The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-09-01

alton of the panic. The only statutory
enaetment which binds us to the use
+ of silver and makes us bl-metalhc
people us what is known as the Shef-
! man law. Under the operation OF thus
law. $500 900 ounces of silver was re-
auired to- be purchased per month, and
coined until the 1st of July, 1891, after
which time. only so much was to be
purchased as was necessary to redeem
the notes issued for it's purchase.
These were called Treasury notes,
and any technically intelligent man
would naturally suppose that when
law required the purchase of silver bull
Ai0n and the issue of Treasury notes
| in payment thereof, and provided for
the coming of that bullion into silver
dollars for the purpose of redeening
those notes, payable in either gold or
silver, at the discretion of the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, it was meant for
! him to exercise that discretion in favor
of silver, when the interest of the pub
lie and the condition of the Treasury
required il. IL was construed differ
entity. and parties would procure those
Treasury notes and present them to
the Treasury, where they were invaria-
! bly, redeemed in gold.
Mr.. President, human nature runs
| much in r1rts. There has never been a
! robbery proposed upon the American
! people in the shape of tariff on any
! article, from darning needle to steel
rail, from a IS cent wool hat to a $500
shawl that has not been imposed in the
name, and for the benefit of the labor
| ing people alone. (Laughter). The
! idea that the capitalists were to be
/ -
! always secuted as altogether untrue.
| Strange to say, this impudent and un-
/ blushing lie always found some believ-
! ers-such lis the credulity of mankind.
! The same tactics are resorted to in this
; discussion of the financial question.
y
! 1T rs said that the production would
! be so great if there was free coinage
! and silver was at it's normal price per
ounce that the world would soon be
| flooded with it. / do not believe that.
| There is nothing in the statistics to
| show that that would be the case. Dur
| inc the period of one hundred years,
from 1892 to 1892, the production of
| gold i'm the world was S., 633, 9OS, COO
| the production of silver was $5,104.
! 961 900, a difference of about only $780,
! 600, and that in favor of gold; and we
| might go further back. if the INSULT
nPstatistics of the Dark Ages could
be depended upon, and show generally
| that the production of the two metals
would average aboutAhe same.
For what reason is it held. then, that
this ratio of production of the two met
| ais will not continue to9the end2 Is
| not nature consistent with herself?
| If the digging into the earth for 1000
| years has shown that there exists in
| her bosom on the average about fifteen
| times as much silver 10y weight as gold,
| why should we doubt future develop
ment from an accidental departure
| now and then of either metal from the
average proportion of forty centuries?
| Surely The gold standard men should
| give better reason for distrusting ma
| turc than some bankers want of con-
| f3encp" x
The idea so sedulously put forth that
we cannot give silver or anything else
| a value by law is false. | fancy there
| is not a manufacturer in the United
| States who has grown rich by high tar
| if who accedes to that proposition. 1t
is true the law of supply and demand
| con trolls the bullion price of silver as
of other things, but it is also true that
| the demand is in control of the Gov
| ernment Silver has never at any time
| within the last hundred years fallen
| in consequence of more being produced
| than there was any demand fort has
always been deprecated by legislation
which reduced the demand.
IT is also lamentably true, as our peo-
pie can testify to their sorrow, that ev-
cry time a blow has been stricken at
| their silver money, it has also stricken
| the price of their wheat, their cot
| ton, and their grain, and everything
else they had to sell. The most relia-
| BILE English authorities that have con-
suited say that from the year 1873,
when in consequence of the demoneti-
zation of silver i'm the United States,
and in Germany, the prices of goods
began to fall, and amounts at this time
on the average of goods, to about z
shillings to the pound, or one-thrd,
with every prospect of that fall contin-
uing" The same authority, John Hill
Twigg, saws that 1.-THE only protective
means of stopping this fall, is torestore
the old law of coming silver as freely
as gold and let people pay their debts
in either metal, at the choice of the
l3tIelyt{T. 5H# bEB BOIL shiio-s 0f1rr
1t was. said that, the. string of the
bow of spfysses warned HIM Of ap-.
preaching danger by singing a song Of
battle and of strife. Let me say to-
those conspirators against the welfare
of the common people, that before
they shall finally succeed in their I'M
hallowed designs, and drive them
through ''the valley of the shadow of
death" to attain the single gold stand
ard, in order that the eonspirators may
now grow rich on human suffering,
they will see many field of political
battle and hear the roar of much polit-
zeal strife.
In this fair land the thunderbolts of
Jove dwell still with those whose voice
is as the voice of God, and the bow of
Ulysses is vet in the peoples hands,
- n.