The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-08-07
TRUTHS IN H0MELY PHRASE
SPEAKER REEDS PLIIy TALK ON
TIE CURRENCY ISSUE.

tion Which Reaches tne Intelligence of
Even the Most Benigh ted-No Confusing,
Complex Masses of W ords. but Coherent,
Concise Sentences that Probe the Densest
Greatest Importance and Easily the Best
Speech Thus Far Made.
of the speech of the Hon. Thomas B.
Reed, before the First congressional
convention this afternoon, was as fol-
lows, being ELECTED by the action of the
convention In unanimously renominat-
ing him for the tenth consecutive time
for the lower house of congress-:
I'VE in Maine have got to make UP
our minds on the subject sooner than
of any other state in the union, and our
verdict win be of great Importance to
the country. 1t Is worth while then
that we should discuss to some Slight
extent the great principles which un-
derlie the issues of this campaign, Do
not understand that | propose to make
the currency question perfectly clear to
you; I do not know enough to do it.
Whenever, during this campaign
you see man talking to another man
and the man who listens does not un-
derstand It, and the man who talks
about 1t does not quite understand it,
you will know that the question Of cur
rency is being discussed. l do not
know how it is possible for us all at
once to contend with the various de-
grees of ignorance which exists. I
don't use the word ignorance in any
naughty or superior fashion 7 mean
by it lack Of Information. In the first
place. think we ought to have certain
elements OF passion and feeling that
have been connected with this debate
Il suppose if have listened once
have listened a hundred times to the
declaration In congress that silver mon
ey laws stealthily demonetized. Well,
now / myself in the house of represen-
tatives produced the volume of the
Congressional Record which contained
the debates of the change in 1873, and
there We're 1876 columns, made up of
speeches that were actually made on
the subject and 1t was UP twice, and, I
think, three times. And yet they say 1t
was done in corner. Then they have
declared that it was done by an ennis
sary from abroad and they even went
to the extent of giving the name of Mr.,
Ernest Sedy. Mr.. Ernest Sedy was al
ways O silver man and was not here
when the thing was done.
1T has also been said that this was
a steal by which we were called upon
to furnish a more costly metal and
therefore our creditors were going to
get more out of us and it was all plot
with that in view The answer Is SIM
pie and conclusive. In the first place,
we had not, prior to 1873, had a single
dollar of gold or silver currency in this
country, and we did not have any for
seven years after. And there Is anoth-
er fact, pretty important one. and
that is that in 1873 the silver which
would have made United States stan
dard silver dollar of 412.50 grains was
worth three cents on a dollar more than
gold dollar was.
This was setting up standard that
was three cents on a dollar lower than
the one which you say ought to have
been retained I think, then, we may
safely eliminate from our minds any
notion that any fraud or wickedness
was practiced. And the only question
is, Which system is the best for this
country-which will produce the best
results? At the very outset, / want
you to understand precisely what Is
proposed. You will hear great deal
of talk about bimetallism. The system
which is proposed by the Chicago con-
yention is not bimetalliSm. Bimetal-
lism is an entirely different affair. The
object Of bimetallism is to give to the
currency greater stability by spreading
it over more surface.
Now, there is some reason and sense
in the idea that the whole world, II they
took gold and silver at a proper ratio,
could preserve a. greater level OF prices,
firmer and more stable level of prices.
This no single country could do Real
bimetallism has never yet had per-
feet trial. I mean international bimet-
allism. and that Is the kind we must
have, because, if this is a disease at all.
it is a world disease and has got to
have a world remedy Nothing else
will attend to it. Why, we had some
experience in this country, but mems
memories are short.
.In 1882 our earlier fathers deter
mined to marry the two metals to-
,ether What is the first thing they
did? 1t was to ascertain the market
value of the two metals as they stood
side by side then and they thought
that they were Is to mot 16 to l, but
IL to 1. What was the effect? 1t was
an generalization of silver. Yes, the
gold in a gold dollar was worth more
than the silver. What was the result
Why, if a man had two dollars, one
of which was worth 100 cents and the
other was worth 102 cents he kept the
1O2-cent dollar longer and passed off
the other one quicker I don't mean
that the average man did that. Two
cents on a dollar, even in those days
was not worth making much fuss
about, but the money changers were on
the alert and whenever a silver dollar
came into the bank or reached the
money changers he put 1t out of circu-
lation. I have misstated that. should
have said that gold was more valua-
ble-so that we had silver alone during
that period. The gold being more Valu-
able, fled away.
We'll, now the gold disappearing, our
fathers in 1884 thought they had better
make a change and see if they could
not keep gold and silver together; Sc
they changed the ratio from 15 to 1 to
16 to 1, or to be exact. to 1898 to L.