Mexico weekly ledger., 1895-09-19

the Government would lose $500, 600,
900, which is o%ne-fourth of all its
money, besides the enormous cost OF
reminting. The directors of the mint
say it would take ten years to do this
unless a vast sum is expended for new
mints. Besides that, every debt IN
the land would be increased and the
volume of currency be thereby con-
tracted by that amount.
AN OBJECTION.
Seventh. The chief objection to
proposing to change the ratio is that
there is no sense in it-for by SO doing
you would not win any considerable
number of votes to himetallism.
will give you my experience as to
the men who say they are bimetallists
and friends of silver, but who clamor
for a larger ratio. In the summer of
1892 | went to Hannibal expressly to
hear Senator Vest speak. He de-
clared emphatically (and he believed
every word he said that all the Diff
ference between him and Mr.. Cleve-
land on the silver question was a diff
ference in ratios. Believing what
Vest believed and said, | repeated the
statement in every speech made in
that campaign. Mr.. Cleveland was
elected, and as late as the beginning
of 1895 he claimed in a published
document to be a friend of silver. If
silver could speak it would undoubt-
eddy eXclaim: "God save me from nay
friends!" In the meantime Mr.Cleve-
land forced the repeal of the pur-
chasing clause of the Sherman law;
vetoed BANDS poor little s~eigniorage
bill, which only proposed to coin $685.
600 900 of silver which belongs to the
Government, and which has lain idly
in the Treasury while S162, 500 900 in
terest bearing bonds were issued. He
| also tried to force the Carlisle bill
through Congress and failed; then, us
his last recorded act of friendship to
silver, tried to force Congress to pass
u law authorizing him to issue gold
bonds instead of coin bonds ad libi-
tunl. That was object lesson No. l of
d bimetallist who wanted a larger
ratio. Some of Vests thoughts on
the conduct of the mar for whom he
stood sponsor as a silver man have got
into print. Perhaps all the words in
all the yocabularies of all the Ian
guages spoken by the children of men
since the confusion of tongues at
Babel would fail utterly to express his
inmost thoughts.
Then came object lesson Mo- Dur
ing the extra session in 1898 Oh the
debate to repeal the purchasing clause
of the Sherman law, nearly every MAJ
who favored the repeal declared sol
EMMY in the sight of high heaven that
he was a bimetallist, and all he want
ed was the commercial ratio. Well,
| we took them al their word and
offered them free coinage of silver al
Is to l, II to 1, IS to 1, 10 to 1, 20 to l,
/ voted for all those ratios, as did
Bland and nearly all the silver men,
and 1 would do so again under the
circumstances. The strangest sort OF
a thing happened. We got 125 votes
for 16 to /, 101 for II to 1, 102 for IS to
1, 105 for 10 to 1, and f22 for 20 to 1.
That is, we secured a larger vote fol
IS to l than for any higher ratio.
MASK TORN OFF.
That performance tore the mask
from the faces of those who want the
higher ratio and proved them to be
gold monometallists in disguise. BIZ
metallists indeed! You can't get 6
ratio to suit them. Their place to vote
with us, like the mirage of the desert.
is forever receding, and only serves
to lure the unsophisticated to then
destruction. Can they wonder that
the people no longer have faith il
their professions? If there is to be
any more propositions as to change Of
ratio, they must come from them with
every mark of good faith, plain, square
and properly vouched for. While We
believe that 16 to l is the proper ratio
still | believe that all the genuine bi-
metallists in the land would agree tc
any ratio from IS to / to 20 to / for the
free and unlimited coinage of gold anC
silver, provided the proposition were
enacted into a law at once, thereby
settling the vexed question forever
and forever, and thereby ~averting the
ruin now impending over the business
world. But as there is nc earthly
chance of their doing any such thing.
and as it is inevitable that we must
fight if we would win, the only feasible
and sensible plan of battle is to fight
with might and main for the old, his
toric ratio of 16 to 1.
In order to show that the gold mo-
nometallists and the international BIZ
metallists would not accept a higher
or commercial ratio, it is only neces-
sary to quote what Mr.. Livingston Of
Georgia said in a debate in Congress.
Here are his words: "No; every mar
on that side has been proclaiming to
this House that ne is a bimetallist and
at the same time he makes no propo-
sition, no suggestion, by which bimet-
allism can be made.n
Snow, l am disposed, when the
fourteen days end, to move to lay on
the table the bill introduced by the
gentleman from West Virginia (Mr.
Wilson, and the bill introduced by the
gentleman froEs Missouri (Mr. BIand)
and to give these bimetallists on the
other side an opportunity to present a
bill to this house that will relieve this
country, and 1 will guarantee that
every free silver mar will vote for it.
There is something practical in that.
There is something beneficial in it.
What is the use of standing on this
floor and declaring that you are for
bimetallism and at the same time
making every argument against BIZ
metallism, and making no suggestion
and no proposition that will cover BIZ
metallism as the standard currency of
our country?
Now, l want to say, Mr.. Speaker, in
all kindness to our friends of the other
side, that am not willing to risk your
promises and your assertions about
bimetal}ism. You may be bimetaIlists