The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-25


a dollar at that time. But as matter OF
fact, there were no silver. dollars Holders
OF bullion did not present them. to be coined.
Why not? Because they would have got back
from the mint, for every 371A grains of silver
presented to the mint silver dollar. But
they could get, at any brokers', at any silver
smiths, more than gold dollar for 37lM
grains of silver.
There is no use In presenting 1t for coin
age. Our congress saw that there was no
use in trying to maintain a currency with
such fluctuations and since silver began to
fall we have endeavored to keep within the
limits of Issues set by the laws of govern
mental credit at which we could no longer
maintain the parity of silver with gold. and
the commercial vcrld believes that We are
Just now within that limit When the COM
mercial world leases to believe that that
very fact puts las outside the limit, gold
VIII go to Premium and will disappear from
circulation. Nov the countrJ which has
gold In circulation must gsr gold to settle
all It's business with other countries. 1t may
adopt for its own currency silver or copper
or what 1t will. but il, like us, 1t is a country
which must have and will have coffee and tea
which can only he got abroad, 1t must some
where get the gold to pay for them, AMI
beg to assure you that those who sell in gold
will not accept silver at any fictitious value
put upon silver by ourselves.
IL is hippantly said that 1t not for US to
ask the aid or consent of foreign nations
when adopting currency standard. Such
talk. my friends, Is only worthy of foolish
child. Whose aid or consent are we asking
In the maintaining CT our gold standard?
Must we abandoa the use u anything that Is
best because foreign nations think 1t is best
and use it, too? Foreign nations wear
clothes. Shall we cease to wear clothes be-
cause they do? Applause.)
NOT A MATTER OF CONSENT.
The use Of gold as standard of value is
no more matter, of aid or consent between
nations than Is the use of rifed cannon and
armored ships in warfare. Shall we cease
to use ri1ed cannon and armored ships lest it
should be said Of us that asking the
aid and consent Of foreign nations in adopt
ing system of national defense? What folly
my friends. How you respect q man
who talks such stuff? Oh, but 1t is said
that we will get along well enough alone;
we will have no commercial intercourse what
ever with foreign countries, at least we will
buy nothing from them and they will have no
chance to insult our "tn God we trust" that
fifty cents will go for hundred cents.
daughter and applause.) But we would like
to go on selling to them the things we have
been selling to her. We would like still to
go on selling them annually 100000 bales of
cotton, $50, 900 600 barrels Of wheat 300 900 600
gallons Of oil, 1000, 000, 900 pounds of pork
products, $50 900, 900 pounds of beef products,
10000, 600 worth of beef cattle, and so on
with an nfinity of things. But suppose they
don't take them; what is this country going
to do with them? Is it going to lose the
profit that is made in raising and selling
these things? Is it going to try and con-
sumo them itself? 1t already consumes all
1t can consume. How are the people OF these
foreign countries to take and pay for these
things unless we have commercial intercourse
with Them unless we enable them to do
business and make some profit? They are
not all capitalists over there; very few Of
them are not the hardest working people in
the world Mr.. Bryan says that he is not
asking for anything new; that he is not
asking for any new experiment to be tried
but only asking to carry out the policy Of our
first president, continued, as he says until
1873 It is hard to make up ones mind wheth-
er Mr.. Bryan is wilfully deceitful or only
ignorant (Applause.) In either case he is
unfit to be president of the United States
Great applause.)
Now, let US test this statement of his by
the truth. He proposes a coinage Of 16 to 1,
and he says that this is no new experiment,
only continuance Of the experiment made
by our first president. Why, my fellow citi-
Zens, we never had any coinage at 16 to /
until the first president had been in his
tomb for more than generation. (Applause)
The experiment at the beginning Of the CEN
fury was at Is to l. very different matter
because 1t was an honest ratio-something
which cannot be said of the proposed expert
ment Of today. Applause.) So far from
continuing the same experiment as Mr.. Bryan
enormously says, we. in 1884, changed the
fair ratio for the time, just as about 81 to
would be today. But fluctuations came, and
as in the first period all gold had fed, in the
second period all silver had fed. This ex-
pertinent, the experiment he asks us to make.
is not at all the same but it is an infinitely
more dangerous one. Twice have we tried
the actual ratio, and twice has it failed. Now
ne asks us to try 1t again, not with honest
ratio as our fathers did, but with dis
honest ratio, measured, I suppose, to catch
our imaginations, by the figure Of their hon
esty. He Is type of vice in the garb of
virtue. m.
Now. my fellow citizens, the agricultural
interests of this country are appealed to by
those who urge debasing of our currency.
on the ground that a good currency makes
low prices and lack of prosperity, and that
bad currency or cheap currency does the
opposite. The assertion Is without value un-
less 1t can be proved, and no proof is offered,
and l am confident that none can be given
They are told That wheat has fallen because
silver has fallen. 1t is true that the price
of wheat has fallen much, in the last thirteen
years, and so has the price of silver. But
does that show any connection between them?
How does such an argument apply to the
fact that during the last sixty days wheat
has gone up about So per cent, while SILVER
has not gone up at all? (Applause) Is 1t
true that wheat has fallen along with silver?
The average price of wheat did not greatly
vary, from 1873 until 1883, when it began to
fall; and 1t fell steadily, but with some fiuctu-
atoms. Now. silver has been falling not only
since 1883, but since 1870 so that It is absolute
ly not true that there is any relation or going
together in this matter of falling, between
wheat and silver. AS have SAID the fall in
the price of wheat has been practically steady
since 1888. In that period two-thirds of our
silver coin has been added to our currency.
There are those who think that an increase
of the currency makes increase of prices
$500, co., 600 Of silver coin to currency.
| should like to hear an explanation of how
their theory applies in such case as that.
Mr.. Bryan urges that an increase of any cur
rency, good or bad, brings prosperity. He
said.s few days ago. at Bridgeport, that it
was not the quality of the currency, but the
principle. (Applause.) What has Mr.. Bryan
to say Of the fall in prices going with an
increase of more than $500 coo Of coin in
our currency. How happy Mr.. Bryan would
have been in the Confederate states; the
quality of the currency was bad enough for
him, and its quantity surely was abundant
enough. (Applause.) I know of hat bought
for $780,
There is one. and probably only one, rea-
son for the fall in the price of wheat 1t
is the competition mp Of the greatly increased
tition of the greatly increased production of
Russia, India and the South American
states, How very great that competition is
by the event of which have spoken; that
by the failure of the crop in India. and
think in Russia also. there has been added
cents a bushel. Multiply the bushels of
wheat on hand by that figure and see what
an increase of value has been added to this
country, without any increase of currency
and without any free silver coinage.
WHY GOTTEN FELL.
Now let us look for a moment at the true
reason for the fall in the price of cotton
That is something that a very large and a
very valuable portion of country is in
terested in. Cotton has fallen enormously
In 1860 produced little less than FIVE
million bales of cotton in this country, and
we supplied nearly the whole world with
it. We kept at, about the same production
until 1879. when 1t gradually began to in
crease. until in 1895 we produced in this
country alone nearly ten million bales of
cotton; our product had doubled. Now at
all times little more than two-thirds of our
crop of cotton goes abroad; we consume less
hon ri ~ oIr Ia
competition; we competed with ourselves
by doubling our output of cotton and we