The herald., 1895-05-21

j
Mr.. Carlisle. escorted by Congressman
Berry and accompanied by M. L. ingalls,
and Gen. Michael Ryan. assistant U United
States treasurer, enterod the hall. Short
" afterward the working clubs entered
to the tunes of Ola Kentucky Home and
Dixie. followed by the plaintive Aud
Lang Syne. Twenty minutes later Hon.
A. S. Berry introduced the speaker in a
brief speech in which he paid high
compliment to the man who, under the
most difficult circumstances had faith
fully administered his high office. After
tumultuous applause again and again
repeated Mr.. Carlisle began his address.
Carlisle's Argument
Mr.. Carlisle prefaced his remarks with
brief introduction. in which he assured
his audience that l am not ana do not
expect to become a candidate for any
office in the gift of the people, or their
representatives. and that do not appear
IN the state in the interest OF any candi-
date.
'Tnere has never been time" con-
tinued the secretary, "since the close of
the civil war and the settlement of the
question growing out of it, when passion
and prejudice exerted such powerful
influence in controlling the action Of the
people upon political and economic ques-
tions as they have during the last two
years. A great wave of depression has
swept over the whole industrial, CONNER
cial and financial world, more injurious
in its effects in some places than in
others, but entailing great loss and dis
Iv yvyba 4 n M hn i'm,
twenty years ago, as some OF our friends
are in the habit OF asserting, but less
than five years ago. Its first serious
effects were felt in Argentina. where the
people and the government, notwith-
standing the warnings of experience in
all ages, determined to try again the ex-
pertinent of a cheap and inflated cur
rency."
The secretary reviewed the acts of the
last Republican administration and de-
clared the present administration found
the financial affairs of the government in
a most unsatisfactory and precarious con-
dition and rapidly growing worse. Un-
wise legislation had already produced it's
inevitable results, and whatever criticism
the impatient spirit of a disappointed
AMI restless people may have prompted
them to make upon the present admins,
tration. am sure impartial history will
place the responsibility for what has oc-
CURED where it properly belongs, and 1
am willing to wait until it is written.
whether we shall continue to preserve
our existing monetary system, under
which all the dollars in use. whether they
be gold, silver or paper. possess equal
purchasing power in the markets. or pro-
vide by law for the free and unlim ted
coinage of silver dollars containing 42115
grains OF standard silver and make them
the units and measure of value in the ex-
change of commodities and in the pay
ment OF debts, is by far the most import
ant question that has been presented for
the consideration of the American people
during this generation, and that question
now confronts us. 1t is incumbent upon
those who Insist upon the adoption of
this revolutionary policy to show plainly
and conclusvely in advance not only that
it would result in no injury but that it
would be positively beneficial for if not
positively beneficial the change would
at least be wholly useless. This cannot
be done by appeals to excited passions
to array one class OF our citizens or one
section OF our country against another, or
by the use OF extlayagant statements I'M
supported by facts and reasons. The al
legation, even ii it were .rue, that great
crime was surreptitiously committed in
1873 or at any other time, does not prove
or oven conduce to prove, that the free
coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1
would be beneficial to the country under
the conditions now existing. But it is true
that the act of February IL, 1873, which
made the gold dollar the unit of value
and dropped the standard silver dollar
from the coinage, was passed by stealth
or that It's purpose or effect was to de-
priye the people of the use OF any coin
then i'll use or then in existence in this
country. The truth is that this act Of 1873,
which has been the subject of so much
apprehension and denuuciation, was SIM
ply legal recognition OF a monetary con-
diton which had existed in fact IN this
country for about So years. or ever since
a short time after the passage of the coin
age act Of 1884.
" The value of the United States note or
greenback was always measured by gold
tuu HOO w oilNcT, anu COmmOult1eS mad
gold price and paper price, but never
a silver price, because silver. except the
half dollars, quarters and dimes coined
under the act of 1853. had been thrown
out of use here Tor more than thirty
years before the commencement of the
!" r, and even these subsidiary coins had
not been III use for eleven years prior to
1873. Our own monetary history had al |
ready furnished two most striking illus
trations of the operation OF the law I'M
der which the coins which are overvalued |
by statute always drive out of circulation |
the coins which are dndervalued. Our
own experience had again demonstrated
what tho history OF tho world already
showed-that whenever the coinage laws
of any country permit the free coinage of
both metals with full legal t nder quail