The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1895-11-19
SPEAKER CRISP ON SILVER,
HE DECLARES FOR BOTH MET
AIS.

II
nance as i'm indcpendeuce-AS Single
Standard Means Low Prices and
Hard Times.
Ex-Speaker Crisp has made eech
before a joint session of the Senate
and House OF the Georgia legislature.
He has been invited to address the
Legislature on the political issues OF
the day but confined himself almost
exclusively to the silver question,
coming out emphatically for the free
coinage OF both gold aud silver at tho
present ratio, and arguing that the
United States with her seventy mil
lion of people was sufficiently powerful
to establish bimetallism tho world
over.
His speech was received with the
greatest enthusiasm. Mr.. Crisp began
by stating that Of course it was under
stood he spoke As Il Democrat. The
Democratic party was born with the
government. IT. stands for certain
principles, local sclf-government,
economy in public affairs, equal rights
to all and special privileges to none,
for low tariff land in my judg-
ment," he said, "it has always stood
for bimetallism, and upon that subject
| intend to speak. Anything short of
the equality of the two metals at the
mint Is not bimetallism.
Mr.. Crisp then went into the history
of the coinage laws. In 1873, he said,
when silver was dcmonetizcd, the bul,
lion value of the silver dollar was three
cents more than the bullion value of a
gold dollar The law of '73 was passed
pie or their representatives. He
quoted from Thurman, Allison, of
Iowa, Garfield, Blaine, Beck and
others to show that the full character
of the bill was not known, that it was
not known at the time that the bill de- .
monetizcd silver. He followed ~sS&5
with an announcement that from 1gl
ay to this the majority of the d.
ratio party had been working I'd
habliiate .S silSsr: The siggl4l
he analyZed cvcry vote on the silvGqtl
question taken in Congress since 1873
and showed that II majority of Demo-
Gratis had voted every time for the free
coinage OF silver, except in 1893 when
the proposition to repeal the Sherman
law was up and at that time it was be.
cause they expected to have an oppor-
tunity to vote subsequently for such q
measure. And even then there were
but two Democratic majority. The
single gold standard has met with the
of the majority of Democrats
OF this country, he asserted. There
was no advantage in having silver as u
he said, unless it stood upon it's
own feet.
He stated he did not intend TO say
that Il man who favored the single
gold standard was IOt II Democrat, but
he did mean to say that the vast major
ity of the Democratic party had always
been in favor Of the bimctallic stand
ard.
MIR. Crisp exhibited small piece of
silver bullion which he explained
could not be used as money in any way.
1t could not be used with which to
purchase commodities, but if there was
q law allowing IL to be taken to Il mint
and coined then every body would want
it. He agreed that the value Of Il sill
vcr dollar should be Il dollar. The
way to establish the commercial value
OF silver was 20 restore it by lcgisla-
tlon to a money standard, to rehabili-
tate it. Coin 1t at the ratio Of lG to
that would re-establish It's commercial
value. Great appausc.)
He illustrated by showing that when
the Senate passed /; free coinage bill
several years ago, the bullion value of
silver rose 23 cents an ounce in ten
days in the London market.
Hon need not he "EI"ghcnsivo OF
any flood oi silver, he announced.
There was no country in the world
that would ship its silver here to en-
change it for gold. We had gained
gold under the operation Of the Bland
Allison law and under The Sherman
law. He believed that the United
States was sufficiently powerful TO
establish Il ratio between gold and
silver. Gold he held WAS too valuable.
He claimed gold had appreciated and
argued his claim by comparing its
purchasing power in commodities now
and before the dcIrO Il 6lH tL!On of silver.
"Our people sltol,lG be the pioneer,
in restoring IL money metal which hta
been used for all tmur, but recent Y
stricken down. The stamp upon IL s;l-
yer dollar does not max il more valua-
bic in another country, but the rigHL
of the silver to be SO Stamped increases
its bullion value insp 'akimG of the
value Of cotton, lie said. Irat though
the cotton crop appreciated % per
cent. in the decade hci"r' Lu2 war. tho
price increased ID per cent. Though
the crop increased NJ 10 1913, ttLe pcucr
also increased, but Nic,r 1913 the price
of cotton deprecated because vf tlc
approaching value Of gDid.
He read from TIL November rcpurh
OF the treasury 10 S'iOv ludi II 80 v 3iS
$T5 600, 600 less muncy in cii cUlatiOA
now than one yc"r ago All things
bcing equal the price Of commodities
is regulated by the ,@uount Of money
in the world. He argued against pa
per money because Legislative bodies
might be tempted at times to intlatc
the currency.
In speaking OF the final result Of'thc
fight for free silver he said that he re-
membcred when forty Democrats hat
stood up in Congress and voted against
tarlif reform. by their aid the Re
publicans had stricken out the cnacting
clause Of the Morrison bill. But the
Democratic party had been persistent
| in the fight and had finally won. They
had not COTTON all they wanted, but
| the taritl laws now were infinitely su-
| perior to the laws Of Il few years ago.
| Under the present financial system thc
wages OF labor had gone down. The
| Republican experiment Of Il single gold
standard had not worked to the benefit
of the people OF business. Let us re-
turn to the bimctallism of the Demo
cratic fathers, look around you and
you will find in our poverty Il monu-
mcnt Of the single gold standard
In speaking Of the next Democratic
national convention he said Georgia
should define her position On this H.
nancial question. One Of the questions
to be decided was the retirement of
the $5OO,OOO,OOO Of paper money. II
the single gold standard is to be per-