Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1895-05-18
THE BATTLE 0F s.S3ANTS.
Prof. J. LaWrenc, IN and Viii
liam H. Har,,. Meet

4O4t o. La O44ll Ill uAN w IL
liam H. Har,,, Meet
And Discuss the Silver Question
and the Possibilities of Free
Coinage Harvey is the
Author Of COINS Financial
School, " and Prof Lawrence is at
the Head Of the Department Of
Political Economy at the Chicago
University-Ther Arguments.
Chicago, May IA stirring pOlit-
ical encounter took place tonight
hardly paralleled in the West since the
famous struggle between Lincoln and
Douglass, just on the eve OF the Civil
war To-night's combatants were two
giants Of the opposing sides in the rag
ing financial controversy. Lawrence
Laughlin, Professor of Political Econ
omy in the University OF Chicago, the
favorite authorize of President Cleve-
land and William II. Harvey, author of
Coins Financial School,
Not half the people clamoring to be
present could have been accommodated
had the Auditorium itself been Sc
cured for the meeting of the champi-
ous. The spacious rooms of the Hi
nois Club, on Ashland boulevard, were
crowded TO almost suffOcatiOn, when
the President, DR.. Homer NJ. Thomas,
read the proposition to be discussed, as
follows:
Resolved, That the United States
should at once enter upon the free
coinage Of silver at the ratio Of 16 to ls
independently of the action of any 9TH
er nation"
Mr.. Harvey was evidently full Of
suppressed excitement when he came
forward to begin his address.
In opening for the affirmative, he
said:
The first reason why 1 am in favor
Of Independent action by this country
is that we should not be subjected to
he influences Of the governments Of
Europe If we are right and our
friends.
THE MONO-NETALISTS,
mostly say we admit bimetalism
would be good if we could get interna-
tional bimetallism,' in other words,
they agree that there is something rad
ically wrong, but claim that we are
tied to the financial policy of Europe.
Now, if financial legislation is one OF
the classes of class legislation by which
the many are robbed and the few are
enriched. then it is on of the iEstitu-
tions of the European governments that
we. as a nation of people, republican in
form, should declare our independence
of.
IF they say: We must have the same
money that they have in order to carry
on business with them, my reply Is,
that the biggest business We ever did
carry on with the balance Of the world,
and particularly Europe, was the time
when they had gold and silver as money
and we had neither. This nation can
have an Independent financial system
without any reference whatever to the
balance of.the world Our coinage has
nothing TO do with it. Primarily the
balances of trade are settled with trade.
There is no such thing as an interna-
tional money. What we want is bi-met-
allism, and scientific bi-metallism is
this:
I'D. Free and unlimited coinage Of
both gold and silver; these two metals
TO constitute the primary or redemp-
tion money Of the government,
"C). The silver dollar Of S71h
grains of pure silver to be the unit Of
value, and gold to be coined into money
at a ratio to be changed if necessary
from time to time if
TIE COMMERCIAL PARITY
to the legal ratio shall be affected by
the action of foreign countries.
"(3). The money coined from both
metals to be legal tender in the pay
ment of all debts.
"(D. The option as to which OF the
two moneys is to be paid in the liqui-
datiou of a debt to rest with the debt
or. and the government also to eNer-
else that option when desirable when
paving out redemption money.
This is what we want. This IS
what we would do.
I'VE would again make the standard
silver dollar the unit of value as 1t
was before 1873. It would thus be
dollar. and the bullion in it would be
worth a dollar. No man would take
eighty cents for it when he could have
il coined at pleasure into dollar. We
would make gold coins Of the value OF
so many silver units or dollars, as the
law existed prior to 1873. Silver is the
Deople's money. No change was ever
made i'm the quantity Of pure silver in
the silver unit There was to be no
two ward sticks. The rich mans money
-gold-was recOined when the COM
mercial ratio changed TO Interfere with
the legal ratio. This is the law we
would re-enact.
I'VE would make both legal tender in
the payment of all debts. We would
allow no private individual to dictate
to- the government what
ITS LEGAL TENDER MONEY
should be- We would give the option
TO the debtor. if there was any prefer
ence. as to which of the two he should
use in the payment of debt A breaiS
i'm the commercial parity causes the
cbeaper metal to be used. This in
creases the demand for the cheaper
metal This increased demand re-
stores the value of the metal that had
thus fallen below a parity. To give
tbe ontion to the creditors causes the
daarar metal to be demanded, and il
tbus grows dearer and dearer, and a
Darifv is permanently broken. When
the debtor has the option, the two met
oIs will oscillate close to a parity and
substantially at a parity. This oscll-
lo+ion is the elasticity that bimetal-
lisn, qives to primary money. Selfish
.,11-o1 fD+O the American Con-