The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-09-26
Bryan's Speech at Ashville, n. c

4
which we hope the few golderats OF
East Carroll will peruse:
Some are~afraid if we pass-a free
coinage law there viii be such an
enormous Increase in the volume of
oar currency that we wont know
what to do with it. You can't read
speech made by our opponents but
you will find contradictions in II and
one poposition will answer another.
For instance, a man will say if We
had free silver it would give the
mine owner a profit of 100 per cent.
When he. took his bullion worth so
cents to the mint and had it coined
into dollar it is terrible thing to
let him~make that profit. After be
has worried about that he will tell
You as matter of fact that the law
adds nothing 10 the value OF the
metal under the free coinage of
silver, and so cents worth of bullion
will only be so cent dollar. But
the statements cannot be true 1t
you convert SO cents worth of bull
lion INTO a 5O-cent dollar there is no
profit 10 the mine owner. And Ii
the mine owner makes a profit by
converting so cents worth of bullion
into 100 cents then there are no so
cent dollars. Then you will hear
that under free coinage we would be
flooded with silver until money
would be SO cheap we would not
have any use for it, and when you
have been frightened as badly as you
can be that way, they Will tell you
this cheap money viii run the dear
money out and it will take fifteen
years with our minis running at
their full capacity to make money
enough to take the place of gold,
and that will make money SO scarce
that a silver dollar will be harder to
get than a gold dollar. Applause. }
You can't have too little and too
much all at once.
They say cheap silver dollars will
come in and run the gold dollars
out, and then money will become so
scarce the silver dollar will be worth
more than the gold dollar. just
think of it. Don't you know if the
cheap silver dollars run the gold
dollars ont, the very moment that
the silver dollars became dearer
than the gold some of the cheap gold
dollars will come back and run the
dear silver dollars out. Great ap-
plause.) But | must close. 1t is a
great temptation to talk long while
when / find as enthusiastic audience
as this, and that is the reason /
have been talking long while, all
along the line. (Applanse and a
voice: "Stay all night"
They say under bimetalism a
foreigner could bring silver here and
have 1t coined and exchanged for
gold and take the gold home, leav-
| ing the silver. Where will he get
the gold? This government does
not agree to swap dollars. 1t is
only under the gold standard that
we issue bonds to get gold to furnish
anybody who wants to ship 1t abroad.
(Applause.) Under bimetallism the
government would coin silver bull
lion into silver dollars and gold bull
lion into gold dollars, but it would
not agree to exchange one for the
other. The owner of silver must
find somebody who has gold. He
cannot hurt anybody by the trading
of his cheap silver for gold until
he finds somebody who has the gold.
You have no idea how many that
will let out from harm. daughter.
Last Saturday some St. Louis
bankers made a statement that they
were not able to furnish gold to
their customers because of the silver
agitation, but they, thought that
within fifteen days after correct
settlement of the money question
they would be able to furnish gold
again. These men, who think the
gold standard a good thing, confess
that the people of St. Louis have no
place where they can get good
money if they want it. Can you
say the gold furnishes good stand
ard if little silver agitauon-be-
,cause they say the craze is dying
out Qaughter)-lf a little silver
agitation makes it impossible to get
the gold? l think l can promise
! you that no amount of gold agita-
ton will ever put us in that position
where we will not have the stand
ard money of this country to do
business with. Great applause.
They say free silver would put
gold at premium. Admit, for the
sake of argument, that it would.
1t matters not whether it is at a
premium or at parity with silver.
If it is at a premium people who
came with silver would have to pay
the premium, and if at a parity
then the silver would be as good as
the gold.
Not dollars worth of gold would
leave this country under free coinage