Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-09-25
PROPHETIC WORDS.
PROTEST AGAINST GOLD STAND.
ARD TEN YEARS AGO.
He Only a Drop in the Bucket of
the Worlds indebtedness.


speech delivered by Hon. A. J. Weaver,
Representative from Nebraska in the
House Of Representatives, February
q, 1856. The speech can be found in
the Congressional Record, volume II,
part 2, PIP. 1S6l-1S71.
Mr.. Weaver was elected straight
Republican, in 1882, was reelected in
1884, and came near to election as
United States Senator in 1887 when
Paddock was elected.
Mr.. Chairman, from expressions OF
sentiment already recorded by the
representatives of the people there can
remain no doubt that for once the
united efforts of the moneyed oligar-
chy, assisted by the executive officers
of the nation, will fail to successfully
carry out the conspiracy to double the
nations debt and paralyze the indus.
tries of the country by proposed legis-
lation, the sole object of which is to
increase their Cwn material wealth ty
making money dear and all species of
property relatively cheap.
Think of all the lamentable conse-
quences, if once consummated, of the
damnable conspiracy to deprive the
common people OF this country, in the
sweat OF whose faces the nation has
achieved all her greatness and the con-
spirators all their amassed and un.
counted millions, OF the only money
that has ever reached the body of the
people!
Who has ever seen gold dollars do
ing the business of the country?
Those who have mingled with the
masses and have knowledge of the Or
binary business and commercial trans.
actions carried on in this great coun-
try know we'll that gold is not the
money that keeps alive the thousand
industries that supply bread for the
sustenance and clothes for the protec-
ton of the millions.
No one sees gold save the favored
few, who, through a failure on the
part of the Secretary of the Treasury
to execute the plain letter of the law,
by using silver, absorb all of this
money. In defiance of the law sue
cessive Secretaries of the treasury have
created class OF favored creditors to
whom all the nations gold has been
ia being paid, and now when all that
precious coin and metal, except what
still awaits them in the Treasury of
the United States. has been gathered
into the Golfers of the money kings,
comes the startling advice from the
President and the Secretary OF the
Treasury to discontinue the coinage Of
silver, and the further advice from the
Secretary of the Treasury to call in
the $346, 600, 600 of the legal tenders.
Mr.. Speaker, 1 ask in the name of
Manning, and this without desire to
take this great name in vain; yes, and
in the name of all the illustrious pa
triots-the present incumbent's pa
triots-the present incumbent's will
full disobedience to the solemn enact.
ments of Congress, have been trying
to substitute gold for the palladium of
our liberties (first. before opening the
treasury door to the gold horse, having
made sure that no one was in the belly
but the privileged class OF creditors,
namely, the bondholders); I ask,
say, why in this great country of un.
developed resources. with its mines of
gold and silver sufficient to supply the
people with an abundance OF good
money, we should follow in the foot.
steps England and Germany and lend
the law-making power OF this country
to the aggrandizement and enriching
OF the few and to the oppression of the
many and the Generalization of the
whole country? This proposition to
make gold alone the standard is an
insult to the intelligence of all think
ing men.
Mr.. Speaker, aside from individual,
corporate and municipal indebtedness,
the worlds debts, I mean the national
indebtedness-smount to $22, 1856 200.
600, and the interest on this sum
alone at 3 per. cent amounts to more
than six times the annual gold prod
uct of the world.
The worlds debts of corporations,
States and municipalities amount to
nearly $4,000, 600, 900 and private in
debtedness amounts 70 over $70,0OO,-
0OO, 900, 80 that the debts of the world
national, corporate and private
amount to more than 500 OOO, ,OOO, 600,
while all the gold in the world is less
than $4,000, ,OOOO 600; hence if all the
gold in the world were at once applied
to the liquidation of the debts of the
world it would not pay 25 per cent.
of the same, and all the worlds annual
product of gold would not pay one.
tenth of one per cent. on the aggre.
gate Indebtedness OF the world.
Who can wonder at the general
stagnation of business throughout the
country? Who can utter surprise
that hundreds of thousands of strong