by me on the occasion referred to has been
garbled and twisted and perverted in and
out of congress during the past two
years, with a malicious ingenuity which
| has scarcely ever been equalled in the dis
| cussion of a public question, and vet no
one has ever ventured to make the direct
| assertion that II contained single word
in favor of the free coinage of silver. 1t
was, in fact, made in opposition to free
| coinage and in support Of the Senate sub
| stitute for a free coinage bill as can be
| seen by any one who will take the trouble
to read it, Certain sentences, in which
| | denounced I'm strong language the at
| tempt to destroy silver as a money
metal have been separated from their con
text and quoted again and again in con-
| gress. en- the stump, and in newspapers
| by men who never read the speech and
who appear wholly incapable of under
standing the difference between the total
| disuse of that metal as money and its free
| free and unlimited coinage at the public
! expense for the benefit of private individ-
uals and corporations. l have a copy Of
| the speech here, but will not detain YOU by
| reading extracts from it 10 show what my
Iposition was because any gentleman who
desires to do so can find it in full In the
| appendix to the Con gressions1 Record for
| the second session of the Forty-fifth con
! grees. Some Of the opinions then ex-
pressed have been modified and some of
! them have been changed altogether by
subsequent events and by a more thor
ough investigation Of the subjects to which
ohey related; but on the question of free
coinage my convictions have never been
/ Ia srcr FIR a