Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-05-29

aneeted prices in some measure, and yet they ignore all those great influences in their argu- Aen6 upon the subject. and attribute the lower prices of commodities to a single alleged and Aiiaaeqaate cause.-the appreciation of gold
 THE PEOPLE ARE IN DEBT
 One of the most effective arguments made Oy the advocates of free coinage, in some parts oi the country at least, Is that the people are Ill debt and that it is the duty of the govern menu Go relieve them by such legislation as will ehaoIe them to procure cheap money for the purpose Of discharging their obligations
 T deny that there is any such thing as a dis unct debtor class in this country for, while nearly everyone owes some debts large or small, nearly everyone has also some debts owing to him: in other words, he is both debtor and creditor. The laboring people as a general rule, owe very little at any one time while their employers are always indebted to them, because wages are not paid in ad- vance; and besides. many of them have small deposits In savings and other banks, in trust companies, in building associations, and large numbers of them have their lives insured for the benefit of their wives and children, and consequently they arc creditors of the banks and the insurance com~ panies
 THE POOR AS CREDITORS.
 About 21OOO,0OO of our people, generally poor, or at least people of moderate means. have given credit to these great corporations and companies, and, in my opinion, it would be grieVous wrong to adopt any policy which would deprive them of the legal right to de- mand and receive just as good money as they parted with when they made the deposits in the banks, or paid the premiums on their tn- Surance policies. The hard-earned savings of the poor ought not to be sacrificed to the av- arice of the wealthy mine-owner or the ambt- ttOn of aspiring politicians and If the people who have substantial interest In the welfare of ffgn tfr7rr 4H,. responsibilities as oitizens ylll exert their proper influence in public affairs this great wrong can never be perpetrated.
 UNCLE SAM MUST QUIT BANKING.
 The United States should go entirely out Of the banking business by the withdrawal of it's arbitrary and compulsory issues of notes, and afford the people an opportunity to supply their own currency, based upon their own means and credit thus enabling every community to utilize its own resources when necessary, and adjust the circulation from time to time to the actual demands of legitimate commerce. fn what way this shall be accomplished is 0 Ques- ton which has already engaged the serious at tention of the people and public authorities. and it will continue to be Investigated until q plan is formulated which will at least have the merit of being great improvement upon the existing system
 "Tn the meantime our highest duty is to pre- serve the present standard of value, maintain. tue DdElbY UT O0S FWQ ulGbhlS aQQ RG6Q Hll tue money in circulation among the people, whether the gold and silver coins. or paper based upon them, equal tp purchasing power. so that no discrimination can or will be made between those who receive silver or paper and those who receive goid.p
 When the speaker concluded he was given final ovation, end 8 recess une til g o'clock was 4S once taken.
 The committee on resolutions went into session at the Gayoso hotel. with Judge Ross. of Little Rock, as chair man. and when the convention reas- sembled at 8:3o 1t was presented with the following platform and resolu- tions which were adopted without debate:
 The people of the southern states, who be- lieve the maintenance of q sound aud stable currency to be essential to the prosperity of the whole country and the welfare of the peo- pie In all the voeations of life. do through their representatives in convention assembled at Memphis on May P3. 1895. make the following declaration of their matured convictions: 1. Believing uniform and certain standard of value necessary to the agricultural. commeY- cial and industrial development and prosperity of our common country, we favor the main l tenanee of oil our money, whether gold, silver or paper, on parity, to the end that each dol lar. whatever may be It's composition. shall | have equal purchasing and debt- paying power l with every other dollar.
 1 9. Profitng by the experience of Washing ton, Jefferson and Hamilton, and the teachings of the great students of monetary science, from i the time that John Locke wrote to the discus sion of the present day, we accept the truth of 1 the principle now universally recognized and 1 applied ln the commercial world that the bi- metallic standard can not be maintained where 1 the ratio fixed by law for the free coinage of gold and silver does not correspond with the market ratio of the two metals, and that wheY- ever and whenever the legal or coinage ratio varies from the market or commercial, ratio to any appreciable extent, the dollar whether of gold or silver. which thereby becomes more valuable as bullion than as money, will go to 8 premium and retire from circulation. We saw | this principle applied In national ex- perience when, under the act or l792 which | fixed the coinage ratio at lb to l. gold retired | from circulation because of a slight decline in | the price of silver in the open market, whereby l the bullion in gold dollar became worth few l cents more than the bullion in silver dollar, l and was therefore sold as q commodity, be- l cause it was worth moro as bullion than as l money; and, again, under the act of l 1881, which fixed the ratio at l6 to 1, | when the silver coin retired for like req 1 son. We are, therefore, opposed to the free, unlimited and independent coinage of silver at 1 the ratio of 16 to 1. whom the market com mercial ratio is more than 30 to and the diff florence between the bullion value of gold and | silver dollar is about fifty cents, the ground that such action, instead of restoring the bi- metallic standard would inevitably result in l silver monometallism.
 g. At this time there is no country in the world which maintains the biInetallie standard, and neither is there any country where the l free coinage of silver obtains which is not on silver basis. Each country, l on account of it's inability to adopt independently any bimetallio standard must elect for Itself which 1t prefers-the gold or the silver standard. We, therefore. favor, in tho absence of international cooperation, the retention and maintenance of the existing gold standard, because change from the gold to the silver standard would have the effect to rs- pudiate all public and private obligations to i the extent of the difference between the bull lion value of the gold and silver dollnF; be- cause whenever such change should be seri- ously threatened, it would cause an immedl- ate attempt at q collection and liquidation of oil debts in anticipation of the result 1t would produce Because such transaction from the gold to the silver basis would destroy public and private confidence and | YUould involve the country in such panic, con