Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-07-23
Secretary Hoke Smiths Sound Money
Speech.
EXHAUSTIVE STUDY OF TEE SUBJECT
He Predicts Multiplied Disaster to
Flow From Free Coinage.
HARVEST AND THOROUGH

GAINESVILLE, Ga, July 2s-Secretar,
Hoke Smith Of the Interior Department
delivered here today the first of series O
three addresses in Georgia or the financia
issues. He had large and attentive audi
ence. 1t was beautiful day. and the PEG
pie came pouring into town early in the
morning, and by noon the place was
thronged. The meeting resembles the old
fashioned gatherings of ante-bellum times
The audience was enthusiastic, and repeat.
edly cheered the speaker.
Secretary Smiths Speech.
Secretary Smith said in substance: 80
am here in response to your invitation t.
discuss the financial problem. I shall sup
port the national democratic platform and
oppose the national platform Of the popu.
lists. At Chicago in 1892 the democra tie
party. by its representatives for the entire
Union, voted down overwhelmingly the
proposition of a delegate from Colorado to
insert in the platform the word free
which would have made the platform de.
clare for the free coinage Of silver. The
platform adopted, when honestly construed
condemned the free coinage Of silver at Il
to L. and the delegates. on the first ballot
nominated, by a two-thirdS vote, as the
standard-bearer of the party one who. in
1888, by message to Congress, had opposed
both the free coinage of silver and the
Bland-Allison act, and who. later-on Feb
ruary IT, iS9l-as private citizen in a
pubic letter declared the experiment OF
free. unlimited and independent coinage of
silver to be dangerous and reckless This
nomination emphasized the repudia ton by
the convention Of the free coinage of silver
Slap mt Morgan.
I shall also show that this action of the
democratic party is in perfect accord with
the teachings Of Jefferson and Jackson, but
Il am unwilling to waste time following the
wordy harangue recently delivered in our
state by that patriot who served his coun-
try abroad with such distinguished sue
cess as the appointee of President Harri-
son in the protection of fur seals.
I'VE have been through panic. Times
nave improved. Without stopping to ac-
count for the panic 1t should be borne in
mind that panics have occurred about
every twenty years. usually accompanied
with distrust of the kind of money used
Every panic has developed a party in
favor OF bad money, but with returning
prosperity the party has died. Relief from
panics has always come through restora-
tlon OF confidence, not through bad money
Back to First Principles.
Continuing. the Secretary said in part:
Money is device to facilitate the ex-
change Of commodities. Property is ex-
changed for money that the money may be
exchanged for some other property. Its
use is to cradle man having property
who does not desire to keep it to obtain
some other property which he wishes to
procure. The more universally recognized
therefore, the value of the money and the
less bulky 1t is TO handle, the moro COM
rletely will it facilitate exchange Shells
skins, tobacco, have been used as money
1t was the actual value recognized in the
community ard their value at those points
where the people of the community traded
that made them serviceable Gold and sill
Yer ara better than shells, skins and to-
bacco on occount of their more universally
recognized value and on account of the
fact that they are easier to handle" The
Secretary showed that it was not the
stamp of the government, but the value of
the thing itself which fixed its exchange
able quality. Confederate money had the
stamp of government upon 1t, but the
fact that the government did not have the
ability to redeem the bills in something of
actual value destroyed its exchangeable
quality The gold coins, however, of the
confe teracy are perfectly good still, al
though the government has ceased.
Paper money Is good when the govern
ment Is able on presentation to carry out
it's promises to redeem 1t in something of
actual value equal to it's face. The stamp
OF government on coin Is good If the
stamp tells the truth about the value of
the bullion coined.
Why He f. Opposed.
History teaches that a bad-money
scheme Should be expected now. 1t comes
In the folm of proposition for the free
unlimited and independent coinage of sill
yer at 16 to 1. Coinage at IS to l means
sixteen tines as much silver as gold In a
dollar-25.s grains Of ste ndard gold, 4121s
grains of standard silver. Free coinage
means without charge to the bullion holder
bit at the expense of the taxpayer: unlim-
tied means to coin all that Is offered; indie
pendent means without reference to the
course of other nations. In the language
Of Ben Hill, 1 oppose this proposed legisla-
-ior because l favor all Of the professed
objects and oppose all Of its real effects
THE free silN er advocates claim, first, that
he act of 1873 was surreptitiousIy passed
md robbed the people of one-half the
money of final payment; second, that for
his reason there is not sufficient money of
inal payment, and the appreciation of gold
las deprecated everything else. Upon
hese two propositions their entire argu-
nentS are based"
The secretary met these propositions by
First, that the alleged contrac-
ion Of money of final payment had not
'emedy would in reality drive one-half the
money now in use cut of circulation and
,rcduce a contraction ruinous in its results.
Law of 1873 ImmateriaI.
He said it was immateral, so far as the
proposed legislation was concerned how the
let of 1873 was passed. It would be fol-
y to bring on disastrous consequences for
he simple satisfaction of repeating a law
passed. The act of 1873, he
,laimed did not remove one-half the
money of final payment. In 1873 the only
liver coin in the United States consisted of
subsidiary silver amounting to s17,oOO,oOO.
which was not good for the payment of
ebts in amounts beyond IS. The coined
'old in the United States then amounted
O only s135, 100000. The coined gold in the
United States now amounts to $67S, $50 600,
While the standard silver dollars amount to
i223. $4,000. and the subsidiary silver to
&c. TT2 600.
The total gold and silver, therefore, in
S13 was $50, 900, while gold and silver
ow is $f,23s, 900, 000-eight times us much
IS in 1873 The paper money, including
'ank notes, in 1873 was about equal to the
mount now In use. The per capita of cir
ulation in 1873 was between SIS and $19