The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-05-21

reuuy, Out III view OF tHe ueteTniHhtlOH
exhibited In some quarters to criticise my
personal record upon this question rather
than answer my arguments, think my
old friends here at my home have right
to expect at least a brief reference to that
subject. 1t is proper, In the first place, to
say that my opposition to free coinage Is
not dictated by any prejudice against the
use of silver as the standard of value
merely because 1t Is silver, nor by any
preference for the use OF gold as the stand
ard merely because It Is gold, for, II the
conditions now existing were reversed, II
silver was our standard of value and gold
was deprecated In value as silver now is,
/ would be as much opposed to change
from silver to gold as l am now to q
change from gold to silver. The preser-
walton Of the existing monetary unit and
measure Of value upon which the con-
tracts Of the people have been made and
the WAGES of labor have been adjusted IS
the vital thing involved In this contro-
versy. for II the standard is preserved ev-
erybody Is willing to use and will use every
available form Of currency that can be
kept equal to 1t In value. AS long as
there appeared 10 be reasonable ground
for the hope that silver could be raised to
a parity OF value with gold at the ratio Of
i6 to by the separate action OF the United
States. / was willing to make the expert
ment, but 1 was never willing to make 1t
by legislation providing for the free and
unlimited coinage OF silver at that or any
other ratio. The only speech / ever made
In congress on this subject was delivered
In the house Of representatives more than
seventeen years ago, at time when the
value of the bullion contained In silver
dollar was only about cents less than
the value of the bullion contained In goll
dollar, and l, together with many other op-
ponents of free coinage, believing that a
restoration of silver to our mints would
bring 1t to a parity with gold, supported n
measure providing for the limited coinage
Of silver dollars on government account,
not on account of private individuals and
corporations as is now proposed.
The Lesson of Experience.
Fifteen years experience, however, DEM
onstrated that those of us who believed in
1878 that a larger use of silver by the
United States would enhance It's price or
value were mistaken. Instead of increas-
Ing the price of silver, 1t continued to fall
with greater rapidity than before. not
withstanding all the efforts made by our
government to uphold it, until now the
bullion contained in a silver dollar Is
worth only about half as much as the
bullion contained in a gold dollar. The
conditions have entirely changed since
1878, and / do not understand that even
our free-conage friends In Kentucky place
silver on a parity with gold at the ratio
of 16 to !. on the contrary, they insist
that the free and unlimited coinage of sill
yer at that ratio would give the people
cheap money, and agree with them that
1t would have that effect, but 1t would not
be cheep money II it were equal in value
to gold. The speech made by me on the
occasion referred to has been garbled and
twisted and perverted in and out of con-
gress during the past two years with a
malicious ingenuity which has scarcely
ever been equalled in the discussion of a
public question, and yet no one has even
ventured to make the direct assertion that
1t contained a single word in favor of the
free coinage of silver. 1t was, in fact,
made In opposition to free coinage and in
support Of the senate substitute for a free
coinage bill, as can be seen by any one
who will take the trouble to read 1t. Ger
tain sentences, in which | denounced in
strong language the attempt to- destroy"
silver as a money metal, have been sep
arated from their context and quoted
again and again in congress, on the stump.
and in the newspapers by men who never
read the speech and who appear wholly
incapable of understanding the difference
between the total disuse Of that metal as
money and its free and unlimited coinage
at the public expense for the benefit of pri-
vate individuals and corporations. Some
of the opinions then expressed have been
modified and some of them have been
changed altogether by subsequent events
and by more thorough investigation Of
the subjects to which they related; but
on the question Of free coinage my convic-
tions have never been shaken for a mo-
ment.