Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-09-01

/ ~ u
Thea ance. But I say that. they admit
tina kyes-any intelligent speaker upon
andN bjeet admits that the, inevitable
the Asistible tendency and result of
try - coinage of silver in this eoun-
let !EE be to drive out the gold. Now
It hase how they propose to obviate it.
tneif Aswsys, stysek me that one of
Mr. St,sf etfghtstisd ehan aae Sas was was
largely nd copiousIy quoted by them
be @asTesidentfof a national bank and
| was PRECEDENT of the recent silver con-
vention t st. Louis and by the bill
which he procured to be introduced in
Congress nd which had the endorsement
of the sifer and Populist sentiment
there, theyproposed to bridge over this
yawnins eastn which they themselves
by issuing efestrba6fing treasury notes
OF the Unied States, secured By DEPOSITS
| or uncoind silver or gold bullion, or by
deposit ofUnited States bonds TO be is
sued OF course for that purpose. Now let
us look at. his cooliy and calmly and fig
pre- upon itl little, like men of sense who
are infinitely Interested in, this matter
as one OF business concern and tst fls
see how this project would work; wheth-
er 1t would 9ot merely
| Skin and film the ulcerous sore.
| "niist rank corruption mining all beneath
ihfects nnSeef
| we have $83s,OOo, 900 df gold III the
United States. l think more. 1t wotilG
disappear at once in the face, of free
silver coinage, or even the certainty of
" Let this election ca Uemocratic;
Popuiist. let the American people record
their will that the coinage of silver shall
be free and unlimited. long before Mr..
Bryan and his cohorts could place the
edict into the form of law, the just finan-
cial fears of mankind, of people here
in; this audience and, of people every
where, at home and abroad, would draw
that gold from every vault wherein il
lies protected and it would sink into the
! earth as the waters which came down
from heaven last night. say it would
disappear at once. This bill of Mr. St.
John so admits, and that disappearance
Is the very aiinieht which he proposes
to remedy. But in this universal dt;
sconding of gold there would be no gold
bullion to deposit, people would not take
1T out Of hiding to exchange it for any
paper money whatever of the govern
meht which proposed 70 make. all. these
obligations payable in silver. applause
This remedy is counteracted so far by
the assumption and admission that gold
will disappear.
Now as to deposits of silver bullion.
The worlds product Of silver in 1894
commercial value) was S216, So. 2OO.
duct las we could not}, it would take
three years to fill the void of $500, 000,-
600 of vanished gold. The nations of
the world will not melt down their
coined silver TO deposit it in the United
States treasury and receive merely a
silver certificate.
Some of the Evils.
But the third alternative is one of
most tnalign portent. 1t is proposed to
use the Understanding bonded debt Of
the United States in order that the miner
or owner of silver may take his bullion
to the mint meanwhile and get evidences
of public debt two for one-a privilege
not granted to or claimed by any farm
er, artisan, manufacturer or producer
upon Gods heritage. l say it is pro-
posed TO use the interest bearing bonded
debt of the United States. Now, what
of the bonded debt. People who have
got their bonds as investments to get
their living from in the way of their an
nual income, or anyone else, are not
going to put their bonds on deposit in the
treasury to get treasury certificate.
And so the chasm could not be filed
in that way, neither by gold, by silver
or by the illimitable issue of bonds.
So this chasm could not be filed. They
admit it will last three years. What
will take place meantime, in the very
face of the danger of it? We are in
the midst of commercial distress almost
unexampled in our history; panic such
as the world has seldom seen. 1t would
throw 100000 of men out of employ
ment. 1t would depress and starve the
wage-earner, and it would deprive him
of being the best consumer and purchas-
er that the American farmer has, and
by that reflex action intict unexampled
misery upon our agricultural population.
(Applause.)
In that state of things the abyss must
be filled. No nation could stand such
contraction. The most radical remedy
would be absolutely necessary to re-
store it, and there would only be two
one is to get back to the honest, solid
standard on which all the commercial
nations, including the United States,
stand now, or to use an irredeemable
paper money, perfectly limitless or IL
limitable in its amount. And when that
comes to pass silver will vanish in the
face of paper as gold vanished i'm the
face of silver. (Applause.) And then
you would have another chasm, another
issue of money. The wreck is complete,
and the United States stands entirely
on an irredeemable paper money basis,
precisely the place we occupied before
the war, and from which we struggled
with so much passion of honesty and
love of national honor to emancipate
ourselves Do you want that again
(Cries of "No, no.'o
But, my friends, to look a little deeper
into this subject. The misery goes fur
Their that would be inflicted. / have been
talking heretofore about lawful money,
and mean by that, money issued by the
governments of the world, the United
States included. But did you ever think
how little of the business of this world
or of any community like st. Paul and
Minneapolis is done on what is called
lawful money? Statistics would seem to
show that 80 per cent. of the transac-
tions between man and man in civilized
nations, especially in the United States,
is by way of checks. In cities they are
balanced against each other in the clear
ing house, and n few thousand dollars
balanced money closes the days transac-
tons. Where clearing houses do not ex-
ist-- / mean in towns and villages-the
depositing of the checks in the banks, and
the collections of the banks adjust bal
ances in the same way.
Now, this is the greatest currency of
civilization. Numbers are inadequa.e to
express its infinite superiority in numeri-
cal relation to the lawful money of
which we have been talking. This is the
currency that no statutory fiat can ex-
pand, although it can contract it. But it
Is currency which will contract instan-
taneously to it's very minimum by the
operation of the Democratic and Popu-