The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1896-10-30

gives the history of American coinage, and
every man who will read 1t will find that
silver was not demonetized in 1873. You
will find that il was demonetized in 1853
and IL he will read back he will find that
the apostles of silver now wero in favor Of
the gold standard in 1873.
Senator Jones of Nevada in 1873 voted
for the law of 1878. He said from his place
In the senate that God had made gold the
standard. He said that gold was the mother
of civilization. Whether he has heard from
God since or not do not know But now
he Is on the other side. Senator Stewart
OF Nevada waa there at the time. He voted
for the act of 1873 and said that gold was
the only standard. He has changed his
mind.
So they have said of me that used to
talk another way, and they have published
little portions of speeches without publish
ing all that was said. / want to tell you
tonight that have never changed on the
money question was opposed to the de-
monetization of silver because / said 1t
put an additional burden on the debtors.
But here Is this trouble. IA Voice-How
about McKinley?] You wait until you
get some sense about money. All the debts
that were due in 1878, or made in 1878, of
individuals have all been paid or they are
all outlawed. You cannot help the debtors
that were injured then; you cannot help
the debtors of 1878 by swindling the cred
itors of 1896. That has been done right
along; it has been done. That has been
acquiesced in by the commercial world, and
this nation cannot correct mistake of
mankind.
Honor Versus Fraud.
Better be an honest bankrupt than rich
thief. Poverty can hold in its hand the
jewel honor-a jewel that outshines all
other gems A thousand times better be
poor and noble than rich and fraudulent.
All. but they say-these statesmen, these
gentlemen who give their attention to run
ming for office-they say gold has been
cornered. WE'LL let us see. Whenever
wheat Is cornered in Chicago, the price goes
| up That Is what they corner it for II
gold had been cornered, the rate of interest
would have steadily risen. And yet the
rate of interest has steadily gone down
from 1878 to 1896. That is a demonstra-
ton that there Is no corner on gold. A
Voice-Whore has the gold gomez The
gold is in this country-S600, 600, 900 of It,
And the gold that is in this country makes
|
and silver dollar good You take that gold
away and they are bad. You understand
that.
Now, then, my friends, suppose we had
silver money. How would you keep them
from cornering that? How would you keep
| the Vanderbits, the Rockefellers and the
Astors away from the silver? If it Is good,
they will get it, If it is not good you
don't want it. They have just as good q
chance to corner silver as they ever had to
corner gold. The silver will be easier cor
nered because it is only worth n fraction as
much.
Effect of Free Silver.
Free coinage of silver-that is, for the
silver of the world-would, first of all,
bring us to silver basis Our money
would be silver We have 5000, 600, 600 in
the treasury in gold. This would instant
ly go out of circulation. There is only
about 81, 300 900, 900 of specie currency in
the United States. There would be about
500, 600, 900 left, a part of that greenbacks.
If we come to q silver basis, then the green
backs are all to be redeemed In silver, and
they would only be worth 80 cents on the
dollar. All your national bank bills, Sc
cured by government bonds, would go to
80 cents on the dollar, because free silver
means the payment of all bonds in silver.
And what elsep All your glorious silver
dollars would be cut square in two be
worth 90 cents apiece. And how would
that leave us? 1t would leave us with only
$3.50, 0O0, 900 of currency, specie and paper,
and that would be So q head for all the
people of the United States, and this would
BIO done In the name of prosperity. What
else would happenf Every man living on
an income would have to live on just half
Every soldiers pension would be cut dead
in two--every one. And what elsef Ev-
cry man that had debt would try to col
lect 1t in gold before the law caught him
every one. Business would stop. No
money. Panic would come and then bank
ruptcy almost universal. And that Is
what these gentlemen call the prosperity
of FREQ coinage. There are millions Of peo-
pie in the United States who are creditors
and debtors. They want to be paid, and
they want to pay the men they owe.
Nobody can be helped by free coinage
except the few people who could pay their
debts If they were willing Some say that
1t would help the mine owners 1t would
not. Coming this bullion into dollars
would not increase its value, because you
could coin the bullion of the whole world
and the supply would be greater than the
demand Have free coinage tomorrow,
and there Is not silver mine owner that
would make q dollar, not one, by changing
1t into American coin. 1t would only be
worth what the bullion is worth in the
open market.
Labor For Home Hands.
Then we have another question And
the next question Is one of tariff, one Of
protection. The question Is, Shall we keep
the American market for ourselves or give
it away to other folkss Now, let me tell
you something. A nation that sells raw
material will grow ignorant and poor. A
nation that manufactures will grow intel
ligent and rich. 1t takes muscle to dig
ore. 1t takes a mind to manufacture
locomotive.
We have tried what they call the Demo
cratic tariff, bill passed by perfldy and
dishonor, according to Cleveland, and he
was not mean enough to sign Vt or
brave enough to veto 1t. We have
tried that. In 1899 I said If Cleveland
was elected he would cost the people of