The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1896-10-26

| win various ltninSs. Ollvc oil mas Decn
used ~ money; ten has been used as
mofsHy: almost every article that the
human rlce uses or has used fot any
thing at nll thnt Il for n useful purpose
| or ornamental purpose has been used for
money. Lead was used for money; iron
was uBcd for money In the old Spartan
days: copper was ued for money. You
say to-day.I estimate thing as worth
80 much Why, weighed It against
copper The story Is told in an old Lat
| in word. i put up copper against IT.
| This Is what estimate meant In the
early. dnys.I 1t was their money, but as
| time went on. copper and lead and iron
passed out and we come along TO more
civilized timcs when gold and silver be-
| come tho money OF the world. T..
lf Inc Worlds Experience.
Now, what Is this? Who determines
all this? Boy orators from the Platter
daughter and applause) What deter
mines the question OF whether wampum
shall 50. whether COWS shall be dcmone-
tlzed, lead and iron pass out OF our cur
| rency and tobacco cease to be the medi-
UNI for paying railroad wages or for pay-
| Ing for the products OF the soil, OF the
| farm, OF the mine, or the manufacturer?
| Why, II Is nothing but human expert
cnce. That is what determines 1t. 1t lis
| the same thing that determines what
kind Of an engine you shall run. Why
| don't You use the old crab engine that
| you used until atfcw years ago at Lo-'
Gust point7 Why are you not using the
Potter Cooper engine? II was "a great
improvement In Its day, although the old
gray mare did beat the Peter Cooper en-
Lot, ia. Vnlt Staa
first run? The reason Is because human
experience. your experience, the expert
ence OF the people who have got to haul.
who have gctto pull loads who have got
to carry men and things, as Vanderbilt
would say, to tote persons and things
II iseyour experience that has led you to
the larger engine, to. the improved en-
gin. The came thing Is true Of money.
1t Is human experience that has deter
mined what money shall be, not boy ora
tors OF the Platte who have no business
experience except to borrow q thousand
dollars from bank on aNhundred dol
lars security. and when the bank fails
complain that they don't get any divi-
dend (Applause.) But the business of
the great commercial world that has
got to swap, to barter TO tnde. that has
got to buy and SELL deal in products and
deal In labor, 1t Is that'eXperience and 1t
Is to that experience Of the world that We
appeal to-day.
Nov, what Is that experience? Why
nre we for gOiu standard? Why are
we for gold standard as against a de-
based silver standard? Let us so back
II little bit to history. 1t Is dry. yet at
the same time to dsucss any question Of
this Kind you must know some dry
facts.
E"Our fathers in 1792-Hamllton and
Jefferson-looked over the list. Gold
and silver were being used as money,
and they found that 1t took fifteen ounces
Of silver to Juy one ounce OF gold In the
market and therefore they made money
gold and silver-upnn the ratio OF If
teen to one; that Is. the weight OF q, sill
yer dollar was fifteen times the weight
of n gold dollar. That Is Is TO i. That
ratio you don't hear any more: It's sa-
credness seems to have passed away.
You have a new ratio, sixteen to !.
Fifteen to one was the early ratio
Why was that selected? Why did we
coin silver and gold and say fifteen ounc-
es OF silver and one ounce OF gold shall
be the same thing, pay just the same
debt, buy the same amount OF labor, buy
the same amount OF products? Why?
BccSuse in the markets OF the world f1f-.
teen ounces OF silver were snapped for
one ounce of gold. That is the only rca-
son. 1t was mere matter Of swapping
out In the markets where things were
sold, nothing else. Now what was the
result? Well. II only showed that wise
as Hamilton and Jefferson were, they
simply made n mistake. They couldn't
hitch the two things together. They
were an unruly team that wouldn't stick
together. What was the result? The
result was this, that one ounce Of gold
was worth more than fifteen ounces OF
silver in the market of the world, and
therefore nobody would so out to get an
ounce OF gold which he had to work
harder for End pay more for. in the way
of labor in order that he might take It to
the mint and have it coined into dollars,
whaN he could get fifteen ounces Of sill
yer that would cost less labor to do. the
same thing. The result was that gold
left us and We, were on silver basis.
And how curious result occurred.
Thomas jefferson. who Is supposed at
one time to have belonged to the Demo-
cratic party before 1t became Popullstic
daughter and applause) was President
of the United States. and he stopped the
coinage OF Silver dollars altogether. This
great Democrat actually stopped the
dollar of. our dadicS' that we are sup
posed to worship. This coinage was
stopped by the great founder Of the DEM
ocrutic party
cat this point Mr.. Cowen suspended
while another delegation of >railrpaders
took seats in the hall.)
Whut Thomas Jefferson Did.
IT was saying that Jefferson. the faith
er Of the Democratic party committed the
great crime of stopping the coinage of
the silver dollar in 1906 Why did he do
+ Il? why, the American dollar was
about 2Ia grains lighter than a Spanish
dollar coined in the Spanish American
states, and the American dollar circulate
cd in Cuba and in the West midas just
exactly rs the Spanish dollar circulated.
Now mark you, the Spanish dollar has
2E grains more silver in 1t: the Amcri-
can dollar 2M grains less silver than the
Spanish dollar. What does the Ameri-
can dollar do? That dollar will pay just
as many debts In Cuba as the Spanish
dollar. II just quietly took Its flight to
Cuba; the American mint was cOiningl
dollars to go to Cuba. WHAT became of
the Spanish dollar? 1t came over here,
went to the United States mint, and the
fellow who brought them made 2iA
grains on every dolar--one per cent. He
turned Spanish dollars into American
dollars and so that circulation went on
and We didn't get my American dollars.
We were just furnishing business for the
bullion broker This Is n little historic
circumstance showing how utterly i'm
possible II is TO control by law the opera
tons Of trade. A difference Of one per