Evening star., 1896-10-29
A Joint Debate at Remington.

The joint debate on the silver question
took place in the town hall. Kensington,
last night, according to agreement. Mr.. B.
H. Warner was to have presided, but owing
to the fatigue of campaigning, Editor c..
w. Clum of the Montgomery Press opened
the meeting and announced the terms of
debate. Judge o. B. Hallam of Washing
ton was to open with a forty-tive- minute
speech, to be followed by Ashley NJ. Gould
OF Takoma for one hour, leaving fifteen
minutes to Judge Hallam for rejoinder. In
opening, Judge Hallam reviewed the history
of the two precious metals from earliest
times up to the birth of our country, show
ing that the ratio of production of sixteen
ounces OF silver to one OF gold had been
practically kept up for hundreds of years.
He reviewed the coinage and financial sys-
tenn of this country from its beginnings and
took the ground that silver began to depre-
ciate, and gold began to appreciate, from
the moment of silver's disuse as full
legal tender by this and other countries
BY restoring free coinage of silver and
making 1t legal tender the bullion value of
each metal would find common level. He
secuted the idea of a cheap or 5O-cent dol
lar. and said the employers of labor, if
they believed silver dollar would be
cneapened, would be the most anxious to
have it coined. that they might pay in the
cheapest money and secure greater returns
for their Investments.
Mr.. Ashley NJ. Gould evidently had the
syHpdtAy VI the duuleilCe from MS nrSt ut
terance. He is a forceful and at times elo-
quent spe aker, and he appealed strongly to
the patriotic impulse to reject what he call
ed the experiment in reputation. The gold
standard was best because it was in use
among all leading commercial nations of
the world, and because in a gold dollar was
the value as metal which 1t bore on its
face as coin. Any attempt to debase a
coin was an attempt to debase the credit of
the country. 1t was moral question and
1t would be equally wrong If a coin were
one cent under value as If it were fifty, 1t
was robbery to scale down the savings of
those who had toiled to lay aside enough
for rainy day: II was robbery of the
pensioner, who had left life or health on
the field of battle, and to whom the coun-
try was now paying back q small portion
of its kard-earned debt to him; it was rob-
tery Of the widow and children of those
whose lives were insured, and it was a vio-
lation Of that commandment from Mount
Sinai: "Thou Shalt Not Steal" He closed
with brilliant peroration to keep the flag
undimmed and the honor of our country
unSullied.
Judge Hallam, in reply, made several
witty drives at Mr.. Gould's method of dis
cussing the points that were not in issue in
this debate, and assuming as true things
he did not and could not prove, and in set
ting up unsound propositions which were
not even claimed by the opposition, and
then ingeniously demolishing his own men
of straw.
At the conclusion Mr.. B. H. Warner made
the announcement from the stage that on
Saturday evening next there will be q
grand final rally in the hall, at which
showers Of republican mamma would fall.
Mr Tom c. Noyes and Col. James H. EN-
Dry, fresh from campaigning in Kentucky,
would be the principal speakers.