The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1895-05-25

money ana doubled the ueDLs MT. BID
ley went on.
There was not too much silver and
gold in the United States, he said. The
only question was whether there was
enough of both, and then it was pro-
posed to take half Of 1t away.
Let us illustrate" he added, "by
story. I had a team of horses. They
did me good service, pulled my wagon
easily, helped me over many a hard
place, until one day thief came and
took one of them in the night. found
the thief, and / told him wanted my
horse back again. He argues with me.
He tells me the horse was useless after
all. He would balk and kick and wasn't
worth his feed after all. 1 tell him l
don't want to argue with him, that they
were well suited to my work, and
must have them. Give them to me-
say, and I'll take all the responsibility
We don't want to argue with those
thieves at all. (Applause.)
'"They say they won't restore silver,
because then silver dollar would only
be worth so cents, that is, its intrinsic
value would only be that much. They
roll that word under their tongues as
choice morsel, but they don't know what
it means. Let me tell you. The intrin-
sic value is what anything will do for
you in the hour of your direst necessity.
Suppose 1 have a plank 80 feet long and
two feet broad and a foot and a half
thick. What is it's intrinsic value? 1
ask. What kind of wood is it?' you say.
All, it is more than that. The intrinsic
value of that plank may be a million
dollars to a man who is in the stream
drowning far from shore. Yet. the day
that great crime was committed silver
had for years commanded a premium
Of 3H per cent. over gold and now we've
forbidden its coinage and are claiming
that it hasn't the intrinsic value of
100 cents.
MY monometallic friends tell me they
want a money that will stand the fire
test and the hammer test. Suppose we
try that. He initiates his gold dollar
with a blow. He takes it to the mint.
He tells the director that he would like
to have it recast-he has met with a
slight accident and he will wait. You
needn't do that the director says. Take
this one, and he hands a bright new
gold dollar from the pile. What hap
pens to me? l take my silver dollar
there to be recoined. L ask him for a
bright new dollar to Obviate the wait
! ing NO, no., says he, it is worth but
I so cents; I can't let you have dollar
for it, Yet if he had reminted mine
wouldn't it have been as much a dollar
as it was at first? l tell you. it is by
! legislation that we have taken from it
that half, and we ourselves have made
it worth but so cents
The speaker illustrated the intrinsic
value" idea by number of examples of
/ 81 oeco in or q
legislation might have had if it chose
to restrict it's use to certain purposes.
Referring to the interest taken in the
issue by the people of the west. he
added:
1.-The mine owners are the smallest
factor in this question. We are not out
to increase the value of their products
If incidentally they are benefited, well
and good. But it is the millions of agri-
culturalists who are competing with
those of other countries who get 100 per
cent more than they do that we are bat
Ting for. Suppose a man in your state
| has a bushel'of wheat. He gets, say, sc
cents for it. He goes to Liverpool, where
he meets his friend from the Argentine
from India from Russia. His friend
gets so cents in gold, too, and he takes
it home. where he's got a dollar of the
debt-paying money of his nation. We
are actually the only wheat or cOttoT
growing nation in the world on a single
standard basis today. How long can We
compete against those others and con
tinue to be the grea test nation in thu
world?
They tell us we want stable cur
rency. The gold yard-stick has beer
growing a foot longer each year. Tn
pound weight has grown several ounce
heavier-the bushel measure severa
pecks more capacious. Silver has il
all these years been the only stabl
measure. 1t has kept its parity with tn
ton Of pigiyon and the pound of nails
with the pound Of wool and the yard o
. cloth. They have declined. SO has sill
yer. If we want measure of value tina
won't require more pounds of cotton o
wheat or more days Of labor to pa
back the debt than it was contracted
81 silver meets all these requirements
every one"
q The speaker earnestly sought to e:
i tablish the fact that silver's fate wa
= paramount to the tariff issue. A ma
l. could neither be taxed into prosperit,
t he said, nor could he get rich becaus
r. taxation was abrogated. Prosperity We
3 independent Of taxation, he said, hig
t or low. The people had experienced IL
e panic of 1887 under per cent tart
n and the panic of 1S47 under a 25 per Gel
e tariff. The panic of 1873 had come wit
> a As per cent. tariff and tariff Of SIS p'
e cent. had witnessed the panic Of 1898.
t, 'If my tariff friends can find con
It fort in trying to balance accounts
If he said, they are welcome. 1 don
n think the people are much longer to
r, deceived on this issue"