Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1895-10-10


So that by 1893. when the Sherman
act was repealed, $549, 100000 of silver
had been coined.
Permit me here to say that I am BIZ
metallist; that is, want all the gold and
silver coined and circulated as long as
they can be maintained at a parity.
This country will never go to a depre-
ciated currency. l voted in congress in
1877 against the free coinage of silver.
was the only representative from Ala
bama, and one of only three from the
south so voting.
Advocates of free silver deal with GER
tain fundamental propositions. They
claim the amount of currency in the
country measures the value of the prop
erty in the country.
This is absurd. As well say one yard
stick shall measure everything in the
country. The most prosperous year in
our history was 1860. The per capita
was then $13; now it is $24 Although
we have run up our currency from Sl3
to $24 the value of all products has
steadily fallen. 1t was due to the in
crease in supply. It's the vast increase
in iron and cotton that has caused the
fall in price in those articles.
Bulls push cotton up occasionally and
the bears pull 1t down, but sometimes 1t
gets away from the bulls and bears.
Secretary Herbert read from statistics
showing the production of cotton for
number of years and the price for which
it sold. The statistics showed the supply
to be continually increasing, and the
price decreasing.
The supply and demand govern prices,
said the speaker. Not everything has
gone down. Mess pork in 1879 was some
thing more than 50 barrel; in 1893 it
was about $14. Everything manufac-
tured by machinery has decreased in
price. The report of committee of the
senate in 1892 showed that almost every
thing except wages had gone down until
then days work would buy more than
at any other period in the worlds his
tory. The laboring man wants good
dollar that will always be worth the
same. Our free silver friends want us
to pattern after France. Let us see.
France has paid Germany $1,000, 900
indemnity; we have paid $4,000, 900
war debt In our slaves we lost billions.
We have built since the war more rail-
roads than France has all told.
A comparative statement of wages paid
in the United States and France was
read by the speaker, which showed that
American labor received from two to
four times as much as did French labor.
Why don't these men change their song
and tell France to pattern after our
couptry.
Frances population increased in thirty
years about 100000; the United States
increased about 30,000,000 in the same
time. Emigrants looking for prosper
Gus country to go to do not look to
France, but to the United States.
The addition of another thousand mil
lions to our currency would not increase
prices unless it caused our currency to
depreciate, and then we would drop to
the condition of Mexico.
We have more silver per capita, nearly
three to one, than any silver country.
We have more silver to the gold we have
than France. We have nearly as mucn
oil
The speaker here read figures of wages
paid labor in Venezuela and Mexico and
the United States. According to the
statistics the United States pays from
two to three times higher wages than
either of those countries.
If free silver will not enable them to
pay better wages in those countries, why
will it here? 1t will not unless our cur
rency should depreciate, and then we
might pay higher wages and more for
what we buy.
If England Germany France and 9TH
profit of to cents, would they not do
SO now when the silver in dollar is
worth only 55 cents?
We then had only about $S,000,000 in
silver and that had all gone from US.
Twelve countries since that time have
demonetized silver. At that time $2,450,-
600 900 of silver were circulated by the
u
by circula ting $S,000,000 maintain silver
at the established ratio, or was it the
other countries that circulated $2,45O000,
600? Do you think we could, by passing
law, keep silver on par with gold?
Just after the war the power of the gov
ernment was greater than now. The su-
preme court dared not pass on acts of
congress, and yet it could not maintain
greenbacks at parity with gold. There
was not enough gold to redeem the green
backs, and for thirteen and a half years
they circulated at a discount. Do you
think the government can now, merely
by passing law, maintain silver at
parity with gold? Where will the silver
to flood this country come from? Japan
has $SS.000,0 900; India, $751; 900, 900; China,
$3.50 000, 900, making total of 1914, ,000, 900
for those three countries alone. If 1t is
known that this government would take
all the silver presented every country
would send Its silver to us to buy our
gold.
Everybody who had gold would hoard
it, and we would be forced to a silver
basis. Labor would be paid in cheap
money, so would insurance companies
pay policies in cheap money and savings
deposited in the banks would come in the
same coin.
IL we do drop to this deprecated sill
yer currency we will fall out of harmony
with other countries.
In 1878 and 1879 there arose in this coun-
try, said Secretary Herbert, a greenback
party. They said greenbacks had saved
the country once There were a great
many people who thought the green
hackers would carry the country, as there
are now a great many who think free
silver will. In 1880 nothing was left of
the greenback party.
We were about to get down to silver
basis in 1892, but the panic came upon us.
Extravagant republican legislation had
fixed upon us enormous expenditures
which depleted our treasury and reve-
nue. laws enacted by them reduced re-
ceipts. Millions of our securities are held
in Europe, and when the holders saw we
had nearly as much silver as gold and
that we continued to purchase silver in
large quantities they began to withdraw
their loans. The panic came on. What re-
stored confidence? President Cleveland
and Secretary Carlisle issued bonds and
sold them for gold and thus sustained the
value of the silver dollar Thus conf
dence was restored.
Cotton has risen, iron Is higher, wages
have been increased, and it is all due
to the determination of the president
that the governments credit shall be
protected. If there had been five times
as much money in this country as we had