The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1896-08-07
REED WAS RENOM|NATED
For His Tenth Term in the
House
HIS CAMPAIGN IS BEGUN
By Few Remarks on the Currency
Question
Doubtless HIS Intentions Were 90 d, but
He Tangled His Dates and
Figures Most Horribly
Press Special Wire.

Il. Reed was today renominated by ac.
clamaton for congress by the Republi.
cans of the First district. 1t is the
tenth successive term for which Mr.. Reec
has been nominated.
! After the nomination Mr.. Reed was
escorted to the platform amid lout
cheering. He seemed to be considerably
affected by the ovation. He thanked
the convention for the unanimous nomi-
nation, saying that by so doing he had
been relieved of the duty of attending tc
his district and given opportunity tc
pay attention to the wickedness of the
rest Of the world.
Continuing, Mr.. Reed said: eve, in
Maine, have got to make up our minds
on the great issue of this campaign and
a great dea, depends on what we do in
September. When we see two men
standing on a corner and both men seem
to be somewhat uneasy and unable fully
to comprehend 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 l shall say some
thing about it.
| we OllCIl near that silver WAS Qp-
monetized in 1873, steathily and by the
influences Of foreign embassies. AS a
| matter of fact, the Congressional Re-
cord of that date had 1876 columns of
speeches on the silver question and the
foreign embassies had nothing to do
with it. No fraud nor wi1kedness was
practced in 1873.
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
bimetallic platform, and don't let them
try to make you believe that bimetallism
is what they are after.
What is the object of bimetallism? :?
The object of it is to give to currency
greater stability by spreading it over
more surface. A common illustrate
of it is this: If you have a lake anyweher
and it is subject to all the peculiar Incl
dents of the region in which it is, this
rainfall may lift it, though drought may
lower it. Now. if you want perfectly
stable surface you have got to get it
| by some appliance outside of the lake
| Suppose you can join it to another lake
in different climate, which is differ
/
| emily affected.
| If you join them perfectly together
then there will be the same level in both
! lakes, and the disturbances in one lake
| will be counterbalanced by the disturb
ances in the other lake, and the tendency
will be to have a steadier level
THAT will all be perfectly true. pro-
vided your two lakes do balance and you
get more stable current.
Now. there is some reason and sense
in the idea that the whole world. if they
took gold and silver at proper ratio,
could preserve a greater level of prices.
a tirmer and more stable level of pricas.
This no single country could do; but if
one Of the lakes was very violent in
its fluctuations 1 think the Judgment
OF common experience would be to leave
it out, or If that lake was not big enough
to have proper effect, in short under
some circumstances, the two lakes
might be worse than single one might
be- However, that is a question of legit-
innate discussion. But in this cause it is
not proposed to have two lakes 1t is
proposed to say that we have two lakes
and shift from the one we have to the
O--N w A'NNN NOV N<APPidtSc.J
Let us see if the history of This
country shows us anything upon the
subject. Real bimetallism, and that IS
the kind we must have because, as l
said to you at Alfred. if this is a disease
at all it is a world disease, and has got
to have world remedy. Nothing else
will attend to it. (Applause) We had
some experience in this country, but
mems memories are short In 1882 ON
earlier fathers determined to marry the
two metals together. 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 fifteen to one not sixteen
to one, but fifteen to one
What was the effect? 1t was an over
valuation Of silver. Yes, the gold in a
gold dollar was worth more than the
silver in silver dollar.
What was the result? Why if a man
had two dollars, one of which was worth
one hundred cents and the other was
worth one hundred and two cents he
Kept the one hundred and two cent dol.
lar longer and passed off the other one
quicker. (Applause
Il don't mean that the ayera ee man
did that. Two cents on dollar. even in
those days, was not worth making a fuss
about, but the money changers were Oh
the alert, and whenever silver dollar
came INTO the bank or reached the mon
ey changer he put it out of circulation.
Il have misstated; should have said
the gold was more valuable; that we
had silver alone during that period The
gold being more valuable fled away.
Well. now, the gold disappearing. our
fathers in 1884 thought they had better
make change and see if they could not
keep gold and silver together; so they
changed the ratio from fifteen to one |
to sixteen to one, or to be exact, to |
1898 to l. That turned out to be an over |
valuation the other way. and what was
the result? The result was that gold !!
reigned supreme.
Then in 1861 we had war and we |
issued greenbacks, and greenbacks be- |
ing cheaper for seventeen years drove |