The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-20
ALTGELD ON HONOR
REPLY TO THE SPEECHES OF
SEIZURE AND BOURKE COCK
RAN.
He. IS AFTER A REMEDY.
ILLINOIS GOVERNOR SAYS ONE Is
OFFERED ONLY BY THE
SILVERITES.
FACTS AND FIGURES OF HIS OWN.
Presented to Show That There Il
Only One Side to the silver
Problem.

CHICAGO, Sept. 19.-Gov. John P.
Altgeld spoke to a large audience at
Central Music hall tonight, the address
being intended to controvert the argu-
ments made in Chicago by Carl
Schurz and Bourke Cochran. The adj
dress was a lengthy one, covering the
main question of the campaign in an
elaborate fashion
Gov. Altgeld, in opening his remarks,
referred to the speeches of Bourke
Cochran and Carl Schurz delivered in
Chicago, saying that neither offered
any remedy for the present financial
distress in this country. He also
touched on the Mckinley tariff
panacea, adding that it was a policy
never approved by either Cochran or
Schurz. Continuing he said:
They have no remedy to suggest, but they
strenuously object to permitting the people
TO do anything towards helping themselves.
That bishop who told an anxious negro that
there were only two ways open for him and
that one led directly down to hell while the
other led away off to eternal damnation
evidently the man who furnished the
text for both of these speeches. The negro
scratched his head and replied, IF OATS so,
nlassa, den dis chile takes to de woods"
And if Messrs. Schurz and Cochran are cor
rect then the American people will have to
take to the woods.
The fact is, there is not enough money
In this country at present to do its business.
in all of the agricultural states of the South,
the Mississippi valley and the West. there
Is the greatest scarcity of money. The banks
are unable to furnish what is needed, and
even in the money centers very little dis
tuTbance renders the banks helpless. Re
gently we had what is known as the Diamond
Match Stock Speculation" and a collapse
followed, and so seriously did this single
speculation strain the money market OF this
great city, with all it's large banks, that
many of the banks had to refuse credits to
their customers in legitimate business, and
the banks, acting together, forced the stock
exchange to close, so that there could be no
market quotations on Diamond Match stock,
for fear that otherwise number of banks
would be unable to meet their obligations
and be ruined. few years ago the banks
Of New York that are perniciously active in
this money agitation actually refused to pay
their obligations because they had not the
money with which to do 1t, and forced the
public to take clearing house certificates.
MIR. SchurZ says there are oceans OF money
lying idle and then in another sentence
he says that gold is now leaving our coun-
try and going to Europe because 1t finds pro-
ftable employment there. Naturally you ask
If there are oceans Of money lying idle in
those money centers, then how money go
ing there from here find profitable employ
ment there :? - He is no doubt correct in this,
that there is congestion in money centers.
but it is because of the constant downward
tendency in prices which prevent prudent
men from embarking in enterprises and US
ing money for legitimate purposes. The heart
is congested and the extremities cold,
condition which always follows when large
portion of the blood is taken from a patient.
THEORY OF ovERPRoDUCTIoN.
The main fabric of the whole speech of Mr..
Schurz is based upon the theory Of overpro-.
duction. He insists that there is a fall in
the price of silver and that this is due to over
production. That there was much more
silver produced than formerly that It had to
fall in price You will readily see that IL
there was the same increase in the production
of both metals then there was no reason why
the relations which they bore to each other,
Or the market ratio which they bore to each
other, should change. Mr.. Schurz knew this.
Why didn't he state it that way? Because
he knew. the facts were against him. He
i wanted to make an impression which he
could not make without a suppression of
. part OF Fthe caseJ u Fortunately this is not
matter that we need to speculate about We
have history, experience and accurate data
upon this subject according to the tables
issued by the treasury department Aug. 16,
1893 showing the total production of gold and
silver in the world at coinage value, 1t ap-
pears that from the year 1892, when our mon
etary system was founded, to the year 1852
the time of the great gold discoveries, being
period of sixty years, the total production
OF silver in the world. rating it at coinage
value, was 81. 769 1877 Co., and the total pro-
ductlon of gold in the world during that time
was 1850, 2S6 600; that is, on the average there
was just about twice much silver pro-
duced as gold during that time. The pro-
duction of each metal varied of course dur
Ing the different years, and yet the market
ratio between the two metals remained prac-
tically the same during all that time The
tables giving the market prices show that
during those sixty years there was a variance
OF only seven-tenths of one point or Just
about the cost of exchange. The same tables
show that from 1852 to 1873 the total gold pro-
duction of the world was Sc, SIG SIS, 0OO while
the total silver production was only s9S9 225,-
600 that IS, there was two and a half times
as much gold produced as silver vet the
market ratio remained unchanged during
these twenty-one years just as it had during
the period OF sixty years when there was
twice as much silver as gold produced
Mr.. Schurz next tried to convey the i'm
preston that wages have not falln and were
therefore not affected by the decentralization
of silver; and he says that wages have risen
more than so per cent since 1860. See the
ingenuity OF this, and ask yourselves whether
this is a fair way Of representing that cues
ton. All the world knows that wages have
nearly doubled since 1850. The question Is
that this country and Europe de1nonetiZed
silver and reduced the volume of money in
the world between 1873 and 1879 Had he
been candid he would have compared the
wages for, say, twelve years prior 70 the
general characterization with wages for twelve
years after that general characterization was
accomplished.
SUBJECT OF WAGES
This subject of wages was carefully inquired
INTO IN the year 1891 by q committee appointed
by the United States senate. This com
mittee made thorough investigation, John
G. Carlisle, the present secretary of the treas
ury, was a member of that committee II