Birmingham state herald., 1895-11-14
HURRAH FOR MR CRISP
He Comes Out Flat Footed for
 Free Silver.
IT IS DEMOCRATIC DOCTRINE
He Says the United States Is Sufficiently Po " erfuI to Establish Bimetallism the
 World Over.

Atlanta, Nov. 13.-Ex-Speaker Charles F. Crisp spoke before joint session of the senate and house of the Georgia leg islature tonight. He had been invited to address the legislature on the political issues of the day, but confined himself exclusively to the silver question, coming out emphatically for the free coinage of both gold and silver at the present ratio and arguing that the United States, with her 7O,0OO,OOO of people, was sufficiently powerful to establish bimetallism the world over His speech was received with the greatest enthusiasm.
 MT. Crisp began by stating that of course it was understood he spoke as a democrat The democratic party was born with the government, it stands for certain principles, local self-government. economy in public affairs. equal rights to all and special privileges to none, for a low tariff, and, in my judgment" he said, "it has always stood for bimetallism and upon that subject 1 intend to speak. Anything short of the equality of the two metals at the mint is not bimetallism."
 MT. Crisp then went into the history of the coinage laws. In 1873, he said, when silver was demonetized, the bull lion value of the silver dollar was cents more than the bullion value of gold dol lar The law of 1873 was passed without the full knowledge of the people or of their representatives. He quoted from Thurman, Allison of Iowa, Garfield, Beck and others to show that the full char acter of the bill was not known; that it was not known at the time that the bill demonetized silver.
 He followed this with an announce ment from that day to this the majority of the democratic party had been work inc aha1a tat eft trr1d standard was a republican measure. He analysed every vote on the silver ques- tion taken in congress since 1873, and showed that great majority of demo- crats had voted every time for the free coinage of silver, except in 1893, when the proposition to repeal the Sherman law was up, and at that time it was be- cause they expected to have an oppor- tunity to vote subsequently, for sub measure, and even then there was but two democratic majority. The single gold standard has never met with the ap- proval of the majority of democrats of this country, he asserted
 There was no advantage In having sil. yer as money, he said, unless 1t stood up on its own feet
 He stated he did not intend to say that a man who favored the single gold stand ard was not a democrat, but he did mean to say that the majority of the demo- cratic party had always been in favor of the bimetallic standard
 MT. Crisp exhibited a small piece of sil- yer bullion, which he explained could not be used as money in any way. It could not be used with which to purchase com modities. but if there was law allowing it to be taken to a mint and coined then everybody would want it.
 He agreed that the value of a silver dol lar should be dollar. The way to estab- fish the commercial value of silver was to restore it by legislation to a money status-to rehabilitate it. Coin it at the ratio of 16 to 1. That would re-establish its commercial value. Great applause
 He illustrated by showing that when the senate passed a free coinage bill sev- erai years ago, the bullion value of silver rose 23 cents an ounce In ten days in the London market.
 You need not be apprehensive of any flood of silver" he announced, There was no country in the world that would ship its silver here to exchange it for gold. We had gained gold under the op- erations of the Bland-Allison law and un- der the Sherman law. He believed that the United States was sufficiently power ful to establish a ratio between gold and silver Gold, he held, was too valuable.
 He claimed gold had appreciated, and argued his claim by comparing its pur chasing power in commodities now and before the demonetization of silver.
 Our people should be the pioneers in restoring a money metal which has been used for all time, but recently stricken down. The stamp upon silver dollar does not make 1t more valuable in anoth- CT country, but the right of the silver to be so stamped increased Its bullion va1ue''
 In speaking of the value of the cotton he said that though the cotton crop ap- preciated 50 per cent in the decade be- fore the war. the price increasd 40 per cent. Though the crop increased up to 1873 the price also increased, but after 1873 the price of cotton Appreciated be- cause of the appreciating value of gold
 He read from the November report of the treasury to show that there was s75.- 100000 less money in circulation now than one year ago.
 All things being equal, the price of oom- modities is regulated by the amount of money in the world. He argued against paper money because legislative bodies might be tempted at times to initiate the currency.
 In speaking of the final result of the fight for free silver he said that he re- membered when forty democrats had