The San Francisco call., 1896-04-16
CARLISLE TALKS
AGAINST SILVER,
Thousands of People Listen
to the Secretary Of the
Treasury.
MOSTLY WORKINGMEN.
Says Free and Unlimited Coin
age Would Be a National
Calamity.
A POPUIIsT INTERRUPTION
An Inquisitive Gentleman Hustled
Out of the Hall by Two
Policemen.
A P0PUIIsT INTERRUPTION

| the 5000 seats in Chicago's great Audi
torium was filed tonight with people who
| came to hear the address of Secretary Car
| Isle on currency and finance. Several
| hundred people stood through the entire
address and several hundred more went
| away, being unable to gain admittance.
| The Secretary received a hearty welcome
and was loudly cheered upon entering the
| hall. Said he:
| Labor cannot be boarded. The idle day has
| gone forever; lost wages are never reimbursed,
and therefore steady employment and good
pay in good money are essential to the COM
| fort and happiness of the American laborer
| and his wife and children. He will be unfaith-
| tul TO himself and to them if he does not insist
| upon the adoption and maintenance of such
| policy will most Certainly preserve the value
and stability of all our currency and promote
| the regular and profitable conduct of all our
| industrial enterprises.
| The naked proposition is that the United
| States shall coin at the public expense for the
exclusive benefit OF the individuals and COR
| porations owning the bullion all the silver
| that may be presented at the mints into dol
| lars containing 371A grains of pure silver, or
| 4121& grains of standard silver-worth intrin-
sically about 81 or 81 eentS-deliver the coins
| to the depostors of the bullion, and compel all
| the other people in the country to receive
| these coins at valuation of 100 cents each in
| the payment of debts due them, except only in
cases where the prudent capitalist has taken
| the precaution In advance to contract for pay
| ment in gold or its equivalent
| To say nothing of the gross partiality and
m manifest injustice of such policy, it's imme-
| diate effect would be to contract our currency
| to the extent of about $500 000, 900 by stop
| ping the use of gold as money, and putting a
| premium upon the coins of that metal
| equal, or about equal, to the difference
between the intrinsic value of the gold
| dollar and the intrinsic value of the
silver dollar. Gold coins would at once become
a commodity, and would be bought and sold
| by speculators in the market just as they were
during the war when we had deprecated
paper currency. The value of the silver dolla
would fuctuate from day to day, mov-
ing up and down with the rise and
fall of the commercial price of the
bullion contained in it as the Mexican dollar
does now and the premium on the golden dol
lar would OF course huctuate to the same ex-
tent, thus affording an opportunity to bullion
brokers and speculators to buy and sell it at
a profit. 1t would cease to be used as money,
because man would pay his debt in gold
dollars or in paper redeemable in gold dollars
worth 100 cents when the law permitted him
to pay it in silver dollars worth only 81 or So
cents each.
from the volume of the currency In the coun-
try would undoubtedly produce a financial
and industrial disturbance far more disastrous
TO the interests OF labor than has ever been ax-
perienced our history, and no man who has
a particle of sympathy for workingmen and
women and their dependent families can con-
| template the possibility of such a calamity
without feeling that it is his duty, whether he
| occupies public or private station, to employ
! every honorable means at his command to
| avert it.
| The attempt to maintain what is called the
| double standard of value that is, the attempt
| to keep the legal-tender coins of the two
metals gold and silver, in use as money at the
| same time. upon a ratio of value fixed by law
| has repeatedly been made by kings and parlia-
ments in every civilized country in the world
| and it has failed in every one of them; and it
! requires no gift of prophecy to foresee that 1t
| must continue to fail so long as self-interest
constitutes q controlling factor in the business
| affairs of men.
! The secretary then concise1y and briefly
| recounted the experience of the United
States Government and Congress with the
silver experiment and the return to the
gold standard and limited coinage of
silver. Continuing, he said:
We have now about $500, 900 900 in gold and
$413, ,OO0, ,0O0in full legal tender silver besides
$7S, ,216,677 in subsidiary silver coins, which
are legal tender in payments not exceeding
$40, and the real question for the people to de-
eide is whether they will continue to use the
coins OF both metals or adopt a none tary sys-
TEN which always has and always will drive
one of them out of the country.
All the mints of the United States operated
to their full capacity and doing no other work,
could not coin into standard silver dollars
two-thirds OF the annual production of
silver in our own country, but notwith-
standing this it is seriously proposed to
offer free coinage to all the silver in
the world at legal valuation almost double
its commercial value in the markets of the
| foreign countries where it Is produced We
should descend by single step from the high
| est standard of value to silver monom etallism
! with contracted and at the same time de-
preciated eurrency-a financial experiment
| which has no precedent in the monetary his
| tory of the world.
In the general confusion and disorder result
ing from such radical change, what will be
! the condition of the American laborer? Will
he be benefited or injured by the reducing by
one-half the value of the money in which his
| wages are paid, and at the same time increas-
ing the prices of the commodities for which
his wages are expended?
The great body of employers, vast majority
| OF the men who have embarked their capital
| in industrial enterprises and are relying for
| success upon their skill and energy in the
| prosecution of their business, do not want the
present standard of value overthrown because
they know that the establishment OF silver
monome etallism would be ruinous to them and
to all who are dependent upon them for en-
ployment, or for the supply of commodities at
| reasonable prices.
At the close of Mr.. Carlisle's address
Colonel J. g. Roberts, a Populist leader,
arose and attempted to ask the Secretary
if he, in 1878, did not denounce the de-
monetization of silver as "the most gigan-
tic crime of this or any other age"
Before he could finish his question, the
colonel was seized by a couple of police
officers and elected from the hall.
| |