The herald., 1895-05-24


money, and cannot do so for the reasons
have endeayored to explain. But the
commercial nations of the world do not
now require the same proportion of
metallic money in the transaction of their
business they required a century ago.
The credit La been vastly extended and
tho use Ut paper in the form OF notes.
checks and biiis has almost entirely dis
placed metallic money in the daily busi-
ness of the people and as long as these
forms of credit are kept equal in value to
the metallic standard the effect upon the
prices of commodities is precisely the
same as If the whole volume of circula-
tion consisted of standard coin.
Fully 81. 900, 600 of our people, gener-
ally poor, or at least. people OF moderate
means, have given credit to these
great corporations and companies, and,
in my opinion, it would be a grievous
wrong to adopt any policy which would
deprive them of the right to demand OF
them and receive Just as good money as
they parted with when they made the de-
posits in the banks or paid the premiums
on their insurance policies. The hard
earned savings of the poor ought not to
be sacrificed to the avarice Of the wealthy
mine owners or the ambition OF aspiring
politicians, and If the people who have
a substantial interest in the welfare of the
country and just appreciation OF their
responsibilities as citizens will exert their
great wrong can never he perpetrated.
The United States should go entirely
out OF the banking business by the with
drawal of its arbitrary and compulsory
issues of notes and afford the people an
opportunity to supply their own currency
based upon their own means ana credit.
thus enabling every community to utilize
its own resources when necessary and ad-
Just the circulation from time to time to
the actual demands of legitimate com
merce. In the meantime our highest duty
is to preserve the present money in circu-
lation among the people. whether it be
gold and silver coins. or paper based upon
them, equal in purchasing power, so that
no discrimination will or can be made
between those who receive silver or paper
and those who receive gold. great gov
ernment should do nothing to discredit
its own obligations or diminish the value
of the money in the hands of its citizens,
nor should the people of great country
ever consent to the adoption OF a policy
through{ex perimental financial legislation
or otherwise which would vitiate the
obligations of their contracts, interrupt
the regular course of their business and
destroy the foundations upon which the
industrial and commercial systems have
been constructed.
There can be no antagonistic interest,
no prosperity in one section of our coun-
try at the expense of another, but we must
have spoken to yon today without reser-
vation or exaggeraton in behalf OF that
policy which. in my judgment, will most
certainly promote the welfare and pre-
serve the credit and honor of our whole
country.
Al the conclusion of Carlisle's speech
there was another noisy demonstration,
followed by cries for Congressman Pat
terson of Memphis. The congressman
acknowledged the compliment, congratu-
latng the audience on the opportunity
they had been afforded to hear the able
and thanking the distinguished guest for
the favor he had conferred on the gather
ing.
On motion of Congressman Patterson the
convention adjourned until O'Clock;
When the convention reassem bled at 8
p. m. Judge Rose. chairman of the reso-
lutions committee, presented the follow
ing report, which was unanimously
adopted without debate:
The people OF the southern states who
believe the maintenance of sound and
stable currency to be essential to the
prosperity of the whole country and the
welfare OF the people in vocatlons in life
do, through their representatives in
conven tion assembled at Mem phis on
May %, 1885, make the following declara-
tion of their matured convictions.
Fi1st-Believing uniform and certain
standard of value necessary to the agri-
cultural, commercial and industrial de-
velopment and prosperity of our common
country, we favor the maintenance of all
money, whether gold, silver or paper. on
a parity, to the end that each dollar, what
ever may be its composition, shall have
equal purchasing and debt paying power
with every other dollar.
Second-Pr Profiting by the experience of
Washington. Jefferson and Hamilton and
the teachings of the great students of
monetay science from the time when John
Locke wrote, to the discussion of the
present day, we accept the truth of the
principle now universally recognized and
applied in the whole world, that a bi-
metallic standard cannot be maintained
where the ratio fixed by law for the COIN
age of gold and silver does not correspond
with the market rate of the two metals;
and that wherever and whenever the le-
gal or coinage ratio varies from the mar
ket or commercial ratio to any apprecia-
BILE extent the dollar whether of gold or
silver, which thereby becomes more val
liable as bullion than as money will go
to premium and retire from circulation.
We saw this principle applied in our own
national experience when under the act
of 1872. which fixed the coinage ratio at
Is to 1 gold retired from circulation be-
cause of a slight decline in the price OF
silver in the open market whereby the
bullion in a gold dollar became worth
Few cents more than the bullion in a sill
yer dollar. and was therefore sold as a
commodity because it was worth more
as bullion than as money, and again un-
der the act of 1864 which fixed the ratio
at sixteen to one when the silver coin re-
tired for a like reason. We are therefore
opposed to the free, unlimited and inde-
pendent coinage OF silver at the ratio or
16 to l when the market or the CONNER
cial ratio is more than 30 to l and the
difference between the bullion value OF
gold and silver dollar is about 80 cents,
on the ground that such action instead
of restoring the bimetallic standard
would inevitably result in silver mono
metallism.
Third-At this time there is no country
in the world which maintains the bi-
metallic standard, and neither is there
any county where the free coinage of sill
yer obtains which is not on silver basis.
Each country, on account of its inability
to adopt independently any bimetallic
standard. must elect for itself which it
prefers, the gold or the silver standard.
We, therefore. favor, in the absence of in
ternational cooperation, the retention
and maintenance of the existing gold
standard. because a change from the gold
to the silver standard would have the
effect to repudiate all public and private
obligations to the extent of the difference
between the bullion value of the gold
and silver dollar; because wheneve: such
change should be seriously threatened. it
would cause an immediate attempt at q
collection and liquidation of all debts in
anticipntiOn Of the result il would prn