The Delta independent., 1895-07-24
ors crammed into so few pages.

| tion has been too frequently stated with
stood by any one. l believe that both
| gold and silver are the natural money
OF the world; that in all the larger trans
actions gold is better adapted TO the
needs Of The people than silver; that all
the smaller business transactions of the
human family. for many years, have
! been and always should be conducted
| with silver. / also believe that in all
| transactions of the nations Of the world,
between themselves, the two metals
should be used in the settling of bal
ances; but only at their cotnmerciai val
ne. | also believe that in the business
Of our nation the people should never
attempt to use either metal except at its
| actual value. only in cases where one
metal may be used as token money. and
to be made redeemable in metal at its
| commercial value.
have always entertained the hope
that the business men Of the world
would yet come together in an interna-
tional convention and agree upon some
basis there whereby gold and silver can
both be used as the money Of final Get
tlement among the people OF the entire
world. j am very clear in my idea that
until some such arrangement shall be
made. it would be simply suicide for
this nation TO adopt system OF the free
coinage Of silver upon the old ratio, a
ratio which all the civilized nations of
the world have long since discarded.
/ do not believe that any one government
can fix the value upon any two metals
and fix ratio which will be accepted
by the people OF the world, or of the
country itself, so that the two metals
will be used side by side. Consequent
iy. if our nation alone should at
tempt any such action, il would simply
place our country upon silver basis.
and the attempt would end in silver
monometallism. II we are compelled to
decide between gold monometallism and
silver monometallisn, then l am decid.
edly in favor OF adopting the standard
used by the civilized nations OF the
world
l do not believe that silver has ever
been demonetized anywhere in the
world. l believe that the law of 1873,
which Mr.. Harvey's book denounces as
a crime" was honestly conceived, open
ly advocated and passed by the Ameri-
can congress after full deliberation. and
because the people at that time who
held seats in the American congress be-
iieved that such law ought to be en-
acted. / do not believe in the teachings
OF this book that this nation is on the
verge OF financial ruin. or that starra-
ton is staring our people in the face. i
believe il on: nation should adopt the
course advocated in this book, it would
seriously iniure the entire wage-earners
OF the United States. l believe we
would destroy tie confidence of the
business men OF the world in our integ-
cipitate such a financial panic as oar
country has never before seen.
shall deny most emphatically that
the great majority of the people of this
three.fourths of the American people
are today creditors and not debtors, and
that consequently the system which Mr..
Harvey advocates would work great in
jury to the vast majority OF American
citizens. l will state still further, that
il this book which We are going to de-
bate is true, then l am all wrong. 1t
seems to me to be devoid of business
sense from beginning to end. and shall
enter upon the work OF attempting to
prove that, and hope to be able to do it
in language that shall be so plain and
satisfied that / have accomplished my
task.
Understand me, in few words: i
believe that the American nation should
have Just as good money as any nation
uses on the face OF the earth. ] believe
that every dollar paid to a poor man for
his daily toll should be worth as much
us the dollar paid to the men who are
rich.
would have the money which meas.
ures values the most stable that can be
devised, and would insist that buyers
and sellers. lenders and debtors, shall.
as near as possible, be required 10 use
the same measure OF values, and shall
insist that the repudiation in all forms
is disgraccful and dishonorablc in the
case OF nations, corporations or indi-
viduals.
What our people need is good credit,
good money. good principles and sound
business sense. Visionary schemes and
debassd money never yet made a pros.
porous nation. The quality OF the money
uccl IA, ppy ,cuptrx 10 fur ,,,r, ,,,,,r