The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1896-04-08


get silver back into circulation.
The gentleman has seen fit TO
critic lie course Of tbe Secretary
of the Treasury in his efforts to keep
silver at parity with gold In
France they paid not only in which
ever metal the creditor demanded,
but would redeem silver with gold ;
but in spite of all this, from 1920 to
1850 France had silver monometal
lsm, and from 1850 gold monometal
Iism.
He declared that the ratio of 16 to
|, which is not in accord with the
commercial ratio, is undemocratlc
and violates the teaching of Jefer-
son, Jackson and Of Cleveland
(Great applause } 1t accords with
the teaching of Jones, of Nevada,
Bryan, Of Nebraska, and Watson, Of
Georgia l dare to be Democrat
who differs from those last three
distinguished gentlemen. Ap-
plause. 1t is impossible to have
bimetallism at legal ratio which
disregards the commercial value.
England tried it in vain, and the
very country the gentlemen cites, !
have showed by history, failed aud
abandoned the effort
Mr.. Smith then argued that the
great increase in the production Of
silver, the establishing Of railroads
to the mines and the Improvement Of
machinery for mining had caused the
fall in the price Of silver. He de-
clared also that since 1873 fourteen
nations had demonetized silver. and
it was impossible to restore the con-
ditions that obtained in that year
The silver men tell us to restore the
conditions of 1878 1t cannot be
done. They say. let's try it. Will
you voluntarily do thing that is un-
speakably stupid ?
Turning to Mr.. Crisp, he said ::
"Do not lead your people, sir, into
the folly that your craftsmanship
should tell you will be ruinous to
their best interests We have seen
fourteen countries staggering under
load which they cocld not carry,
and now you say for only one of
them to try it and see There would
he nothing left financial to see after
we tried. No country could, and
certainly not ours, restore the parity
of silver at 16 to l. 1t is not in the
Democratic platform, and while God
gives me voice l am going to urge
that it shall rot be put there.
(Great applause The standard in
this country to-day is gold-23 81
grains Of gold. For the sake of the
people it is necessary to keep both
silver and gold dollars equally good.
When the proposition was made to
put "gold' in these bonds it was
because the Secretary knew we
could not maintain the credit of this
country without allowing the cred
itor to choose in which money he
should be paid
The Secretary then argued that
should a change be made to silver
standard the laboring man would be
the cne to suffer that while the
commodities which he must buy
would double in price, it would be
long time before his wages would
double. Il would rather put my
arm in the flames and burn il to the
shou1@ than injure one of them in
his E. 1T to make an honest living
Mr.. Crisp has asked me to say
what remedy I propose for the ex-
listing evil. | find that | cannot
complete my argument in the time
remaining to NE and l will give the
remedy which I propose on Thurs
day night in Atlanta | put him on
notice in general terms that it will
be along the line Of the Presidents S
message and Of Mr. Garlisles sug.
gestion i'll 1894 l agree with Mir
Callse that the double standard is a
physica! and metaphysical impossi-
bility We are on cold standard,
out this is q bimeta!ic country if
Congress will pass the necessary
legislation and allow US to pay off
and cancel the greenbacks and sill
yer notes we Can do So without
issuing another bond Though some
of our friends are disposed 20 criti-
else Tie Administration, taking ;he
two Administrations together, Pres
ident Cleveland has reduced the in
deb:edncss Of the country four hun
dred millions and we have cut of
annually twenty f.,e millions Of
fraudulent pensions If he had SER
we'd oniv one tern #id we ccu!d
nom;nare bin agai,' we wonia elect
him: AID before III e.d Of bis term
YOU all would bless hjm ip-