The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-09-12

much the silver will be worth with
which he will be paid for his cotton.
No one can tell from the fluctuations in
silver what cotton will be worth in Sill
yer or what silver will be worth in gold.
Instead of legitimate business exchange
where every one knows with what value
he parts and what he receives, our
products will be sold by system of
commercial gambling with a fuctuating
standard by which the producer must i'll
every instance be defrauded. If cot
ton spinner in Europe should send
100000 in gold to the United States
to buy cotton, the buyer would first have
to convert his gold into silver. He
would look at the market price of sill
yer. and if he should find at the time
that one dollar in gold was worth two
in silver, he would buy 100000 silver
dollars. If before hepurchased the cot
ton. silver should fall 10 per cent, some
one would have to bear that loss. The
cotton buyer has to answer to his prin-
cipal for 100000 worth of cotton on
the gold valuation. He must either
lose the 10 per cent or make the cotton
producer lose it. He cannot carry on
his business by assuming such risks
himself. Every buyer will have to in
sure himself against loss by such tiuc-
tuations and every one will insure him
self out of the pockets of the producer.
The cotton buyer cannot lose it. 1t
would bankrupt him every day in his
business. The business would have to
stop under such conditions. The
farmer must lose it because the crops
must be grown, and it must be sold for
whatever it will bring in the market.
The farmer must pay all cost of pro-
ducing his crop and all cost in and about
its transportation to market, and then
sell at the market price. Insurance
against loss caused by the fluctuations
in silver will he part of the costs he
must pay. Believing that the silver
standard would prove injurious to the
people of the United States, and es-
pecially to that part of them engaged in
growing cotton. I am unwilling to take
any steps in legislation calculated to
imperil that great industry upon which
the welfare of my constituency so
greatly depends.
Some of my Democratic friends say
that in their advocacy of 16 to 1 they
are with Jefferson. He was for both
gold and silver but he was not for 16
to l. He was not for any legal ratio,
because it was the established ratio of
any government. He utterly discarded
legal ratios and refused to consider them
in establishing the relative values of the
two metals in 1892. He was for both
metals and on any ratio that would have
kept them both in circulation. He es-
pecially discarded the legal ratios of
other countries from consideration be-
cause they could not control the move
ments of the metals. He laid down the
principle that in adopting a ratio for |
ourselves we must discard legal ratios |
altogether. He said. Just principles |
will lead us to disregard legal proportions |
to inquire into the market
with which we shall principally be con-
nected in commerce and to take an
average from them" At the time he
wrote he said, ''The legal proportion in
Spain is 16 to 1; in England 10 IL to l;
N France Is to l." He said it would
be inaccurate" to fix the proper
ions of gold to silver by the
coinage laws of these countries,
because, as he says, it is a
mercantile problem altogether" 1t
s problem of markets, not OF mlnts.
When his attention was called to this
statement which he had made on for
ner occasion, he repeated Ia and empha-
sized it and again said: "The true pro-
portion of value between gold and silver
S a mercantile problem altogether"
And to show how he arrived at the true
to be fixed for our coinage
ne quotes the market price for gold and
silver in England, France, Germany,
Russia. Holland, Spain and Savoy. To
open our minis at the legal proportion
IF Is to 1 would be to reverse the prin-
,iple announced by Mr.. Jefferson and to
discard the market value altogether
and take legal ratio that was erro-
neous by about per cent when adopted
md is now erroneous by about AZ per
cent. If 16 to 1 failed to secure bimet-
lllism at 2 per cent variation, is it not
much more likely to fail at 4S per cent?
am always willing to stand in the
of the great founder of our
party and to follow wherever he leads
N defining the principles and policies of
government. l am willing now to join |
my Democratic friends in any effort to
ascertain the market value of silver and
gold and open the minis to the unlimited
coinage of both metals at that relative |
value. The experiment may be sue
cess or it may not. If it should not the
lndervalued metal would leave our circu-
ation, but the margin of difference would
be so small when the change occurred
that little injury would result. Cannot
all Democrats agree that this is in fact
a mercantile problem altogether? Can
we uOl dSIte IHdl We w III lhlulIN lhlo
the market price of gold in the several
with which we shall princi-
pally be connected in commerce and
take an average from them? That aver
age would now be found somewhere be-
tween % to 1 and 80 to l. If we can
agree on the principle, it will be very
easy to arrange the details.
l will dismiss this part of the sub
ject with this statement: L am pub
lie servant and a representative of the
people of Texas in the senate. | rec
ognize the obligation of a representative
to reflect the will of his constituents or
resign his trust. In the last State con-
vention a proposition to coin silver with
out limit at 16 to 1 was negatived. I'm
til a different deliverance is made by
the Democracy of Texas / shall vote
against the ratio of 16 to 1. If the
State convention of my party, which
next year, should declare in
favor of that proposition, my vote shall
reflect their will, not mine. I stand al
ways upon the foundation stone of free
and popular government as declared by
it's great founder in this country. "Ab-
solute acquiescence in the decisions of
the majority, the vital principle of re-
publcs, from which there is no appeal
but to force, the vital principle and
Immediate parent of despotism."
The most serious feature of the fnan-
,ial contention remains to be cOnsid-