Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1896-08-27

will be struck down at a blow IL the shall
low projects of the Democratic ana Fopu-
list platforms be realized.
But you have heard from our free
coinage friends here that other nations
have done this. And there are many good
people who believe that France Is doing
II. and that the Latin union-so-called-is
doing il. Now, would like 10 know why
they can't tell the entire truth about this
MATES. Let us not deceive each ether
and let nobody deceive us. The Latin
union is composed of France. Belgium,
Italy, Switzerland and Greece IL was
formed in 1867 by treaty between those
powers. whereby each agreed until the
year 1880 10 take the coins OF the other
powers at the ratio of 15h TO !;
But Germany demonetized silver; she
had ceased TO coin IT, and so, in 1878.
those great nations, headed by France
(the most scientifcally-Go country
in the world, and the one which has the
most accurate financial ideasl. | say those
countries. after Germany had demone-
tized silver in 1878. limited their silver
coinage. and by 1876 they suspended IL
entirely. They, those great European
nations-France, the strongest monetary
nation in the world. with her sllies-un-
dertook with all their power TO do pre-
cisely what the free coiners OF the Unit
ed States are asking this government
TO undertake in the light Of such con-
spicuous failures of other nations.
Invariabie Standards Needed.
Now. everybody sdmits-1 think the
most rampant free-coiner declaimer
would admit-that the money unit should
remain as nearly invariable as possible.
Now: | say gold has so remained. Sill
yer has fallen commercially like other
N Inln Ia l. IL Nhnu ill
yer has not fallen, that gold has risen;
Now. that il the way you look at il.
You can look at it through the deluding
glass of idealism. and ii may appear that
way, but ii is an optical Illusion. Now
let me put an illustration from nature.
The waters of Lake Superior. that great
inland sea which floats so much of our
commerce and is such an element in our
prosperity, have for many years been
falling, until now they are lower than
| they have been Mt any time for fifty
years, and everything on their surface
has fallen. The waters of Lake Supe-
rior, like the universal spread-out plane
of humanity. bearing everything upon its
! surtace-those waters bear the fleets
vessels and craft Of AL kinds, and YES
sells and craft and fleets of all kinds have
| fallen with the water. What would you
| think of man standing on the deck OF
one of those vessels saying. This yes
sci has not fallen: this vessel stands Just
| where II did. but the universal shore OF
Lake Superior has risen?" Laughter
and applause.
! Now, | say, my friends. that since the
Latin union, from 1873 to 1876. aban
doned free coinage there has existed in
European nations and the United State,
the only practical bmetallism. Let me
| repeat this. | feel that | cannot bear il
into your minds too often or too urgently
that these nations, including ours. ar,
the only nations on the face of the eartf
that have any bmetallsm whatever
| And why? Because they went to the
danger line. as we went, and ther
f toe6c Of 1SP !to1v The universe
there was dead line. beyond which
silver could not be pressed without the
immediate humiliation of its companion
gold, as useful, working money medi
nm. And when any man gets up anC
dreams and soliloquiZes and philosophers
before me and tells me he knows it won
be so If we try where others failed,
| tell him that an ounce of fact is wortl
q ton of theory, and that something bodi
ly is worth million of disembodieC
ghosts. lApplause.l
What is Ratio?
| And yet these gentlemen favor. in tn
face of these historical examples an,
warnings, that the United States shat
make the unit of coinage the silver dol
lar at the ratio Of 16 to /.
Now, what is ratio? 1t is not SIC 4
81. as some people claim. daughter.
Ratio means this: That there shall b
sixteen times more silver in weight in
silver dollar than there is weight of COL
| in gold dollar. Or, TO put the definition
in another form. that sixteen ounces o
silver. when coined. shall be the equiva
lent of one ounce of gold when coined
When gold measured by silver is wort
SIG per ounce, no disparity in value ca
exist: but when measured by silver tin
ounce Of gold is worth S31 an ounce com
mercially, disparity results. Such is tn
| present condition. and yet the free silve
men assert that il will be no such thin
in case legislative fiat endeavors to max
two and two five instead of the old
| fashioned result. two and two four
The trouble is that our friends hav
confused the ratio of weight with tn
ratio of value. and are trying to confus
the people with ii. The ratio of weigh
and the ratio of value were once tn
same, but they have changed. The.
changed more than thirty years ago
Other nations saw il and obeyed the i'm
4 pcrial hehest OF that change before w
did. and the ratio is now Throughout
| the world 81 or about -, 10 l.
| Now | say that no legislative fiat wha [
ever-it does not lie in the power of maj
| Il was about to say something more ex
trcme than that. which il would not III
| proper 10 say)--it does not lie i'm tn
power of man to enact that given di
mension. volume or capacity shall be
| hairs breadth greater than the laws o
the Almighty have faxed it from the be
ginning. tApplause.)
1t is necessary that the ratio or proper
ton of value should be inyariable. Ii i
necessary for the production Of the thin,
| itself called money. speaking of il in IL
great volume. as the volume of money II
| the United States. We see analogie
everywhere: we see an analogy in nature
| Take the air we breathe. Ii is com
pound substance, made up from oxygeI
and nitrogen at the ratio Of about 4
| to %. and while this ratio lasts it il from
! il we all draw our lives and have oui
| being. But change 10 any material de
gree and. instead of being the vital. life
| giving air, il becomes a deadly and de
| structiye miasma.
But the free-coiners assert that nnlim
| tied coinage of silver will restore IL 10
parity with gold IL has been tried by
many nations of tn. world. Has il don,
il i'm a single instance? Not one. They
said the same thing when Congress,
passed the Sherman act Of 1890. 'rhey
said buy of us freely 100000 ounces d
month. or $4,000. 900 ounces a year. and
v,,, ,r;ll 600 TINT silver will 90 ~ q,