St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-05-26
PEOPLE MUST DECIDE BETWEEN
A GOLD AND A SILVER
STANDARD.
ONLY ONE CAN EXIST.
CARLISLE CONTINUES HIS EXPO
SITION OF SOUND MONEY
DOCTRINE.
WAGES AND SILVER STANDARD.
Present Monetary System Treats
Silver Fairly - What More
Should Be Asked:


Hon. j. G. Carlisle, secretary of the
treasury, spoke here today in the
opera house on the currency question.
The house was crowded with people,
and long before the appointed hour
the street was packed with those
anxious to hear him speak. The seat
ing capacity Of the house is only about
1000 and it was found necessary to
exclude women and children, voters
only being admitted. By the time Mr..
Carlisle arrived the house had been
filled to its utmost capacity, and
standing room was at a premium.
The speech began promptly at 1
o'clock. When Mr.. Carlisle was shown
on the stage he was greeted with loud
applause. He was introduced by Hon.
G. G. McElroy. There were few form
alities, and the secretary launched
forth in his speech. Several times at
the opening of his speech the ap-
plause was so loud and the enthus-
iasm was such that he was frequently
interrupted. After a brief statement
that he was there as a Democrat to
discuss public questions, and not in
any way to apologize for the admin
istration he knew needed no apology,
Mr.. Carlisle commenced as follows:
THE question is whether we shall
continue to preserve our present mon
etary system, under which all the dol
lars in use with the people, whether
gold, silver or paper, are equal in
purchasing power in all markets. The
proposition Of your fellow citizen in
favor of the free and unlimited coin
age of legal tender silver is that the
United States alone, without the as
sistance and cooperation of any other
government in the world, shall legaliZe
the coinage of 41219 grains of standard
silver into dollars and by law compel
the people of the United States, but
nobody else,, to receive these dol
lars in payment Of debts of all kinds,
when, as a matter of fact, the silver
contained in such coin is only worth
about SO cents. But the claim by the
free coinage man that free coinage at
16 to 1 would appreciate silver and
bring it to a parity with gold de-
stroys the argument that it would fur
nish the people with
CHEAP CURRENCY
with which to pay debts. mo coun-
try can establish the free coinage Of
both metals, giving to each full legal
tender equality and both increase at
4,so fr,x
500 years, with strict laws against the
expectation of any coin, lost all her
gold and was driven in 1906 to the
single standard. Wherever in the cur
rency of country metal is over
rated in comparison with another
metal, the undervalued metal is driven
out of the country. If the govern
ment was to say that a bushel and II
half Of wheat was worth one bushel
Of oats only, but the farmer actually
found that he could get more out of
his buShel and a half of wheat he
would always pay his debts in oats.
There are five provisions which alb
solutely cannot be avoided: 1. There
is not free coinage country in the
world today that is not on a silver
basis. 2. There is not a gold standard
country in the world today that does
not use silver for money along with
gold. 3. There is not a silver standard
country in the world today that lses
any gold as money along with silver.
4. There is not a silver standard coun-
try in the world today that has more
than a third Of the circulation per
capita than the United States. 5.
There is not silver standard country
In the world today where the
LABORING MAN
receives fair pay for his days work.
If the United States could coin all
the silver in the world available for
coming the S71A grains of pure silver
contained in our dollar would not be
worth in this country as much as the
silver dollar, but the silver dollar
itself would be deprecated. The Mex
lean dollar, with 377.17 grains of silver,
and six grains more than the Ameri-
can dollar, is worth only about so
cents OF our money. That would be
| exactly the effect on our silver dollar
if we coined for private account free
all the silver brought. If we can by
making the ratio 16 to make a silver
dollar pass as 100 cents when it is only
worth SO cents, why could it not be
done at 10 to 1? Before free coin
age of silver can be brought about
another congress and another presi-
dent favorable to it would
have to be elected. This would GER
tainly take three years, and before
| that time every creditor in the coun-
try, seeing the coming Of cheap money,
would call on his debtors to liquidate
before the cheap. money. was. in effect,
would bring upon the country panic,
| compared with which all former pan
les were as nothing. In 1906, when
the Spanish dollar and the French
! crown were made legal tender and
were slightly under weight, it drove
all the fulI-weight American silver
dollars out of the country, so that
Mr.. Jefferson stopped the coinage Of
| the silver dollar. The subsidiary
coin was also driven out because of
full fractional weight, and the coins
were slightly reduced in weight in
order to hold them in circulation.