The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-07-24

CHICAGO, July 22.-The seating ca
pacity of the rooms of the Illinois club
was taken up when the Horr-Harvey
debate opened today. AS the size of
the room does not permit of a large
audience the officers of the club are
compelled every day to refuse many
applicants for seats.
Harvey Opens.
Harvey said the debate last session
was of value as showing that during
the past forty years silver had been
steadily coined in spite of the assertion
to the contrary, and that by the table
copied from the reports of the mints.
the commercial ratio between gold and
silver had been maintained at about
the French coinage ratio of 1519 to l
for 200 years; that during - years,
since 1878, as result of demonstration,
the commercial ratio has declined to
30 to l; that in 33S years prior to 1878,
the commercial ratio had chung closely
to the legal ratio. During all that time
the commercial prices of silver bullion
had remained steady. Since 1873 it
the dominating influence of London on
the exchange to all parts of the world
which led to gold being recognized by
the world as the standard in all COM
mercial world transactions.
Jumps on Coin"
Horn, in his opening remarks, pro-
ceeded in calling attention to what he
called the misstatements of HarVey'S
lNrO ENly-i inc 17n To-. ri
true the statement that it was believed
the cost of producing all the silver in
the world was about 81 an ounce, while
some put it much higher. Horr
pointed out that there has been a vast
ly increased production at reduced pri-
ces. AT the cost Harvey spoke Of, the
silver miners in three years would
have lost over 500, 900, 600 Again IIar-
vey had put the aggregate amount
of silver in the world at about $780,
100000. 1t was estimated that there
was about $4,000, 600, 000 Harvey had
said the debts of the United States
amounted to $4,000, 100000. That was
an absurdity. The statement of the
amount of interest the United States
paid annually to Europe was also I'M
true.
MT Harvey said that the amount Of
silver referred to by him in his book
was the amount available for coinage.
For the rest he proposed to pursue
the order of the discussion and answer
the questions when he came to them.
Distributes n Table.
Mr.. Harvey then distributed table
showing the production of gold and
silver from 1892 to 1892 and proceeded
to argue that in spite Of wide relative
fluctuations in production there had
been no fluctuations in the relative
value till after the characterization act
in 1873 He then proceeded to argue
that except in the legal ratio of
weight there should be no difference
in the treatment of silver and gold.
He said that the government was the
creator Of money and had the right
to regulate the thing created to the
extent of the fixing of relative ratios,
but it had no right to take from the
legal tender quality of any money Gre
ated.
Continued Objections.
Mr.. Horr continued his objections to
Mr.. Harvey's statements in his book
He took up the supposition that the
government wanted 100, 900 horses. Its
competition would increase the value of
horses that free coinage of silver
would increase the value of the bull
lion. Mr.. Horr said that all the gov
eminent did to silver was to put a
stamp on the bullion and return it
to the owner. Suppose the government
should merely call for 100000 horses
for the purpose of atfixing a brand to
Them and, having done so and return
them to the owner, would that increase
the value of the horses of the coun-
try? The horse arsument Mr.. Horn
declared was fraud.
The speaker then took up the matter
OF elements which govern the price of
wheat, arguing that Mr. Harvey's de-
auctions were fallacious.
A Plain Statement.
Mr.. Harvey said that this govern
ment had fixed the price of gold and
all the friends Of silver wanted was for
II 10 INK the price of silver in the be-
lief 1hat the nation could better keep
out of the hands of the pawnbroker
with two metals than one
returning to his argument on BIZ
metallism, Mr.. Harvey said that the
option of the debtor to pay in the
cheaper metal should not be impaired.
This would always maintain a parity !
If the creditor were given the ortion
of the money in which he should be
paid, he would demand the dearer |
money, thereby increasing the de-
mand for that metal and decreasing
the other thereby widening instead of
narrowing the disparity.
Continuing, Mr.. Harvey declared |
that all nature was bimetallic. Man
had two legs, two arms, two eyes,
two ears He declared that there |
were available for coinage in the
world about 16 ounces of silver to l |
ounce of gold.
Farm Tenancy.
Replying, Mr.. Horr took up the |
question on farm tenancy whose |
growth Mr.. Harvey at an earlier !
stage of the debate had adverted to |
as a bad thing in national life Mr..
Horn declared it more of a good sign, |
and quoted from statistics gathered
by the state of Minnesota showing
the steady evolution of the tenant |
into the land owner and from other
statistics showed that the increase in
number of tenants had been accom-
panied by a decrease in the number
of farm day laborers. The increase
in tenancy had not been at the ex-