The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1896-10-30
IRELAND.

""S "e"ih eiS"sSu w spCcSu VI
last Wednesday. The orator OF the
occasion was the Hon. w. s. Hun
ter, OF Jasper, and he talked long
and loud! His speech was the
regulation speech, marked by no
specially except that of weakness.
He began by twisting the Demo-
cratic platform into being a plea for
States Right. OF course he did not
read it. If he had, any sane man
would see in moment that il has
nothing in common with the "anti-
bellum" idea of States Rights.
He next turned his battery on
Altgeld, Governor OF Illinois, and
stignatized him with such epithets
as Anarchist" &c.
Just think of it the idea of such
a man as Altgeld, tower of knowl-
edge, Gibralter of reason, who
stands head and shoulders above
all other men in being the advocate
OF the common people of the great
common wealth of Illinois, who
seeks not his own emoluments, but
the welfare Of the common people,
and who yields such strength in
his own state, to be criticised by
such small political Fry" as Hun
ter, Of Jasper
But so the world wags. When
our Savior was here on earth, there
was no lack of "Small Fries" to
|criticise Him, and his heavenly
views. But mind you, it does not
stop there, history shows that every
time any man has attempted to in
stitute a reform of any kind, he has
had to suffer the same pest from
these same Fries"
Mr.. Hunter talked very logically
at times; for instance, when he
proved that if We had Free Coinage
of Silver that it would be a base
coin, and that men would use it
freely in the payment of all debts,
and in purchasing, and that every
body would keep their "good mon
ey," which from a Gold-bug point
of view must mean gold. That was
logical, only that men began to
wonder where the gold was to come
from for them to keep, for they
have been told repeatedly, that the
geld would leave the country.
Reference was again and again
made to the intrinsic value Of gold
but to those who think, even super
ficially, it is known that gold;has no
such thing as an intrinsic value,
that its value comes to it through
the use that is made of it. What
was the intrinsic value Of gold to
the American Indian? Its shiny
appearance. And any thing that
outshone gold had more "intrinsic"
value than gold. What would be
the intrinsic value Of ton of gold
in ship in mid ocean, if said ship
had lost her rudder. sprung a leak
and whose engine was disabled
It's Intrinsic" value would then
be negative quantity, as it would
help to sink the ship that much
sooner. Again ! must say that to
talk of intrinsic value of gold is
'bosh," and has nothing real in it..
Intrinsic means inherent, insepara-
BILE, as the color of gold is insepara-
bic, not the value.
BY the way, Mr.. Hunter came to
another logical place, and that was
when he said that whatever value
money has it is given that value by
the people who use it, and he
showed that it is positively true by
referring to the Indians who attached
value to mere shells, and they
passed as money. Yet, in the face
Of this fact, he would tell us that
the Congress of the United States
is powerless to regulate the value
Of the money of the country.
Further he made the statement that
Congress cannot create values.
Now if you will read Townsend's
Civil Government, you will find it
says Congress has not only the
right to regulate the value of our
money, but also to regulate the
value Of foreign money" / believe
Civil Government" knows; don't
you? Of course.
He gave an entirely new phase of
the bond business; that the govern
ment said to the bond holder,
Here is my gold, and here is my
silver. if you buy my bond you can
have either at your option. That
was startling statement indeed;
just think of it. When Cleveland
sent his message to Congress, he
said if they would give that option