The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-03-18
A SAGE ON SILVER
An Eloquent and Forcibls Address Deliv.
cred By Ignatias Dsnns!ly
lat Evening.
he Refutes the Claim That Free Coinago
OF Silver Would Hurt the
People.

4 AOAh Tic NllI1uc6POllS HcNny FreSS.
1t was an earnest and thoughtful audi
ence that listened to Ignatius Donnelly,
as he addressed the Gold and Silver club
last evening in the basement of the New
York Life Building. Every seat in the
large assembly room was occupied, and
the audience followed closely the clear,
forcible logic Of the speaker and warmly
applauded as he transfixed the arguments
of the Gold Bugs" with the singing dirk
Of sarcasm, or wondrous fund OF apt and
humorous anecdotes furnished fools caps
for his opponents, and held them up to
ridicule, but all without trace Of bitter
ness
The speaker began by expressing his
delight with the liberality of the clue in
passing over party lines and asking to ad-
dress them man who was a member Of
the Peoples Party.
Mr.. Donnelly then produced a copy of a
Minneapolis morning paper, and turning
to an article in the editorial column under
the caption How Free Silver Hurts"
read and refuted it paragraph by para
graph Referring first to the gold clause
in mortgages he said:
why have they put the gold clause in
mOrtga ges. Because gold is already at
premium. One dollar Of gold will today
buy two bushels of wheat where it former
ly bought one.
This article goes on the suppositiOn
that if free silver were established the
margin of difference between gold and
silver would be increased. But such is
not the case. For so years the law OF the
country declared what the ratio should be.
BY fiat the government fixed the legal
tender value and so long as that stood
and the minis were open equally to gold
and silver there was always market
But when they closed the minis against
silver, it began to deprec;ate. An ounce
Of silver is now worth about One-half
what it was worth. Now suppose this
fall in silver has been produced by the
falling off Of the demand, would it not rise
TO it's price if 1t were again afforded its
old possibilities?
IF one could exchange a quantity of
silver bullion for legal tender silver dol
lars would any man fit to be outside of a
lunatic asylum sell it for so or 60 cents.
THE government of England passed a
law when it amended the charter of the
Bank Of England, compelling all legal ten
der notes to be paid in gold. AS result
all over the world to the remotest island
Of the Pacific gold came to have a fixed
value"
Mr. Donnelly here challenged the pa
perS who print reports of the profound
opinions of some loan broker in North
To IN rof1Yto hio ctsofc
1.-THE equality of gold and silver as es-
tablished by law is not new fad" he
said, "but has been recognized by finan-
ciers in all ages. Intrinsically neither
gold nor silver are worth anything.
There is little demand for them in the
arts They are not one-tenth as valua-
BILE as iron. If every mint in the world
we're closed against gold it would be
worth scarcely anything
Except the power of Almighty God,
the fiat of a great government like this
is the supremest thing in the world. 1t
is the concentrated will and power of
70, 900, 900 of people. When the govern
ment puts its stamp upon piece of paper
it becomes an equivalent TO all the debts
of the country. When the subtle loan
agent tells you people that it would be a
terrible thing to remonetiZe silver it re-
minds me of the story of an Irshman
whose employer told him he must vote
for protection or his wages would go
down from $3.50 day to so cents day
The Irishman replied: 'Begob, if We
though it would do that We would lie in
favor of it yourself 1t is Just so with
the holders of those mortgages. If they
believed what they said, they would be
the most ardent advocates of the remone-
tiZation Of silver.
There is a great conflict between the
rights of man and the octopus-like pow
er of the banks and the money handlers
of this country.
To-day the Rothschilds are the real
powers of Europe. Kings, Cars and
emperors bow at their feet. Incensed by
the monstroue murder of the Armenians,
the whole of Europe and America rose up
and declared that Turkey should be
wiped off the face of the map But never
a shot was fired. The old Turk grinned
and went on with his fiendish work un-
molested. Why? Because the Jews of
Europe owned lot of Turkish bonds,
and if Turkey were blown to pieces where
would the bonds be:
This is despOtism of monsters, cruel
and remorseless, which wrings the
our congress proposition was made re-
Gently to recognize the belligerency of
Cuba. With enthusiasm it passed both
houses and the people said now we will
see Cuba free. But has anything been
done? No. Again the calm of death
and rottennesS spreads over the scene
A great many Cuban bonds were held by
people in this country and in Europe and
if Cuba went to smash what would be-
come of the bonds?
EN- masse we Americans are all hon.
est Individually We may be scamps,
but the heart beat of the country is hon.
est
1--WE want to get clear of that power
that has already doubled the purchasing
power of the dollar. Your prosperity
rests upon the prosperity of the farmers.
There is not an impulse of growth but
comes from the outside country. A man
who borrowed money when wheat was
worth 81 a bushel has difficult time try
ing to repay it now that money IS worth
as this man says, 100 cents to the dollar
and wheat worth only so cents. Such a
man is not going to enjoy many of the
luxeries of life, and how are the mer-
chants going to thrive under such condi-
tons. The farmer can live like a serf
pinned to The soil, but where are you peo-
pie of the city to come in?
Even today great business houses are
failing and banks are insecure. II il A
shameful thing to say that you with a
brain to think out your own way dare not
have an opinion or dare to act without
first knowing what Mr.. Goodnow wants.