The advocate., 1895-07-24
DEBATE ON SILVER.
First Day Of the Harvey-Horr
Controversy.
TWO CHAMPIONS JOIN THE ISSUES.

General Positions of the DispUtantS
stated-BattIe RageS Around the Unit
Of Value Principally-HarVey Contends
That Silver Was the Favored Metal In
l502 and HOrr That the Yellow Dollar
Was Also "a Standard of Value.
copyright, 1895, by Azel f. Hatch.l
The frst Of the series OF debates be-
tween Hon. r. G. Horr and w. H. Harvey,
Esq, author Of Coins Financial School"
began in the Illinois clubhouse at 3 p. m.
The chamber that had been prepared for
the occasion was full to It's utmost capac-
ity Of interested listeners When the
gathering came to order DR.. Thomas, Pres
ident of the Illinois Club, welcomed the
guests of the club in q brief address and
presented the judges Of the discussion, Hon.
H. J. Miller and Judge w. A. Vincent
Judge Miller then stated the conditions or
the debate (Which have been widely pub
lished), the principal feature Of the same
being that the talks will be running
fight" as 1t were. The Judge then intro
duced Hon. r. G. Horr, who opened the
debate.
Mr.. Horr proceeded to make a brief
statement defining the position he pro-
posed to occupy in the debate. He sald IN
part that "the foundation Of the discus
sion upon which we are about to enter Is
small book published by Mr.. Harvey, my
opponent, and entitled Coins Financial
School, The real aim and object OF that
book is to convince the people OF the
United States that this government alone
should at once enter upon the free and un-
limited coinage of silver upon the old ratio
Of 16 to 1. The wisdom OF such course
dispute. Mr.. Harvey will still maintain
the affirmative Of that issue. will state
in the outset that from the beginning to
the end of the book there is hardly pro"
position made to which give my consent.
| propose to controvert many things which
are stated as facts, and shall attempt to
proye that the entire theory set forth by
its author, If adopted by the people OF this
country, would lead only to business dls"
aster and financial ruin. do not now re-
member ever to have examined book
carefully in which l found so few state
ments that consider worthy OF belter 'and
certainly never saw so many absolute er-
rors crammed into so few pages" (Laugn-
ter.)
Mr.. Horr said he did not oppose bimet-
allism, but believed in the use or both
metals to the fullest extent that could
safely be done; that In all large tran
sactions gold was the best to use, and that
In all transactions between nations the two
metals should be used only at their COM
mercial value. He was believer In an IN
ternational agreement on a ratio, and was
VERY clear in my idea that until some
such arrangement shall have been made 1t
would be simply suicide for this nation to
adopt a system OF free coinage OF silver
upon the old ratio, a ratio which all the
civilized nations of the world have long
since discarded. do not believe that any
one government can fix the value upon
any two metals and name ratio which
will be accepted by the people Of the world
or of the country itself, 80 that the two met
ais will be used side by side. DO
not believe that silver has been demon
etized anywhere in the world. believe
that the law of 1873, which Mr.. HarVey'H
book denounces as a crime was honestly
conceived, openly advocated and passed by
the American Congress after full delibera'
tlon, and because the people at that time
who held seats in the American Congress
believed that such a law ought to be en-
acted. believe II our nation
should adopt the course advocated in this
book It would seriously inJure the entire
wage-earners Of the United States.
shall deny most emphatically that the
great majority Of the people of this coun'
try are in debt, and shall insist that
three-fourths Of the American people are
creditors and not debtors.
I will state still further that If this book
about which we are going to debate is true