Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1895-10-06
THE BIG GUN HAS BEEN FIRED
No Converts Found Lying Around-SiIver
Ranks Remain Unbroken.
wEAKENs THE CAUSE WHEREVER He GOES
Much Had Been Expected of the Alabama
Member When He Came to Convert
Alabama Voters Some of the
Points Made.

Montgomery, Oct 5.-(Special)--I has
developed today that many were disap-
pointed in Colonel Herbert's speech.
Even some of the gold standard advo-
Gates acknowledge that it did not come
up to their expectations.
The Journal in commenting editorially
on the speech says:
THE public had been expecting Colonel
Herbert as a big gun and he was, but
they had depended too much on him to
advance logical and convincing argu-
ments in a bad cause, and to do and say
something that would turn the tide in
favor of gold and against silver in Mont
gomery, and that he failed is naturally
cause for sorrowing and weeping and
wailing and gnashng of teeth among the
gold standard advocates. They must do
Colonel Herbert the justice. however, to
say that he did the best possible for their
cause. That he failed to convince any
body or to convert anybody was not his
fault, but rather the fault of the cause he
advocated. Colonel Herbert is booked to
make several speeches in Alabama and
the people everywhere will receive him
cordially. Ex-Governor Jones referred to
Colonel Herbert In his speech introducing
him as the greatest Montgomerian liv
Ing" He might have said with equal
truth that he was the greatest A1abam-
1an and it is this very fact that will
weaken the cause of monometallism
wherever he gees, because the people will
conclude that If the greatest of Ala
bamians and greatest of the advocates of
gold monometallism cannot say anything
to advance the cause of the single gold
standard then the cause is a bad one,
and they will remain true to the time
honored principles and policies of the
great democratic party"
Others, and perhaps a large majority
of those who heard the speech, pronounce
it a masterful effort. Many prominent
silver enthusiasts acknowledged that it
was the ablest gold standard speech ever
heard here. 1t was presented in a sys-
tematic, practical and attractive style,
and every word of it was listened to with
Interest.
The speech required an hour and half
for its delivery, and the full text of it
would consume too much of the State
Heralds space. The following in the
nature of an abstract, however, may be
of interest: Secretary Herbert said that
from 1884 to 1861 there was coined and
In circulation in this country $500, 900
in silver. which was driven out by Con-
federate money, which was cheap
money The money of the Confederacy,
he said, was as good as gold at first. but
as it increased in quantity it decreased in
value until finally it took 500 to buy
drink of mean whisky. He said there
never was government Delter 0XeQ TO
set up an Independent system of cur
rency than was the Confederacy, and yet
1t failed. He said that after the war
men took their gold coin, bought several
times its face value in greenbacks and
paid their debts in the latter-that this
was human nature. Greenbacks were
cheap then. he said, because the govern
ment had no collateral behind them, not
because. they did not have faith in the
government
= h. - ;.I,,~.
the government Hamilton figured out the
financial system-that he did not under
take to set up an Independent system,
but SO fix the relative value of gold and
silver at what they were worth in the
markets of the world, which at that time
was Is to l. Subsequently it developed
that silver dollars at that ratio were
worth about 8 cents more than gold dol
lars, and Mr.. Jefferson had their coinage
stopped and no more were coined until
1888.
In 1884 the ratio was changed to 16 to
], and for twenty-eight years the demo-
Gratis and wings were contented with the
operation of the law. The silver that was
coined did not stay with us, however, the
speaker claimed. 1t was from to cents
above par and was bought up and used
in the arts in ornaments, etc. The coun-
try was. during that period. practically
a single standard country, he argued,
and it's growth during the time was more
rapid and substantial than it has ever
known to be before or since; and all of
this without the aid of silver.
From 1873 to 1894, the speaker said. the
country increased its silver circulation
1884, ,000, ,00O yet the silver advocates
claimed that great crime against silver
had been worked during that period
The speaker said he had voted while in
congress in 1878 for a free coinage net
and had subsequently, in 1886, voted for
the Bland bill. That he just simply
changed his mind and voted against free
silver afterwards, because he conceived
ii to be right to do so, and that he stood
alone among the Alabama delegation in
congress when he voted against free sill
yer. The secretary thought the people
wanted to be right and reserved the priv
ilege of changing their minds whenever
1t was proper and honest for them TO do
so. He said they made the same demands
on their representatives in congress
Colonel Herbert said he addressed the
people of Montgomery as a citizen of Ala
bama-not as a cabinet officer. With ref
~erence to the per capita circula ton he
said we had plenty of money in this coun-
try: that he denied that the amount of
money in circulation in a country was a
measure of its values. He claimed that
the same money bought goods many
times over; that 1t would be as reasona BILE
to require that every merchant should
have a separate yardstick to measure
every yard of goods. He explained that
a man could buy many thousands of dol
lars of property and not handle a dime;
that it was credit and confidence after
all that lay at the bottom of prosperity
and good prices; that the prosperity of a
country could not be measured by the
amount of money in circulation there.
The secretary said our financial system
was not perfect and should be reorgan-
ized; that 1t should be made more stable
and more flexible, but neither could be
accomplished by per capita increase.
Colonel Herbert said overproduction
had caused the fall of prices that the
cotton crop in this country last year had