The herald., 1896-04-16
CARLISLE ON currency
Sound Money Doctrine Pre-
sented at Chicago
his LOGICAL VIEWS ON FINANCE
Listened to by a Large and En-
thusiastic Audience
CARLISLE AS A CANDIDATE
CARLISLE AS A CANDIDATE
Steadily Growing In Favor Among the
LeveI.Headed Masses
Sound Money Men, Irrespective of Party,
Offer Hearty Greeting
The "Heraid's" Candidate Strengthens
His Own Cause by Ills Earnest
Advocacy OF the Interests Of
the Whole People
Special to THE HERALD.

Special to TIE HERALD.
CHICAGO, April 15.-Secretary Car
lislc positively declines interviews with
newspaper men while here. Though his
speech tonight before one of the largest
gatherings ever seen in the auditorium
was non partisan in character and MS
mission solely to discuss the money
question from the standpoint of the
business man and level-headed f1nan-
cier, there is much talk connecting his
name with the Democratic nomination
for president The feeling among
sound money Democrats Is growing in
favor of Carlisles nomination.
To an intimate personal friend VINO
broached the subject to the secretary.
MIR. Carlisle declined to place himself
In the position of a candidate, but re-
ferred to his recent letter on that sub
ject as clearly expressive of his feelings
and desires now as then. The leading
papers of this city, with one exception,
editoriaily commend and endorse the
secretary, and extend to him cordial
greeting. The Tribune, Times Herald
(Republican)ard Record independently
are as strong in their praises of the
great Kentucky statesman as is the
Chronicle (Democratic.) Your corre-
spondent talked with numerous lead
ing Chicago Democrats concerning the
Democratic candidate for president,
dItu IOuuQ dH dll1lOSt ScHtl-
= ment in favor of Carlisle, the man whom
the Herald last September nominated
for that position. ,
At the forthcoming Democratic state
convention there will be hot, closely
contested fight between the sound
money Democrats and the party ma
chine, which Is welded to free silver at
sixteen to ore. The result viii go far
toward shaping the action of the ma
tional convention.
Mr.. Carlisle opened with the -asser-
tion that the effect o. The instability of
the currency must fall with more force
upon the poor than upon the rich man.
as must also the results of suspension of
industrial activity. Said he:
Labor cannot be boarded; the idle
day is gone forever; lost wages are
never reimbursed; and therefore steady
employment and good pay in good
money arc essential to the comfort and
happiness of the American laborer and
his wife and children, and he will be un-
faithful to himself and them if he does
not insist upon the adoption and main
tenance of such a policy as will most
certainly preserve the value and stabil-
ity of all our currency and promotethc
regular and profitable conduct of all our
Industrial enterprises
He then went on to argue that the
opening of the mints to unlimited COIN
age of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 of
gold, would drive the $500 1000. 900 of gold
now in use out of the country, and by,
at the same time, reducing the purchas-
Ing power of all other money. actually
reduce the amount of circulating me-
dunn instead of increasing it,
/. Alexander Hamilton and Thomas
Jefferson. he said, first established the
ratio between the two metals in the
money of this country. They were gov
IN, hat I>< ,sr;-
market value of metals. relying in no
wise upon the power of the government
to establish relative values
They reached the conclusion" said
the secretary, that the true CONNER
cial ratio at that time was Is to l, that
Is that fifteen ounces of silver We're
equal in value to one ounce of gold, and
accordingly the act of 1892, which was
our first coinage law, authorized the
coinage of the two metals at that ratio,
At the ratio thus established the Sill
yer dollar contained 371N grains of fine
silver and the gold contained 24%
grains of fine gold: but it was soon dis
covered that mistake had been made
and that 3I1I grains of fine silver was
not in fact equal to PAN grains of fine
gold, and the consequence was that al
though the difference between the
value of a silver dollar and the value
of gold dollar was only about one
drove gold out of use and out of the
country, and from that time we had
silver monometallism until under the
passage of the acts of 1894 and 1887. The
fact that the silver was put into the
form of a coin and made legal tender the
same as gold and that both dollars
were declared to be worth one hundred
cents each did not increase the value Of
the BIN grains of silver to any ex
tent whatever. The people could not
be deceived by mere words printed in
a, stat Hte; they soon learned that the
metal contained in the silver dollar
was not equal in value to the metal
contained in the gold dollar and they
paid silver to their creditors and hoard
ed the gold or sent it out of the coun-
try.
IN 1884 congress determined to re-
store gold to circulation and SO the ratio
was changed to 16 to l. This was a
slight over valuation and Immediately
the situation was reversed. Silver
1ed from the country and gold came
in. Early in 1862 congress most un-
wisely, in my opinion, authorized the
issue of legal tender paper to circulate
as money. and the usual and inevitable
result followed. Gold ceased to be
used as money, and the banks and
the treasury having suspended specie
payments. the country was flooded with
a depreciated currency worth at times
less than so cents on the dollar. Later
on fractional paper currency was au-
thoriZed by congress and the effect OF
mis- was to drive out of circulation even
the lightweight subsidiary silver coins
and Tor many years not a single piece
Of metallic money of any kind was
used by the people, except on the Pa
cific coast. where gold continued to
circulate at its actual intrinsic value
without regard to the fictitious value
urhich the acts Of CONGRESS- attributed