The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-10-25
Judge AIdredge's Address.

at Atlanta last week by Judge Al
dredge of Texas:
''The proposition that this gov
eminent should coin silver for the
world in unlimited amount at dou-
BILE its market value is so repugnant
to the common sense of mankind
that it ought to be unnecessary to
discuss it, and would be but for the
fact that a portion of our people
have been misled by appeals to their
prejudice and by the specious rea-
soning of sophists."
He pointed out that the leading
nations of the earth, after testing
silver for hundreds of years, volun-
tarily adopted the single gold stan
dard, and that no nation to-day has
the silver standard from choice.
"The gold standard advocates be-
lieve in gold as a standard with the
largest possible safe use of silver
among the people. The 16 to l
dreamers believe in the so-called
double standard. All gold stan
dard countries use large amounts of
silver, and no silver standard coun-
try uses any gold whatever. AS the
practical question is the use of the
metals, it follows that we are the
bimetalists, and the l6 to people
are the monometalists. Hence, the
battle that is to be fought to a fin
ish next year is whether we will re-
main under a gold standard, with
actual bimetalism in use among our
people, gold and silver circulating
freely without discrimination against
either, or shall we have a so-called
double standard at the minis, and
nowhere else, with silver monomet-
alism in actual use?
1.-The battle is between substance
and shadow, between those who
want bimetalism in fact, and those
who want it In name only, We
are the friends of silver money who
would bring to its aid the power of
the government to keep it good, and
they are its enemies who by unlim-
ed coinage would take from it the
guarantee of parity by the govern
ment thereby degrade it to it's mar
ket value. Our government has
been and now is coming silver at
the ratio of l6 to l. 1t is enabled
to do this because under the law it
can restrict the amount coined, and
being vested with this control it UNI
dertakes to make every dollar good
money. The moment the govern
ment loses control of the coinage,
confidence in it's ability to protect
the money issue is gone, and the
silver dollar then rests on its merits
and is worth so cents.
In refutation that the contention
that gold has appreciated and de-
preciated prices, he pointed out
that no two articles have declined
at the same time or in the same de-
gree, nor has any article mentioned
remained uniformity depressed, and,
therefore, but one controlling cause
can be assigned for these results.
Continuing he said:
Interest has declined since 1878
in my part of the country from 8
per cent per month to and 4 per
cent per annum. There is no deny
ing the fact that the gold bugs did
that. The South and West have sa-
we'd more on the decline of interest
than they have lost in the decline on
wheat and cotton. Interest is al
ways low under an honest standard,
among honest people where money
is plentiful. 1t is lower in London
than in any other spot on the globe,
because her currency is stable and
her commercial integrity has been
the care of her statesmen and her
people for ages"
Mr.. Aldredge charged that it was
reputation of debt the 10 to / men
are after.
Allow me In conclusion to say
that our country is in no danger of
reputation. This Is to l clamor
is but one of the manifestations of
hard times, brought on by the late
panic. On low lands, in the night
time, a deadly miasma accumulates,
but when the bright sun climbs
over the hill tops and shoots its
purifying rays into the marshes, the
miasma is dispelled, the atmosphere
is sweetened and made wholesome,
and men go forth to their daily av-
ocations with assurance of health.
In spite of all the isms that have
afflicted us, in spite of demagogism
on the stump and in the legislative |
halls, the country is rapidly advanc-
ing. Our factories are taxed to
their utmost with orders, and wages
of their employees have been every
where voluntarily raised. Prices, /
which have been depressed by the
panic, are improving. Sinister dis
content, with all her imps, is flee
ing before the benign presence of
prosperity, and in after years the
heresies of to-day will only be re-