The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-08-28

IIeTe Is great uSal VI Talk ABOUT
bimetallism and the double standard,
and great deal of confusion in the
use of those terms. BimetalliSm is the
use OF two metals as money, where
they are both used. By double stand
ard they mean that we shall have a
gold dollar and a silver dollar which
shall be unit of value, by which all
property and all wages and everything
Is 10 be measured. Now, our fathers
thought that when they used these
two metals in coinage they must de-
! termine the intrinsic relative value of
the two so that a comparison OF the
markets of the world would show just
what relation one onuce OF silver bore
to one ounce of gold; how many ounces
of silver ii took to be equal to one
ounce Of gold in the markets
of the world where the gold
and silver were used and they
carefully went about aScertaining
that Thomas Jefferson and Alexander
Hamilton gave their great powers to
4 the determination of that question, and
they collected the market reports and
they studied with all their power that
question, and when they had found
what appeared to be the general and
average relative value of these two
metals. they fixed upon a ratio between
them. Now what was the object of all
| that? Why did they lump it all? Be
/
these dollars were of the same inner
ent, intrinsic value that both of them
could not be standards of value, and
both could not circulate. (Applause0
Why, everybody knows that 1t is es-
sential that the length of his stills
below the tread shall be the same.
! Oaughter) 1t is an old law proclaimed
years ago in England by Gresham
that the cheaper dollar drives the bet
ter out. (Applause) 1t has been il
Illustrated in the history of every COM
mercial nation in the world, and any
body of half sense could see why it is
Sc. Naughter) AS things are now,
the silver dollars that we have are
! supported by the government, and the
government that supports this silver
bullion has issued these dollars on its
own account-not for the mine owner
and it has
PLEDGED ITS SACRED HONOR
il would make every one of these silver
dollars as good as a gold dollar great
applause), and that is a powerful sup
port. Our Populistic friends propose
that the man who digs silver out of
the mines may bring it to the mint
and have it stamped and handed back
! to him as a dollar, the government
having no responsibility about it. These
men would reject with contempt the
I w
come with pledge on behalf Of the
government to maintain the parity Of
two dollars (applause); but this feeling
is well adapted to touch the prevailing
American bumptiousness, and well
adapted to touch that prejudice against
England which many have; but can
we do this ourselves? Is it a question
whether we will do it or ask some
body's consent whether we may, or ask
the cooperation of somebody? Not at
al. tell you what this government
can do alone: 1t can fix its money
unit. 1t can declare by law what shall
be the relative value of an ounce of
gold and an ounce of silver, but it
cannot make that last declaration good.
| (Applause) 1t is unquestionably fully
within the power of this government
10 bring this country to
| A SILVER BASIS
by coming silver dollars and making
them legal tender. They can do that.
This government shall say you shall take
one of those dollars in discharge of any
debt owing to you for a dollar, notwith-
Standing you may have loaned gold dol
lars but it cannot say and enforce it's
/ decree-if you should call out the regular
army, our navy and muster our great
modern ships and the militia and put
+ William j. Bryan in command of them
! it cannot enforce the decree that one
ounce of gold is the equivalent of sixteen
/ ounces of silver. Great applause and
| cheers. Not only that. Not France and
England and Germany can do that unless
the markets respond. (Applause). We can
! OF ourselves, of our own wisdom, declare
! the unit of value We can coin silver
/ freely, but We cannot make sixteen
/ ounces of silver equal to one ounce of
gold unless it is. (Applause). And iii is
/ not unless the merchants take it at that
/ rate.
| What is the next suggestion? 1t is,
| my friends, in the case of free silver,
| what is the financial and moral equiva-
lent of declaration that 90 cent pieces
! are dollars. They might just as well pass
law that fifty cents is a dollar. That
would not make 1T so, would 1T? 1t would
/ be a legal dollar; but it would not buy
! dollars worth of anything. What is the
( effect of that? The merchant woud take
care of himself. man keeps a store
1 down here ON Broadway, and that law is
I going into operation tonight. He sum-
4 mons all his clerks and buys % cents
! worth of pencils and before he opens his
! store in the morning he has marked up
! his goods to the new scale. He can do all
| that. But there are great numbers of
/ people, numberless people who enlist our
/ interest and some of whom enklndle our
/ sympathies, who cannot us the pencil
! Take the work of a man. He cannot go
/ to the pay roll with a pencil and mark
/ 1t up. He has got to consult somebody.
He has to enter into an argument. lie
! has got to get some other mans consent
/ before he can mark up his wages linen
/ ing pension from this government for
/ gallant deeds done in the wars and others
! in the loss of loved ones. He cannot take
4 his pension certificate and when 1t reads
/ IS make it read SIG. He must wait for an
! appeal to congress- and a congress that
/ is Populistic in character would be IN
+ sympathetic (Applause). Take the men
/ who have life insurance. Can they,
where the policy reads $1,000, make it
read $4,000? No. Can the managers o.
/ these institutions make it right win
J them? This policy coerces integrity. Cap
plause). 81,
sympathy they are for MN. MY country
men.
! I NEVER SPOKE A FALSE WORD
! to the Iaboring man in my life. Great
/ a.pplause.) [ have never sought to reach
| His vote or influence by appeals to that
= r,art of his nature that Will poIlute the
! intellect and the conscience. nave be-
! Iieyed. and I believe today, that any sys-
| tenn that maintains the prices OF labor IN
| this country that brings hope into the life
Of the laboring man, tnat ehapies nm 70
nut by, is the policy that should be our
! American policy. (Applause.( L have re-
! sisted in many campaigns this idea that
! q debased currency could help the work.
| ingman. The first dirty errand that a
| dirty dollar does is to cheat the work
| ingmen.
Mr. Harrison quoted the statistical re-
s11Its of the senate committee which in
! $500 made INQUIRIES as to the relative
| nrices of commodities and wages at diff
| ferent periods particularly during the
| war and his deduction was that they
found that the enormous disparity be-
! tween the advance of the cost OF living
| and
THE ADVANCE IN WAGES