The herald., 1896-01-24
Meets and Discusses Needs of
the Nation
THE ISSUE NOW PARAMOUNT
Asserted to Be Indisputably the Money
Question
A Very Long Preamble and Short ResoIu-
tion Are Adopted Amid Much Enthu-
siasm-Some Squabbiing
Associated Press Special Wire.


WASHINGTON, Jan. 23.-The silver con-
ference today resulted in an animated dis
cussion on the financial situation and the
policy to be pursued by the friends of sill
yer. During the discussion considerable
feeling was aroused by the remarks of Gen.
eral Hatch of Missouri, who stated in effect
that if Populst Kentucky had done her
whole duty the election of Blackburn to
the United States senate would not be
matter of doubt. General Field of Vir-
ginia and others made heated replies.
Mayor Turner of Lansing, Michigan, and
Senator Stewart also addressed the con-
vention. The committee on resolutions, of
which Senator Jones of Nevada is chair
man, submitted a report as follows:
The paramount issue at this time in the
United States is indisputably the money
question. 1t is between the gold standard,
gold bonds and bank currency on the one
de, and the bimetallic standard, no bonds,
and government currency on the other.
On this issue we declare ourselves to be
| in favor of a distinctive American tinan-
cial system. We are unalterably opposed
to the single gold standard, and demand
the immediate return to the constitutional
standard of gold and silver, by the restora-
tion by this government, independently of
any foreign power, of the unrestricted
coinage OF both gold and silver into stand
ard money at the ratio of 16 to l and upon
terms of exact equality as they existed
prior to 1878, the silver coin to be full
legal tender equal with gold, for all debts
and dues, public and private.
We hold that the power to control and
regulate a par currency is inseparable
from the power to coin money; and hence
that all currency intended to circulate as
! money should be issued, and it's volume
controlled by the general government only
and should be legal tender.
We are unalterably opposed to the issue
by the United States of interest bearing
as b.under worse than a crime the
| present treasury policy, concurred in by a
| Republican house, of plunging the country
| in debt by hundeeds of millions in the
vain attempt TO maintain the gold standard
by borrowing gold; and we demand the
| payment of all coin obligations of the
United States, as provided by existing
laws, in either gold or silver coin at the
| option of the government and not at the
| option of the creditor.
Whereas, the demonetization of silver in
1878 enormously increased all the de-
mand for gold, enhancing it's purchasing
power and lowering all prices measured by
that standard; and
| Whereas, since that unjust and indefen-
| sibie act, the prices of American products
! have fallen upon an average nearly so per
cent, carrying down with them proportion
ately the money value of all other forms
of property, except in peculiarly favored
| localities; and
| Whereas, such fall of prices has de-
stroyed the profits of legitimate industry,
! injuring the producer for the benefit of the
non-producer, increasing the burden of the
debtor and swelling the gains of the credi-
| ior, paralyzing the productive energies of
| the American people, Telegating to idleness
| the numbers of willing workers, sending
, the shadows of despair into the home of
the honest toiler, filling the land with
| tramps and paupers and building up col
| losal fortunes at the money ceners; and
Whereas, IN the effort to maintain the
gold standard the country has within the
| last eighteen months, in time of profound
! peace and plenty, been loaded down with
| $162 100000 of additional interest bear
ing debt, under such circumstances as to
allow syndicate of native and foreign
bankers to realza net profit of $lO,OO0,-
600 on single deal; and
Whereas, Another call is pending for a
| further gold loan of $1O0,00O,0U0, which,
but for an outburst OF popular Indignation,
| would also have been negotiated in the
| same secret manner and through the same
| syndicate; and,
Whereas, 1t stands confessed that the
| gold standard can only be upheld by SO de-
| pleting our paper currency as to force the
| prices of our products below the European
| and even below the Asiatic level, in order
that we may sell in foreign markets, thus
aggravating the very evils of which our
| people so bitterly complain. degrading
| American labor, and striking at the very
foundations of our civilization itself; and,
| Whereas, The advocates of the gold
standard persstenty claim that the real
! cause of our distress is overproduction-
| that we have produced so much that it has
! made us poor-which implies that the true
| remedy is to close the factory, abandon
the farm and throw multitude of people
| out of employment-a doctrine that leaves
us absolutely without hope for the future;
| and,
! Whereas, The difference of exchange be-
tween silver standard countries and gold
| countries is equivalent to bounty equal
to the difference between the value of gold
| and silver and in favor of the products of
standard countries exported to gold STAN
dard countries and corresponding tariff
| against the products of gold standard
countries exported to silver-using coun-
| tries; and
Whereas, The cost of production other
| wise in the old world, and particularly in
| China and Japan, is far less than the cost
at which similar products can be produced
| or manufactured in this country by Amer
| lean labor without reducing our farmers,
| miners, mechanics, manufacturers and
| other industrial workers to the level of
| Chinese coolies;
| Resolved, That over and above all other
questions of policy, we are in favor of re-
storing to the people of the United States
that time-honored money of the constitu-
ton, gold and silver-not one, but both
money of Washington and Hamilton, and
jefferson and Monroe, ard jackson and
Lincoln, to the end that the American peo-
pie may receive honest pay for honest
product, to pay the American debt or pay
his Just obligations in an honest standard,
and not in a standard that is appreciated
100 per cent above the great staples of our
country, and in the end further that free
silver standard countries may be deprived
of the unnatural advantage they now enjoy
in the difference in exchange betw cen gold
and silver-an advantage which tariff legis-
lation alone cannot overcome.
''We therefore confidently appeal to the
people of the United States, that, leaving
/ in abeyance for the moment all other
questions, however important, even mo-
mentous. they may appear, and sundering
If need be all former party affiliations,
they unite in the supreme effort to free
themselves and their children from the do
minion of money power-a power more de-
structive than any which has ever been