Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-09-15

that parity between our silver and gold
coins which the law declares is the
| policy of the government, and because
he has the courage to execute the pow :
| ers given to him by the resumption act
| to carry out that declaration of pubic
! law. / undertake, therefore, to say
that il Mr.. Bryan, or a man holding his
views, were i'm the presidential chair,
without any legislation by Congress, we
should be on silver basis In week
time. (Applause).
1.-The silver question-wh is it? Do
you want silver because You want more
money, larger circulating medium! L
| have not heard anybody say so. Mr..
Bryan is not urging it upon that basis.
| If anybody were to seek to give that as
reason for wanting free silver he would
! be very soon COMPOUNDED by the state
ment that free silver would put more
gold out of circulation than minis of the
United States could possibly bring in in
years of silver, and that instead of hav-
ing more money we would have less. ZAP
plause.) With our six hundred and odd
million of gold driven out of circulation
we will reduce our per capita money of
| this country between eight and nine dol
lars. So it is not for more money. We
have an abundant supply of circulating
| medium-gold, silver, national bank
| greenbacks, treasury notes, fractional Sill
yer. We have something like $23 per
capita of our population. What is 1T,
! then, that creates this demand for silver?
| Ii is openly avowed. 1t is not more dol
lars, but cheaper dollars that are wanted.
1t is lower standard Of value that they
! are demanding. They say gold has gone
up until it has ceased to be a proper
standard of value, and they want silver.
But how do they want it.
"Now, my friends. there is great
H. - m, l. 2.f1. Al
| double standard and great deal of con-
| fusion in the use of those terms. BIZ
metallism is the use of the two metals
as money where they are both used.
BY double standard they mean that
we shall have gold dollar and silver
dollar which will be a unit of value,
by which all property and all wages
and everything is to be measured. Now,
our fathers thought that when they used
these two metals i'm coinage they must
| determine the intrinsic relative value of
the two, so that comparison of the
markets of the world would show just
what relation one ounce of silver bore
to one ounce of gold; how many ounces
of silver it took to be equal to one ounce
of gold in the markets of the world
| where gold and silver were used, and
they carefully went about ascertaining
that. Thomas Jefferson and Alexander
| Hamilton gave their great powers to
the determination of that question, and
| they collected the market reports and
| they studied with all their power that
| question, and when they found what
| appeared to be the general and average
relative value of these two metals they
| fixed upon ratio between them Now,
what was the object of all that? Why
did they lump it all? Because they fully
understood that unless these dollars were
| of the same intrinsic value that both of
them could not be standards of value,
and both could not circulate. ZAP
! plause.)
las things are now the silver dollars
that we have are supported by the gov
ernment, and the government that sup
ports this silver bullion has issued these
! dollars on its own account-not for the
mine owner-and it has pledged it's sa-
cred honor it would make every one of
| these dollars as good as a gold dollar
! Great applause) And that is n power
| full support. Our Populistic friends pro-
pose that the man who digs silver out of
the mine 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 PROPOSE
ton that free coinage was to come with
a pledge on behalf of the government
| to maintain the parity of the 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
thing ourselves? Is it question wheth-
err we will do it, or ask anybody's con-
sent whether we may, or ask the coop
Grafton of somebody? Not at all. 1
| 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 to bring this
country to silver basis by coming silver
dollars and making them legel tender.
They can do that.
"This government might say you shall
take one of these dollars, but it cannot
say and enforce its decree-if you should
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 Ger
many can do that unless the markets
respond. (Applause.) We can of our
selves. of our own wisdom, declare. the
| ly, but We cannot make sixteen ounces
| of silver equal to one ounce of gold I'M
less 1t Is. (Applause.) And 1t is not
unless the merchants take 1t at that
rate.
what is the next suggestion. 1t is,
/ my friends, in the case of free silver,
what ID the financial and moral equiva-