The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-07-27
STATE JOURNAL. SATURDAY EVENING JULY 81 1895.

! also force him from his position that
increasing the primary money of the
country as we would do it, is only in
the interest Of the debtor. I will then
call his attention to the merchants and
manufacturers of this country who have
been doing business for % years on
falling market, who purchased their
goods last year, for instance, and find
| this year that the price has fallen so
| that they cannot sell them for more
than what they cost them (applausel, or
| so nearly those figures that there was
no profit left in the business to them,
| but a loss. The examination of that
question and its results upon the manu-
featuring, mercantile and trading busi-
| ness of the country is startling, and it
will certainly be very interesting to Mr..
Horn when give him the census fig
ures on it.
Germany followed the United States
in demonstration in July, 1873, and
France and the Latin Union in January,
1874 1t has been said that Germany
demonetized silver in 1871. In that
year she called in all the silver coins of
the confederation and issued a common
coin of the empire, and her minis were
left open to unlimited coinage of silver
till July, 1873. (Applause) To say that
Germany demonetized silver in 1871 is
like the statement that we demonetized
silver in 1853. (Applause)
So, when France closed her minis in
January, 1874, the minis of no large
country were open to silver. It's price
| then began to ease of. Go back to the
| table now giving the commercial ratio
of the two metals for 200 years and see
how they parted company; beginning
with 1873, gradually the commercial
ratio widened. One ounce of gold soon
bought Is ounces of silver, then 20
ounces, and now at the end of a short
period of % years one ounce of gold
will buy 3215 ounces of silver. For 200
years under bimetallism there was a
parity
Gold as an Available Measure.
Mr.. Horr-I desire to state to Mr.
Harvey that he either misinterpreted
me or I misspoke myself if I said in
answer to the question asked me that
silver had been demonetized by the
nations of the world on account of its
growing cheaper. That wasn't the
question asked me. The question
asked me, as remember it, was: Did
the people of this country, in 1873, de-
monetize silver on account of its over
production? Now, right here-I stated
then and I state again now, that the
nations of the world which first de-
monetized silver, gave as the reason
that they did it because gold is a better
measure of values and a better metal to
be used in the great transactions of the
world than silver is. repeat it. Eng
land, in 1916, demonetized silver. Did
any one ever claim that she did it be-
cause silver was cheap, or because it
was scarce? At that time nothing of
the kind, so far as know, was men
toned by any one who discussed the
question. Mr.. Harvey seems to forget
that the question of the impossibility
/. of keeping up a double standard of
measures had been argued in this ccun-
try for one century. The great phiIoso-
piers of the world-the greatest phil
Osophers of the world-had said over
> and over again that a double stan
. dard or measure of value was as i'm
: possible as double standard Of weight.
, Locke had said so, Sir Isaac Newton had
, said SO. COpernicus had written a book
and said SO. Every man-so far as l
+ know-of brains in those early centur-
; les had written that it was impossible
a to do business with two measures of
, value
, Mr.. Harvey-Mr. Horn said that when
England demonetized silver in 1916 and
+ when the Paris conference was held
r and when DR.. Linderman and, as the
j Tribune calls them, his co-conspiratora
q n ar ~
! them mentioned or thought of the over
2 production of silver as reason for it.
= quote him correctly, think, and the
: table that I have given you last Sc
y thoroughly disposes of that argument
that I am not surprised at Mr.. Horn for
yielding that position. It is one of the
remarkable instances wherein this de-
bate is of great value to the people oil
: the United States that we eliminate
? these disputed points as we go along
Decline of Values
! It seems to worry Mr.. Horn that
have not backed down yet on any fact
. 7r proposition stated in Coins Finan.
a cial School," except in one instance
q and that exception is what makes the
n worry the greater for him, because il
n that one instance where I said that tn,
: silver coined prior to 1873 was s1O5,
q 900, 900, the correction of the error
= shows that it is $143, 900 900 The onl1
. error thus far tha.sMr. Horr has founC
= in the book is an error that wa
- against us. (Applause) Now, as t.
~ the prosperity Of this country between
% 1879 and 1892. You could not breal
v down a great nation like this in on
voar IT has faLo0 short Doriad r
y, bring US to the bitter cup of disappoint
"a ment and distress. Each fou
10 years the political parties hav
y charged each other with having de
It stroyed the prosperity of the previou