The Dickinson press., 1896-08-29

have done this. And there are many good
people who believe that France is doing
It. and that the Latin union-so-callei-is
doing 1t. Now, l would like to know why
they can't tell the entire truth about this
i nasdag dt US dec not deceive snsh Sa g
union is composed of France, Belgium,
Italy, Switzerland and Greece. 1t was
formed in 1865 by treaty between those
powers; whereby each agreed until the
year 1880 to take the coins of the ether
powers at the ratio of 15h to !:
But Germany demonetized silver; she
had ceased to coin it. and SO, in 1873,
those great nations, headed by France
1.-THE most scientifically governed country
in the world, and the one which has the
most accurate financial ideas), say those
zea sxer after # ,ss o had th
coinage. and by 1876 they suspended it
entirely. They, those great European
nati0ns-.F'rance, the strongest monetary
nation in the world. with her allies-un-
dertook with all their power to do pre-
ciseiy what the free coiners of the Unit
to. undertake in the light of such con-
sDicuous failures of other nations.
Invariable Standards Needed.
Now, everybody admits-I think the
most rampant frec-coiner declaimer
"ouu AuIuC-tIluL money unlC SlOllIO
Now: l say gold has so remained. Sill
YER has fallen commercially like other
articles. This is denied. They shy sill
yer has not fallen. that gold has risen;
Now. that is the. way you look at it.
You can look at it through the deluding
glass Of idealism. and it may appear that
way. but it is an optical illusion. Now
let me put an illustration from nature.
The waters of Lake Superior, that great
inland sea which floats SO much of our
commerce and is such an element in our
prosperity. have for many years been
thn,. falling, (, m until now they are lower than
years. and everything on their surface
has fallen, The waters of Lake Supe-
rior like the universal. spread-out plane
OF humanity. bearing everything upon its
sur1are-those waters bear the fleets,
sells and craft and fleets of ali kinds have
iailen with the water. What would you
think Of a man standing on the deck Of
one of those vessels saying. ''This yes-
Sc! has not fallen; this vessel stands Just
where i did. but the universal shore Of
LAKE superior has riscn?" Laughter
Now. say, my friends, that since the
doncd free coinage. there has existed in
European nations and the United States
the only practical bimetallism. Let me
repeat this | feel that I cannot bear it
that these nations, including ours, are
the only nations on the face Of the earth
that have any bimetallism whatever.
And why? Because they went to the
danger line. as we went, and then
teoeRfn eaeens of hto9y mhs vGEs
there was dead line, beyond which
silver could not be pressed without the
immediate humiliation of its companion.
gold, as useful, working money medi-
um. And when any man gets up and
dreams and soliloguizes and philosophers
betore ,, \! me and tells me he knows it won't
be , so If We try where others failed, 1
tell him that an ounce of fact is worth
ton of theory. and that something bodi-
~ is worth a million of disembodied
ghosts. [Applause.l
What is Ratio?
And yet these gentlemen favor, in the
face of these historical examples and
warnings, that the United States shall
make the unit of coinage the silver dol
lar at the ratio of 16 to 1.
Now, what is ratio? 1t is not SIG to
81, as some people claim. (Laughtcr.)
Ratio means this: That there shall be
sixteen times more silver in weight in n
silver dollar than there is weight of gold
in gold dollar. Or, to put the definition
in another form, that sixteen ounces Of
silver. when coined, shall be the equiva-
lent OF one ounce of gold when coined.
When gold measured by silver is worth
SIG per ounce, no disparity in value can
exist; but when measured by silver the
ounce Of gold is worth $31 an ounce COM
mercially, disparity results. Such is the
present condition, and vet the free silver
men assert that it will be no such thing
in case legislative fat endeavors to make
two and two five instead of the old
fashioned result, two and two four.
The trouble is that our friends have
confused the ratio of weight with the
ratio of value: and are trying to confuse
the people with it. The ratio of weight
same, but they have changed They
changed more than thirty years ago.
Other nations saw it and obcyed the i'm
perial behest of that change before we
did, and the ratio is now throughout
the world 30, or about 32. to 1.
Now say that no legislative fat what
ever-it does not lie in the power of man
u was about to say something more ex-
| treme than that, which it would not be
proper to say)-it' does not lie in the
power of man to enact that given di-
mension. volume or capacity shall be II
hairs breadth greater than the laws of
| the Almighty have fixed it from the be-
ginning. (Applanse.)
1t is necessary that the ratio or propor-
ton of value should be invariable. 1t is
necessary for the production of the thing
itself called money. speaking of it in it's
the United States. We see analogies
everywhere: we see an analogy in nature.
Take the air we breathe. 1t is COM
pound substance, made up from oxygen
and nitrogen Mt the ratio of about a
to %. and while this ratio lasts it is from
it we all draw our lives and have our
gree and. instead of being the vital. life
giving air, it becomes deadly and de-
structive miasma.
But the free-coiners assert that unlim-
tied coinage of silver will restore it TO a
parity with gold. 1t has been tried by
many nations Of th:- world. Has it done
said the same thing when Congress
passed the Sherman act of 1890. They
said buy of us freely 4,50O.OOO ounces a
month, or 54,OOO,OOO ounces Il year, and
you will see that silver will go up to
81 30 an ounce Immediately. In the face
the result. in WILLINGNESS, Gt went too
far) to give such claims every oppor-
tunity to be demonstrated whether they
were correct or incorrect, that legislation
was enacted. And silver did go in the
course of about ten days to $1.19 an
/
free-coiners were exalted. and said, Il
told you So" But, my friends who ap-
plaud at that delusive statement. it last
ed but short time. Silver proceeded to
fall lower than it ever fell before. Great
applause.)
It did not take it long to do it. The an
nual average production in the United
States for ten Xa years 0ob before that act was
ran to 54;00o,00O ounces, and in 1892
to 62,OOO,OOO ounces. nearly 10000, 900
ounces more than we produced in the
average of ten years up to the time when
that bill was passed, and it was then
seen by all wise men. by all men who
had the stability It Of the currency and the
intelligent vision, that that immense vol
ume would break down-indeed it did
break down-the very theory upon y !lich
the bill was passed. lApplause.) 1t pro-
duced the panic of 1898, put distrust into
THE minds of men. The silver men said
before we passed that bill in 1890, that