The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-05-13
DOWN A CRATER.
fCont.nuea rrom r,r., p.~e,


why you know that silver was coin
at premium for years. You also know
that our currency, at one time, was only
worth about forty cents on the silver dol
lar. Nevertheless, by vigorous action
of the government in putting out that
money, and its plentiness and dispersion
through the army and the government
agencies, we ran up to state of business
activity which continued for 20 odd
years; for 20, yes, for 80 years. We have
dfscountenanced one-half and the none
tary importance of silver, and to that ex-
tent have weakened our business activ-
ities.",
"Then you hold that at least one of the
questions sure to appear in the coming
campaign is silver"
"Silver and the tariff. They belong to
each other. In both cases we dropped
our Americanism, and were mislead by
the parasites of England and her insid-
ious policy, and in order to maintain the
credit Of railroads, more or less broken
already, we are running into debt, and
with all our unfriendliness to silver, are
getting every day in worse condition.
This country is just ready for business.
Look at these splendid facilities, such as
these Office buildings. Do you suppose
that the men who framed this govern
ment out there wouM have tamely acqui-
esced in the British gold standard Of
money!" (He pointed to Carpenters
hall, which / now observed to be right
behind me, in a court way) There
the continental congress met in 1774.
with Washington one of the delegates"
Men Of that character" said Mr..
Cook, would rise out Of their graves if
they had power to reprove the state of
things we see at Washington. Instead of
putting the people on their feet and CIV
ing the money and avocations, they are
trying down there to throw us into
war with Spain. I consider President
Cleveland's Venezuelan message to have
been next to criminal attempt to dis
guise to the American people the absolute
failure Of his assaults upon the tariff and
upon our money"
tariff ON SILVER.
How would you act in a silver restora-
ticn, concerning the foreign silver which
would come here to be bought at par?''
81 would put tariff, and a high one.
against both foreign silver coin and every
article manufactured out of silver abroad
Our American silver would then stand
upon footing with every other protected
product. They could no more smuggle
in silver than diamonds or manufactures.
I would also raise the entire line of our
imported duties against those nations
which discriminate against our silver
until they couldn't sell one dollars worth
of anything they manufacture in this
market, whether it be English or Ger
man. The tariff goes with silver Raise
again our duties to the war standard, if
necessary and keep our silver in circula-
ton, as the French do, Notwithstanding
their adherence to the normalism of
gold.'
us there any way to correct the ex-
cessive production Of silver in case we
restore t?'
ono, we have great deposits of silver;
the Comstock lode and the Horn mine are
now worked. The gold premium has also
increased the activity in gold mining.
But we could afford better than any peo-
pie on the globe, to resume our Ameri-
can standard of coinage. Had we firmly
maintained it, instead of repeating the
Sherman law. or flying from free COIN
age, very different state of things
would have existed in the world today
Our national management for years has
been like people ashamed of what comes
out of our soil and of'the example of our
fathers. Blaine was the only man in
many year who had the popular in
stincts. He was the last American among
these statesmen. There is John Sher-
man. My brother went with him to the
first Republican national convention. He
has been a glorious man in the past but
for the last two or three years has lost
his courage and consistency, and having
let go of silver, is now calling us into a
foreign war"
"Then you think this country with free
silver coinage could easily handle all
that coin?"
'Of course. You take a railroad as a
parallel. It Is not the through business
of the railroad which makes the money;
it is the way business The through bust
ness of the Pennsylvania railroad does
80 per cent of it's business between local
stations, and the Pacific railroads have
probably the same proportions. So the
domestic use of silver would be 80 per
cent of the general use as compared to
the International uses of the metal. We
have done everything the goldbugs have
demanded, and how much better off are
we? We are revolving down a crater
toward a volcano at the bottom?"
"Have you ever seen gold at dis
count, Mr.. Cook?"
~ l
lar have I made by shaving gold and
sending it over to New York by special
messenger. have seen the two DreXels-
Tony and Frank bringing on their own
shoulders, over to our banking house of
Clark L Co., bags of gold which we al
lowed them mercantile paper for. The
gold dollar coins, the two and half
coins, and even the five-dOllar coins, were
sensible to ROBBERY and loss. Before the
days of express companies it paid us to
send lusty messengers over to New York
with large amounts of gold which we had
bought at depreciation, and at that time
silver was at flaming premium
81 suppose you have seen silver also
| lugged around in bags?"
why in the days Of the Spanish and
| Mexican quarters, fps, levies, etc.-for
we rarely coined any dimes and halt
dimes-I have brought kegs Of silver to
be sent out to China for tea, silk. ETC.
We always imported more from China
than we could send back in goods, and
therefore had to make the difference up
in silver coin. Now, the Chinese stamped
every silver coin which had once came
to their country, and with that stamp en-
it, they never would take it back. I have
seen those Drexel boys also bringing
over bags of silver which our experts
would examine and see that it was vir.
| gin, for Chinese use. Under that con-
dition of things, should not our state Off
Gals have introduced our own silver dol
lars to China and Japan and made them
eminently current, instead of throwing
| out of the standard that whole mass OIL
| oliver nf which we have produced since