The herald., 1896-08-28
THE MACNATES MEET
Continued from First Page.

SiS AL HAS 10 uO 10 " let Tic ROlu
reserve so; to pay out silver when men
ask for gold. and we are there already.
1t is only because the presidents of the
United States that we have had and the
one we have now, have regarded it under
the law as their public duty to maintain
the gold basis. maintaining that parity
between the silver and gold coins which
the law declares Is the policy of the
government, and because they have had
the courage to execute the powers given
to them by the resumption act-the car
rying out that declaration of public law.
l undertake, therefore, to say that II
Mr.. Bryan, or a man holding his views,
were in the presidential chair. without
any legislation by congress. we would
be on a silver basis in weeks time
(Applause.)
The silver question-what is it? Do
we want silver because we want more
money, a larger circulation? / have
not heard anybody say so. Mr.. Bryan
is not urging it on that basis. If any
one were to seek to give that as reason
for wanting free silver, we would be
very soon confounded by the statement
that free silver would put more gold
out of circulation than the mints of the
United States could possibly put in in
years, and that instead of having more
money we would have less. (Applause.)
Friends, there is great deal of talk
about bimetallism, OF the double stand
ard, and great deal of confusion in the
use of those terms. Bimetailism is the
use of two metals as money where they
are both used. By double standard
they mean that we have a gold dollar
and silver dollar which shall be units
of value by which all property and all
wages and everything is to be measured.
Now, our fathers thought that when
they used these two metals in coinage
they must determine the intrinsic rel
ative value of the two, so that a compar-
ison of the markets of the world would
show just what ratio one ounce of sill
YER bore to one ounce of gold.
Now what do these people propose to
do? To take any account of thou7
sandths? No. When the markets of the
world fix the relative value of silver or
gold at 81 ounces of silver to one ounce
of gold, they propose to say 16. Gaugh-
ter) Well. my friends, there has been
nothing more amusing and yet 1 fear
that with the thoughtless it may have
been in some measure misleading than
the repeatedd declaration of Mr.. Bryan
that everybody admitted that bimetall-
ism was a good thing-there is debate on
that subject-and that the debate of the
campaign has come down to this fine
point-the Republicans say we cannot
have this good thing without the con-
sent of England and we say we can
have it ourselves, and hehas endeavor-
ed to pivot this great campaign with it's
tremendous issues ujon that pinhole.
(Applause.)
While the feeling is we'll adapted to
touch that prejudice against England
which we people have, but can we do
this thing ourselves? 1t is a question
whether we will do it or ask somebody's
consent whether we may or ask the CO.
operation of somebody. Not at all. T
will tell you what this government can
do alone. 1t can fix it's money until it
can declare by law what shall be the rel
ative value of an ounce of gold and an
ounce of silver, but it cannot make that
last declaration good. (Applause.)
If l have gold dollar in this hand and
a silver dollar in the other and you de-
clare they are equal, and I can take the
gold dollar to a bullion broker and get
two dollars orit I know it is a lie
(Great applause and cheers.) 1t is trade,
it is the merchant, it is the man who
exchanges and deals in those things that
fiXese their relative value, and if you do
not take the value he, fixes the gold dol
lar will G oback to the gold vault and the
gold will oout of circulation. What is
another consequence? In this connec-
tion these gentlemen say: why, did not
we win the battle Of Bunker HIP"
Uaughter) Did not we whip the
British in Yorktown, and do you mean
to say we cannot do it again."
The logic of these gentlemen-if I may
use such term in connection with such
balderdash-s that a nation that can
do these great things and establish it's
political independence can also be
and commercially free. 1t
cannot be free of tie laws of trade.
(Applause) They can say that ten
mushrats' skins are equal to one beav-
er skin, but that does not make it so.
The fur trader fixes that question.
Whta is the next suggestion? 1t Is, my
friends. in the case of free silver what is the
financial and moral equivalent of a declar-
alton that fifty-cent pieces are dollars. They
might just as well pass a law that fifty
cents is a dollar. That would not make
it SO, would it? But it would be legal dol
lar. But it would not buy dollars worth
of anything. What is the effect of that?
The merchant would take care of himself.
A man keeps a store down here on Broad
way and the law is going into operation to-
night. He summons all his clerks and buys
% cents worth of pencils, and before he
opens his store in the morning he has mark
ed up his goods to the new scale. But take
the workingman. He cannot go to the pay
roll with pencil and mark it up. He has
got to get some other mans consent before
he can mark up his wages. Then there is
the pensioner, those who are receiving PEN
sions from this government for gallant
deeds done in war, and others for the loss
of loved ones. He cannot take his pension
certificate and when it reads eight dollars
make it read sixteen dollars. He must
wait for an appeal to congress and con-
gress that is Populistic in character would
be unsympathetic. applause.
A man has providently taken out
policy that his widow and children might
not come to want when the breadwinning
hand is stricken with death. Can they,
where the policy reads $1,000, make it $40 0o0?
Can the managers of these institutions
make it right with themas No, this policy
coerces integrity. (Applause.) However
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