The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-05-21

! ten OF them to purchase what a rea
dollar will purchase now, and prices o
commodities expressed in dollars would
appear to have been increased ten-fold
when, in fact, nothong would have hap
pened except the debasement OF the dol
| lar. An actual increase in prices re
sulting from an increase in the volumt
of sound money in circulation is quit.
a different thing from a nominal in
crease of prices resulting from the u.s.
OF deprecated currency, and no ar
| gument upon the subject of prices car
be sound that does not recognize tbs
distinction between them. The propo
sition of our free coinage friends is tC
double prices nominally, but at the
same time TO have them paid in money
intrlnsically worth only one-half az
much as it was before the prices were
doubled, and / confess my inability tc
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,
| think my old friends here at my own
| home have right TO expect a least a
brief reference to that subject 1t is
| proper. in the first place. 20 say that my
| opposition to free coinage is not die
| tated by any prejudice against the use
| of silver as the standard of value mere
| ~ because ii is silver, nor by any pre-
ference Tor the use of gold as the
standard merely because it is gold for.
IL the conditions now existing were re-
Versed, If silver was our standard of
value and gold was deprecated In val
We as silver now is. / would be as much
opposed TO change from silver TO gold
as am now to a change from gold TO
silver. The preservation of the exist
ing monetary unit and measure of
value upon which the contracts of the
people have been made and the wages
of labor have been adjusted is the vital
thlng involved in this controversy, for
II the standard is preserved every
BODY is willing to use and will use every
available form of currency that can be
Kept equal to 1T in value AS long as
there appeared to be reasonable ground
for the hope that silver could he raised
TO parity of value with gold at the
ratio of 16 to ] by the separate action
of the United States, I was willing TO
make the experiment, but I was never
willing to make it by legislation pro-
Viding for the free and unlimited coin
age of silver at that or any other ra ito
The only speech | ever made in CON
gress on this subject was delivered in
the house of representa- tiVes more than
seventeen years ago, at a time when
the value of the bullion contained in
SiiNti ucI4dl was OIflN ABOUT seven
cents less than the value of bullion con-
tanned in gold dollar, and /. together
with many other opponents of free coin
age, believing that restoration of SOL
Yer to our minis 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
as is now proposed. Fiji
teen wears pYnprianna hnu-atrap II
strated that those Of us who believed in
1913 that larger use of silver by the
United States would enhance its price
or value were mistaken. Instead of in
the price of silver, it continued
10 fall with greater rapidity than be-
fore, Notwithstanding all the efforts
made by our government TO uphold it.
until now the bullion cintained in a sill
yer dollar is worth only about half as
the bullion contained in a gold dollar
The conditions have entirely changed I.
since 1873. and l do not understand that /
even our free coinage friends in Ken
lucky or elsewhere now contend that |
any legislation by this country alone I
could place silver on d parity with gold (
at the raj tic of Is to l. On the contrary, /
they insist that the free and unlimited /
coinage of silver at that ratio would .
give the people cheap money, and / /
agree with them that it Woul have that (
fleet, but ii would not be cheap money,
9ut it would be cheap money if it were
,qual in value to gold.
The speech made by me on the occa-
non referred to has been garbled and
visited and perverted in and out of
congress during the past two years
With malicious ingenuity which has
ever been equalled in the dis
,ussion of a public question, and vet
40 one has ever ventured to make the
tirect assertion that it contained a
ingle word in favor of the free coinage |
# silver. 1t was, in fact made in OPP
position to free coinage and in support /
# the senate substitute for a free coin
Ige bill, as can be seen by any one who
Will take the trouble to read it Ger
ain sentences, in which / denounced
n strong language the attempe to de
troy silver as money n tai. have
,een separated from their nteXt and
uoted again and again in congress, on
he stump, and in newspapers by men
1ho never read the speech and who
ppear wholly incapable of under
the difference between the
otal disuse of that metal as money
nd its free and unlimited coinage at
he public expense for the benefit of
rivate individuals and corpora tionsSI
have a copy of the speech here, but
ill not detain you by reading extracts
rom it to show what my position was.
ecause any gentleman who desires TO
o so can find it in full in the appendix
} the congregational record for the /
econd session of the Forty-fifth con-
ress. Some Of the opinions then ex-
ressed have been modified and some |
them have been changed altogether
Y subsequent events and by a more |
thorough investigation OF the subjects
, which they related; but on the cues /
on of free coinage my convictions
ave never been shaken for a moment. |
! thank you most sincerely for the !
atience with which you have listened 1 {
, my remarks, and will detain You no ;
'nge.