The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-08-02
SOUND MONEY AN ESSENTIAL
TO THE HIGHEST DEVELOPMENT
OF THE CIVILIZATION OF
THE COUNTRY.
THE REPUBLIC NO JUDAS IsCARIoT
30 Million Times 30 Pieces of Silver
Would Not Purchase the Cruz
cihxion of Its Credit.


in the presence Of a large audience.
He drew comparisons between the
money Of the country when he came
to Nebraska in pioneer days, and now.
He said then 1t was something sub
stantial, such as cattle, horses, and
hogs, and not until the present was
there an effort to create value from
something which had no value as a
commodity.
After explaining the origin Of money
and dwelling upon the object Of substi-
tuting coin values. Mr.. Morton said:
1.-THE sole origin, source and cause of
value is human desire; when there is a
demand fo1 things they have value;
when the supply remains stationary
and the demand increases the value in
creases; when the demand ceases alto
gether the value is altogether gone.
This shows clearly that the cur
rency of a people must be readily ex-
changeable for those things which that
people desire and demand. The cur
rency itself must be desirable and must
be in demand by those who have things
to SELL The farmer who sells cattle,
swine and cereals for money finds that
his customer demands the highest pos
sible quality in each of these things.
The seller of those same products is
the buyer of money, The purchaser
demands the highest known quality of
things that he buys of the farmers,
and enlightened self-interest must COM
pei the farmer to demand the highest
and most unfuctuating and general
purchasing power in the money which
he h1Ius Nouor hafOra in tEn history
Of civilization have any number of
people protested against being paid
more than certain sum for commod-
tiles which they have to sell. But to-
day there are many farmers and labor
ers who declare themselves in favor of
a system of coinage which shall pay
them only sixteen ounces of silver in
lieu of one ounce of gold. Vehemently
these people are declaring everywhere
that they will be absolutely ruined if
they be paid more than sixteen ounces
of silver instead of one ounce of gold.
The commercial ratio of these two met
ais today is about 80 to 1; that is thir-
ty-two ounces of silver will buy one
ounce of gold bullion. The reason for
declaring in favor of mint value for
silver which is twice it's bullion value
is inexpiicable upon the part of those
who have no silver bullion to coin.
The advocates of this system Of COIN
ing silver at double it's commercial val
ue declare themselves to be bimeta1-
lists and assert that they are in favor
| Of two units Of value. And, while two
units of value are, to my mind, un-
! thinkable, they in their statements
show that they themselves have only
one unit of value and that is the gold
unit.
Who ever says L am in favor of the
free and unlimited coinage Of silver at
16 to L declared himself a gold mono
metallist. The 16 ounces Of silver he
| proposes to measure by one ounce of
goldf But we are told that there was a
| great crime committed in the secret
decentralization of silver. There was
NO secret demonetization of silver. The
bill which left the silver dollar out Of
the coinage, provided for in the act Of
1873, was before the American people
for more than two years.
CURRENCY LEGISLATION.
The debate upon it's passage in the
house and in the senate occupied sever
al columns of the congressional pro-
ceedings. Up to the time Of this all
| eyed decentralization of silver the gov
ernment had. during its entire ex-
istence, coined less than nine million
of silver dollars. Under the Bland
| Allison act of 1878, the government
authorized the coinage of the standard
! silver dollar, and to restore it's legal
tender character" This act was to
resuscitate the declining value Of silver.
1t was to place 1t side by side with
gold as part of the redemption money
of the United States. Let 1t be re-
membered that silver had been de-
| monetized by the act of 1863. and that
the legislation of 1878 was based upon
the fallacy that silver dollars of gold
value could be substituted for depre-
ciated paper. The silver dollars coined
before this enactment amounting to
between eight and nine millions of
dollars, had long before disappeared
value of silver was consequent upon it's
increased production, which began to
exceed the demand for its use. Euro
pean nations omitted it from their
coinage laws. They dropped it be-
cause they had already as much silver
money as their people demanded.
They dropped it because they knew
that no amount of coming of this metal
| could arrest its further decline if in
creased production continued.
But 1t is impossible to cover the
whole ground in single desultory
speech. Let US then go back to the
alleged crime of 1873. Was there a
conspiracy? If so, who were the con-
spirators? They were the genics of
trade, the enterprise of the American
people. and the intelligence of an adj
vanced civilization. The fiat boat In
which I crossed the Missouri river in
the autumn of 1854 was by a con-
spiracy between capital and human in
genuity de-ferryized, and the steam
boat took Its place. This change took
| place because immigration and the de-
velopment of the territory became too
big for fiat boats Later. on q con-
spiracy again transpired wherein can
ital and civilization have combined to
de-ferryize the steamboat and the re-
suit is the magnificent steel bridge
| upon which our trains cross every day
This republic is not a Judas Iscariot
among civilized nations 1t refuses RI
betray honest dealings. 1t scorns even
thirty million times thirty pieces Of
silver, and is compelled by its Judg-
ment and its conscience to reject the
opportunities of those who would de-
liver the safety and perpetuity of the
country into the hands of socialism
zealotry, fanaticism and dishonesty.
1t ignores and scornsa all those who
would applaud and Jeer at the cruci-
f1xion of the credit of our government
which has been, and God grant that II
may continue to be, the savior of civil