The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-08-07
The Maine Statesman Expresses His
Pleasure Being Notified OF
the Unanimous Vote.
TACKLES THE MONEY QUESTION
WITH SIMPLE ILLUSTRATIONS, BUT
NO FLIGHTY METAPHORS.
Sort of Financial A B Argument
with Points for Free-Silver Peo-
pie to Think About.

| Reed was to-day renominated by acclama-
tion for Congress by the Republican con-
vention of the First district 1t is the
| tenth successive term for which Mr.. Reed
! has been nominated. In putting Mr.. Deed
in nomination Wilfred G. Chapman ex-
pressed regret that the candidate was not
| the presidential candidate of his party.
But" he said, I'VE are broad enough TO
| put aside feelings of disappointment and
| we are now looking forward to the time
when Mr.. Reed will become the Repub-
| lican standard bearer and as President of
the United States will still further honor
| his district"
| After the nomination Mr.. Reed was es-
corted to the platform amid loud cheering.
| He seemed to be considerably affected by
/ the ovation. Mr.. Reed thanked the con-
vention for the unanimous nomination,
saying that by so doing he had been re-
lieved of the duty of attending to his dis
trict and given the opportunity of paying
attention to the wickedness of the rest Of
the world.
Continuing, Mr. Reed said: I'VE. in
| Maine, have got to make up our minds on
the great issue of this campaign and a
great deal depends upon what we do in
September When we see two men stand
what uneasy and unable to fully compre-
bend what they are talking about you
may rest assured that they are talking
about the currency. / shall not attempt to
fully explain the currency question to you,
| but I shall say something about it,
I'VE often hear that silver was demone-
tized in 1878. stealthily and by the infiu-
ence of foreign embassies. AS a matter of
| fact the Congressional Record OF that date
| had 1S6 columns OF speeches on the silver
question and the foreign embassies had
nothing TO do with it. No fraud or wick
edness was practiced in 1873.
WHAT is THE BEST?
THE only question is what monetary
| system is the best. You hear a great deal
about bimetallism. The platform of the
Chicago convention was not a bimetailic
| platform and don't let them try and make
YOU believe that bimetallism is what they
are after.
What is the object of bimetalism? The
| object of it is to give TO the currency
| greater stability by spreading it over more
surface. A very common illustration OF 1t
is this: If you have a lake anywhere and
| it is subject to all the peculiar incidents
of the region in which it is this rainfall
| may lift It, that drought may lower 1t. Now,
| if you want a perfectly stable surface you
| have got to get it by some appliance out
side of the lake. Suppose you can join 1t
| to another lake in different climate which
is differently affected. If you join them per-
| fectly together then there will be the same
| level in both lakes and the disturbances in
one lake will be counterbalanced by the
| disturbances in the other lake. and the ten
| deney will be to have a steadier level.
| i.l.,.,
your two lakes do balance and you get a
more stable current.
Now, there is some reason and sense
| in the idea that the whole world, if they
took the gold and silver at proper ratio.
could preserve greater and more stable
level of prices. This no single country could
do. But if one of the lakes very vio-
lent in fluctuations think the part of COM
mon experience would be to leave 1t out,
| or If that lake was not big enough TO have
| a proper effect--in short, under some cir
| cumstances the two lakes might be worse
| than a single one might be. However,
| that is a question of legitimate discussion.
| But in this case it is not proposed to have
| two lakes. II is proposed to say that we
| have two lakes and shift from the one We
| have to one we have not. (App,ause)
Let us see If the history of this country
| shows Us anything on the subject of real
bimetalism, and that is the kind we must
| have AS said to you at Alfred. IL this is
disease at all it is a world disease and has
| got to have a world remedy. Nothing else
| will attend 10 it. Why, we had some ex-
perience in this country, but mems memo
ries are short In 17S2 our earlier fathers
determined to marry the two metals to-
| gether What is the first thing they did ?
1t was to ascertain the market value of the
| two metals as they stood side by side then,
and they thought that they were 10 to l.
not 1e to i, but 15 to /. What was the effect?
IT was an generalization of silver. Yes,
the gold in a gold dollar was worth more
than the silver in a silver dollar.
HOW BIMETALLISM WORKS.
what was the result? Why if man
had two dollars, one OF which was worth
100 cents and the other was worth 1o2 cents
he kept the hundred and two-cent dollar
longer and passed off the other one quick
er. I don't mean that the average man
did that. Two cents on dollar, even in
those days was not worth making much
. fuss about but the money changers were
on the alert. and whenever silver dollar
| came into the bank or reached the money
changers he put it out of circulation.
Il have misstated. 1 should have said
that gold was more valuable. so that We
had silver alone during that period. The
gold being more valuable, fed away. Well
now. the gold disappearing. fathers. In
1894. thought they had better make q
change and see if they could not keep gold
and silver together, so they changed the
ratio from 15 to to 16 1. or to be exact
to 1888 to /.
THAT turned out to be an overvaluatior
the other way, and what was the result,
The result was that gold reigned supreme
Then in 1861 we had and ISSUED
greenbacks. and. greenbacks being cheaper
for seventeen years. drove out both gold
and silver. but in 1879 We resumed specie
payments and the result was that we re.
sumed them. as we agreed to do in 1873
on a gold basis. And that has been the
case ever since.
This. then. is the experience of the
United States encountering single handed
the question of currency. We never were
able. when there was difference of or
per cent. to keep the one metal alongside
the other. 1t was always either gold OF
silver. never both. Now. II the United