Evening star., 1896-08-10
JOINT EBATE
The Gold and Silver Question Discussed in
Public at Laurel.
Two Speakers Talk for Each of the
Two MetaIs-Arxuments
Used.
Correspondence Of The Evening Star.

A joint discussion OF the gold ana SILVER
question took place at a meeting Saturday
evening at Burtonsville. Montgomery coun-
ty. The meeting was for the purpose of
enlightening the farmers of that section on
the money question. Quite a number of
farmers turned out to hear the silver and
gold speakers. The speakers were Mr.. H.
Maurice Talbot of Rockville. prominent
Montgomery county lawyer and a candi-
date FOR the democratic nomination for
Congress in the sixth district. who made
silver Speech Maj. James Albert Clark.
editor of the Laurel Free Quill and journal
clerk of the house of delegates, who spoke
for gold; Mr. J. H. Turner OF Washington.
business manager of Senator Stewards pa
per, the Silver Knight, who made a silver
speech. and Mr.. ]. Cookman Boyd of Balti-
more. republican elector-at-large for Presi-
dent and Vice President in Maryland. who
spoke for gold.
MIR. Talbot for Silver.
The first speaker introduced was Mr..
Maurice Talbot of Rockville. He opened
the debate for silver. His speech dealt
more with generalities than with details.
He said in part: I'm some respects do not
agree with the democratic platform, but l
have never yet seen the day that 1 could
not stand upon platform adopted by the
majority of dele gates in a democratic ma
tional convention. They could never make
a platform too narrow or too broad that
could not stand on. l am today standing
on the platform for free silver and every
thing else that is in it. In my opinion it is
the only democratic platform the party has
had for twenty-five years. The democrats
who kicking in the traces today are
bondholders, bankers and the representa-
tives of money interests We have driven
out of the democratic party the mugwum2
element, and are now welcoming with open
arms the silver republicans to help secure
a victory for the white metal. There Is no
mugwumpism IN this fight. You are either
democrat, standing or the platform
adopted at Chicago. or republican. stand
ing On the gold platform of the St. Louis
convention. Whether 1t Is better for the
people to have a gold standard OF a bime-
tallic standard Is the question w meet
here today to discuss.
Calling democrats popocrats, anarchists
and cranks. because they believe in silver at
1G to l. is not argument. If the manufac-
turer and moneyed interests of the north
are on the one side. it is to the interest of
the farmer and laboring classes to be on the
other l know. my friends, the glamor
that is around the magic word of gold.
know that for hundreds of years past that
has been the representative of value.
know that for love of it men have sold their
honor and women their virtue. l know that
for the possession of 1t countries have been
plunged in bloodshed and revolution.
terial measure up to money standard. to
medium of exchange and value. l know of
its everlasting indestructibility. Gold has
furnished the motive power which has
rocked this world. 1t has deluged the coun-
tries of the earth with blood. To the people
of this country it stands today as the rep
resentative of the greatest engine of op-
preston they have ever known From the
earliest recorded history we have had the
commercial ratio of gold in and around III
to l. 1t continued that way from the
earliest recorded history down to 1916, when
England demonetiZed silver 1t was right
for England to demonetiZe silver, for it is
the greatest creditor nation in the world"
MIR. Talbot also spoke of the great differ
ence between the medium of exchange and
the standard of value. and gave several
practical illustrations. He also talked of
the effect the question of supply and de-
mand had upon money. when set of
men,, he said, control the medium of ex-
change that exchange will be high. Every
thing that you will have to give for tha:
medium of exchange will be low. If the
present administration is a sample OF de-
mocracy, he continued. Il an willing to
take anything In concluding he said: My
heart bleeds when see these relentless gold
syndicates of the country expressing our
people"
Maj. Clark Defends Gold.
Maj. James Albert Clark, journal clerk
Of the house of delegates. and editor of the
Laurel Free Quill. followed Mr. Talbot
He spoke in behalf Of gold. Major Clark
said in part: I'm the time Of Julius Caesar
the ratio of silver to gold was 20 l. When
Columbus discovered America it was 10
silver to l gold. When our forcfatners set
tied in this country it was 10 silver TO l
gold Up to 1873 it was 1f silver to l gold.
In the commercial ratio today it is 81 :,-:i
silver to ! gold. The fundamental claim of
the free coinage advocates that the amount
of money in circulation has been decreasing
since the so-cal!ed decentralization Of silver
is disproved by the fact that there has
been an enormous increase-240 per cent
compared with 1860, and 1O6 per cent as
compared with 1872. and this increase has
been brought about by the increased
of silver, which now floats in the United
States to the tune of $iUG.tSW,HD. Uncle
Sam is back of all this white metal for
1t is coined on the account Of the govern
ment, and private owners Of bullion are
not allowed to have their metal coined for
their own profit By this limiting the
coinage and backing all 10 the limit, the
government maintains the silver at par
with gold, precisely as 1t maintains green
backs at par. If free and unlimited coirage
should be granted while there Is a differ
ence of forty-Seven cents between the
commercial ratio. which Is 81 2-3 to l, and
the coinage ratio now demanded at 16 to
1, the government would not be back of the
total output which would, as a matter
of course, be measured by the worI un-
limited Private owners of bullion would
coin for their own profit by right of law.
per under free coinage IL the laboring and
salaried classes were smitten. The lesson
of idle men today is proof sufficient. There
would be no talk Of overproduction If the
unemployed were busy, and blowing in
their weekly wages for something to eat
and wear. AS prices of what the laborer
has to buy rise faster than the price Of his
labor, he is the man who is always first
cheated by deprecated dollar, and when
he suffers the farmer feels 1t.
There might be brief period of intoxi-
cation for the farmer who was heavily
mortgaged. and who knew how to grab
on schedule time the amount Of deprecated
dollars to wipe off the mortgage, but when
the schedule time arrived 1t might hap
pen, as it has too often in history, that
cheap dollars were not easy to get when
all men were cheap, when even statesman
ship was very cheap. Wheat and cotton
do not regulate the price of silver: If they
did silver ought to be creeping up bit.
for since 1895 these two great American
products have advanced. 1t was eight years
after the alleged crime Of 1873 that the
territory of Dakota began to SOW wheat
for the marke.. Six years later, in 1887,
she threw G., 800 900 bushels on the mar
ket. There Is more in that episode than
in all Of the free silver argument for those
years put together. The extension of
trt nspcrtation lines by land and sea since