The herald., 1895-10-03
{ COINAGE QUESTION
Continued from first page.

Continued from frst page.
oughly understood by the country at
large.
[ warn you. my countrymen, not to be
moved by the urgency OF your debts or
the initiation of your currency, which de-
stroys alike public credit and private
prosperity. Why, my friends. there is
not enough money in the world to pay
all the Indebtedness OF the world s peo-
pie at one time Debt has been a thing
existing since the world began. But $40
by being passed around, kept IN circula-
ton. has teen known to and can pay
$1,000 of debts in one day.
II warn you, my conunrymen, against
despair. Men in debt need to have their
credit preserved. Public credit can only
be preserved when it is based on a sound
and stable currency.
1.-The story that when silver is high In
price all other things are high is not
true. When cotton was selling at 5%
cents per pound silver was at $3.50 per
ounce. Now silver is at 66 cents per
ounce and cotton is selling at cents per
pound. There is no sympathy in the
matter of prices between a consumable
and a non-consumable product. Tnu
volume of the currency affects prices, but
not values. You give to the United TED
of gold coin will evaporate, for 1t will go
back to bullion, as it will be worth more
as such than as coin. Your country will
then go to a silver basis and ruin will
follow.
''Tho argument for the free coinage of
that with fres silver it will be easier TO
pay debts. 1t is tue that the govern
ment can by law bring silver to 81. 80 per
ounce in price. 1t can by law force
creditor to take 50 cents for each 81 you
owe him. But free coinage will do you
nc good unless you are willing to pay 81
with so cents. You cannod by law raise
the value of anything. All the govern
ments Of the world combined could not
raise the value of any article. That is
regulated soleiv by the law of supply and
demand. In reality the price of an arti-
Gle does not double. The purchasing
power of money is really in two when
nothing with money that has degrade |
purchasing power. Then what follows
bankruptcy. contraction of the currency
"a panic.
''They tell you that silver is the labor
ing mans money. Friends, I have been
tell you that working man is enti tied
to and should receive for his toll the best
money on earth. The only wav that he
can get that money is under the gold
standard. 1t Is the best instrument by
which he can receive fair return for the
IcSuibS anu prOuuCtS Vi HIS lhUOT'
II am here this evening. my friends.
crying in the wild erness to the lost sheep
of Israel" said Colonel Irish. abiding
10 the large percentage OF Popullsts in
his audience. AT this there was much
laughter and applause. Continuing, he
said
1.-The best system OF finance is that
system that stands by a man when be is
in trouble. California suffered but little
from the panic OF 1893 because it was on
a gold basis. But whenever you give a
country debased currency you make its
toilers and producers the victims of the
traders and the sharpers OF every nation
of the earth.
men and nations are measured by
their honesty. No nation ever profited by
dishonesty or bad faith. A man who does
not pay his debts in full has no stand
ing, no credit. The reason that silver
has decreased In price is because the de-
mand has decreased and the product in
creased. There is not man here tonight
who, if he has the two coins. gold and
silver, is going to pay out gold and keep
the silver. He is going to do just the
reverse. There is not one man is this au-
dIence who. if he sold his ranch on time,
that the mortgage should be payable in
gold. He would be dong simply what
all tine civilized nations of the coInm ercial
world do.
1.-THE Sherman act passed in 1890, pro-
vided for the coinage of $50. 600, 600 of sill
yer annually. 1t found silver at 80 cents
per ounce. But three years later silver
was at 60 certs an ounce. No legislative
act brought the price down 1t was sim
ply the natural law Of money and value
that did it, 3I saH a hJs Ls
1--WE must have, friends. a non-fuctu-
ating, non chang eable currency. Do not
be lured by false lights, nor carried away
by temporary necessity. Make this your
motto: If I am never able tospay my
debts 1 will never by the grace of God,
repudiate them"
At the close Colonel Irish was warmly
applauded. His strong and unanswer-
able presentation of facts had won many
converts 10 his view of the subject. Mr..
Gator made brief reply to Colonel
Irish's argument and the meeting closed.