The Indianapolis journal., 1896-10-21

ddy HfIeI L speak to you as a private
sona1 consistency, 1 only wanted to make
1t apparent to my Gibson county friends
and to my Indiana friends that nave
not said one thing upon this question al
one period of my life and another thlng
honor of this government. that the inter
ests OF It's commercial classes, tnat the IN
tere5ts Of its farmers. that the interests OF
we should have a dollar of fixed and un-
fuctuat1ng value and that 1t snail always
be worth 100 cents. lCheers) we are con-
frOnted this year with proposition that
silver is to be coined at the ratio OF 10 TO
/, Notwithstanding the fact that the COM
mercial ratio of the two metals is about
SO to l. In other words, the gold in q gold
dollar is worth, I think. at the recent quo
tations, a little more than twice as much
as the silver in silver dollar. Inc prop
osition is that in spite of that disparity
silver shall be coined by the government
for the mine owners without charging
them a cent for the cost and labor OF coin
age at the ratio of is to 1, when the men
who have that silver bullion can only sell
1t IN the market at the ratio OF 50 70 l.
Why should do this favor to the mine
owners? 1T is favor to them II Mr.. Bry-
an is right in saying that the value of sill
is increased in value you have put money
into the pockets of the owners OF silver
mines
I'VE hear a great deal of talk about the
expressions Of capital, about the plutocrats
country. as class, are these men VINO
have been fortunate enough to secure an
interest in some Of the great silver MINES.
They men who have obtained their
riches with the least cost in the way of
labor or mental process. 1t has come to
them by luck and they now enor-
mously rich. They are proposing that this
government, instead of buying their silver
at the market price and coming so much
of 1t as We need shall take every dollar they
dig out of the mines and give them
twice its value. Mr.. Bryan admits that there
it. to the silver mine owner An incidental
advantage! You have been. listening for
thirty years to denunciations by Democrats
your county Democratic newspapers. ev-
cry Democratic speaker has been denounc-
ing the tariff because it was class leSisla-
tion. as they said; and yet they are advo-
eating now a policy that, as class legiSla
ton, exceeds in its proportions and in the
eft by it. anything that was ever pro
posed in this country. We can see how the
mine owner is to get his profit by so
much as it fails to go to parity with gold,
the man who accepts it in payment of
debt is cheated.
SILVER WILL NOT ADVANCE.
VIII silver go up to a parity with gold
when it is freely coined? These gentlemen
say that this is a great, a rich and power
full country, and it is; but you forget,
my silver friend, that your proposition does
not put the strength or the riches of the
national government behind this dollar at
all. 1t simply takes the bullion from the
mine owner and stamps it and gives it
back to him, and has no further care of
that dollar. You would not consent to the
proposition that the government should is
sue its promise to maintain these dollars at
a parity with gold. YOU say it must be let
alone. The present currency is SO sup
ported, but you deny this support of the
government in you" proposition, and yet
talk about the great and powerful govern
ment. Suppose Mr. Bryans prophecy is
Unfulfilled, ana that silver does not go up
to par with gold. Mind you, it is his mere
fHn TYotta OF,
are skilled in financial matters is that it
viii not go to par with gold. All of our
nlstor1cal experience shows that will not
In Mexico they have free coinage and
While Mexico is not as great a country
tanning a little more silver than our silver
dollar contains, is only worth 80 cents in
gold. What is called the Latin Union in
Europe, made up of France and several
other of the. great continental countries,
agreed to coin silver and they began the
could not keep the value of their silver
coin up to gold and We're compelled to sus-
pend their coinage of silver. Yet we are
told told that this country simply by coming it
VIII bring it up to a par with gold. l would
rather depend upon experience than upon
prophecy unless L was very well assured
that the prophet had been anointed
lLaughter) The prophet days are past
Mr. Bryan knows nothing more about it
than you DO. His experience in life has not
given him knowledge of those things and
he cannot point to an historical instance
etiitl ilS I1SNSi mas pointed TO an historical
instance. or to any fact that would sup
port this prophecy.
What will be the effect? Everybody who
sells goods will mark up the price of his
goods. Fe viii not give you as much for
a silver dollar he has been in the habit
of giving for a gold dollar or, for paper
doi!ar maintained at parity with gold He
will mark up all his goods to whatever
amount the silver currency is less valuable
can do that. The man you buy your tea
coree, sugar, boots, clothing and things
OF OLE fnat it sqrt IRON, he can mark up his
can have 1t done the next morning after
the free-s1lver law passes. But l speak
here to-day to great many men who earn
their living by daily toi1-who get wages.
| want to ask these men how are thev 90
ing to mark up their wages. They can't
mark UP their wages
QUESTION OF WAGES.
They have to consult the boss; they
have to have an argument with him. The
historical fact growing out of our ex
perience with greenbacEs is that everv-
thing that the working man buys goes up
rapidly and his wages go up very tediously
and very slowly. When the greenback was
a deprecated dollar the cost of living went
up over 100 per cent. and wages went up
less than SO per cent. That is experience
that is the experience to which you are
invited by those men who ask you to de-
stroy our present system in which silver
and gold are both used and paper and all
at parity, fer system under
which we shall coin silver freely without
regard to it's commercial value and thus
bring down everything to a silver basis
nay countrymen, does anybody suppose
that when We have free coinage of silver
gold VIII be In use in this country There
is nothing clearer, nothing so wen estab-
HShed i'll history as that cheap money al
ways drives a good money out of circula-
ton; and you know why 1t is. If you have
two dollars and one is better than the
other, you are going to keep the better one
ana spend the poorer one. God-Six hum
dred and odd millions of twill be driven
instantly out of use. And many of these
silver advocates themselves admit that the
flrSt effect of that would be a tremendous
financial panic. distinguished English
bimetalliSt VINO is vice president of the
League in England, has recently
visited New York; and while advising us
to adopt free coinage he freely admits that
the first effect Of adopting il would be q
and universal business panic So
that we have that to meet with. We put
out of communication with all of
the great nations of the earth separate
from England, France and Ger
many ana associate ourselves with China
Japan and Mexico. This is the banquet to
which we are invited.
But it is said we want a cheaper dollar
because the gold dollar has been going up.
They tell you that wheat has not been GO
ing down but that the right expression is
that gold has been going up. That is, a
dollar in gold will buy more wheat than it
did before, not because wheat is lower, but
because gold has gone up. Now. my coun-
trymen, our Democratic friends have al
ways had trouble with the markets
II