The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1896-09-25


me call your attention to one fact. The
| free-coiners assert. when they are told
| that the increased output of gold is going
| to tend very much and by natural pro-
| cesses to solve this question, that from
one-half to one-third of the gold annually
| produced in the world goes into the arts.
| This statement is probably an eXaggera-
| ton. 1t is probable that one-Quarter of
the gold of the world produced annually
| goes into the arts, and it has been doing
| it for centuries. Consider for a mo-
| mept, my fellow citizens. what an enor-
/ nous sum. enormous aggregate-three
| billions. perhaps four billions, of dollars
are lying in the shape of golden orna-
/ ments, thousands of dollars of them in
| this room tonight. Now l want to ask
| YOU this question, if there is a gold fam
inc. if the power of gold is so absolute
| and tyrannical as it is claimed, if its
| possession i'll the shape of coin gives its
| owner such sway over the destiny and
| fortune of his fellow man, how is it
/ that this enormous amount of gold, per-
haps one-third of that which is in exist
| ence, has not shown the least symptom
| yet of going into the melting pot to be
turned into coin?
| But we hear a great deal about the de-
| monetiZation of silver, and one would
1 think TO hear our free-coiner friends de-
| claim that silver had been entirely de-
| mOnetlZed, that by some malign lntiu-
| ence the money function of silver
throughout the world had been entirely
| abrOgated. and it is a very catching
/ phrase. 1t has been very catching
i assumption, for l will not call it an argu-
ment.
Now. say. my fellow citizens, that,
1 properly considering facts. that state
/ ment is inaccurate. not to say untrue. L
assert that silver has never been demon
1 etized in the sense in which that charge
| has been made. (Applause.) Demone-
tization means to divest of standard
! value as money, and | say this has not
| been done with any dollar of silver coin
that was ever minted at any mint. CAP
/ plause9 1t is true that many nations
| who have approached the danger line of
| which spoke a few moments ago, when
! one metal drives out another. that many
| nations have told the owners of silver
i which lay concealed i'll the earth we will
not longer buy it at certain ratio and
| at certain price. Even that has not
| been entirely done, and i repeat my
| statement that the assertion that silver
has been demonetized is one calculated
to mislead. and is not true in fact.
1.-The Crime of '73.''
| All our woes are dated from 1878, the
| period when the free-coiners persuade
| their disciples that. to use their stock ex-
| preston, silver was demonetized. or that
| one-half of the aggregate wealth of the
| world was struck down at a blow. Now
| let us bring this statement to the crucial,
absolute test of figures, of what records
| and statistics say upon this subject. and
| not trust to the vague defamation of
any person The value land l will give
| you my authority for this statement in a
| moment). the value of all silver coin in
| the world in 1873 was S1,SI7 100000.
In 1895 it was 81. 100,000.000. The
1873 was $3.045.O0O,O the value of all
/ the gold coin i'll the world in 1895 was
| 81. 200. 100000. OF this quantity of sill
| yer current in the world in 1895, s., 49,
/ 100000 was full legal tender. Now at
| tend to me for moment while the math-
| ematical deduction is made. BY this
statement it appears that the quantity
| of gold in the world increased. between
! 1873 and 1895, only 81 1,200,000.000
while the increase of silver coin for the
| coined in the twenty-three years since
/ 1873 than remained up to that time of
| all the coinage of the world since Noah
left the ark. (Applause.) And nearly
| gold since 1873. What becomes, then, of
the assertion of the equal and equable
| production of silver and gold from year
| to year since time began, and of the de-
| monetization of silver since 1873, in the
| face of this showing that. between 1873
| and 1895 the coinage of silver was near
| ly twice greater than that of gold? They
| talk of the demonetiZation of silver since
| 1873 in the face of a silver coinage
throughout the world since that year of
| over OF WHICH FDOS.-
Al. .46! was minted by, the United
States! tApplause.) And of gold the
| United States mnted during the same
period $937, ,46O.633. And here, also, is
| answered Il statement confidently made
/ and plausibly maintained, and yet erron-
| eous in fact, that there has in all this
time been an enormous contraction of
| the currency all over the world, yet
these figures conclusively demonstrate
that that statement is not true. Now,
my friends, l have not taken this from
| the statistics of any other speaker or
from any other book. l know where the
| statistics are gathered with the care
which commands the respect and conf
dence of the civilized world, and on the
! 29th of July (only few days ago. l
telegra phed to the director of the mint
regarding information upon these sub
| jects, and he answered me:
Hon. G. X. Davis, st. Paul, Mimi:
| The total value of all silver coined in the
world in 1873 l estimate to have been
| 81, ,S17 100000 and 1895 81, 100 OOO, 900.
| The worlds stock of gold in 1873 is es-
| timated to have been S3,045, 100000 and
1895 about 81 200. 100000. r. e. Pres
ton, director of the mint" And these
! figures l have just given you are the fig
ures which l have just read in the tele-
gram of the director. The greatest busi-
ness transactions in the way of finance
on the face of the earth are made upon
| statements like that and when what I
have said is discussed the only answer
| that will be made to it is probably that
| Mr.. Preston and the United States gov
ernment is one general universal gold
| bug. Uaughter.)
Now let Inc give you another state
ment. The coinage of the nations of the
| world in 1892, 1898 and 1894 was as
follows: Gold, S172.4T3,124; silver,
$3.50, ,347: 1898, gold, $232, 2,420.51
silver: $135 .952 $50: in 1894 gold, 1921
three years of 81 OBS, ,3S9, ,49S. With all
deductions for recoinage this output of
coined money is of immense volume.
Now l have thrown out these sugges-
tions and will pass from that branch of
the discussion and call your attention to
| another assertion of the free coiners; I
| alluded to it cursorily a few moments
| ago, but 1 propose to now treat it in
| the same manner in which 1 have treat
| cd the Last 1lrncndircr 1II1nStinr1 Tho