The record-union., 1896-10-08
De VRIES ARGUMENT.
Comment on the Speech He Made al
Jackson.
Editor Burlington Points Out the Utter
1mbecility of His So-Called
Arguments.
(From the Jackson Republican,

(From the Jackson Republican,
The man who aspires to the place in
Congress SO admirably filled by Hon.
Grove l.. johnson addressed a large au-
dience in Jackson last Saturday night,
and he advanced some peculiar ideas, a
lew of which we propose to notice.
Mr.. De Vries began his speech by
thanking the people for the reception
accorded him, and then proceeded to
speak of the present state of the coun-
try. He stated that the present state of
finance and trade was not satisfactory.
This brilliant flash was not entirely
new to our people, but it helped the
young man to get started, and he took
courage and began to look around for
the cause of the depression and decline
An prices for the past fifteen or more
years. But wherever a Democrat looks
he sees in letters of impenetra bic dark
ness the bugbear date 1873" forever
looming up before his charmed eyes,
and SO Mr.. De Vries, being, as he was
careful to state, Populist Silver Demo-
Crat, saw it floating before his eyes, and
like all of his party, he failed to see
anything else, making that the center
Ground which his thoughts revolved.
Under such circumstances it was nat
vi oil tiltI lllS lldSl1IdllO1
him back to the year 1S13-the year Of
the hegira-the year of the demonetiZa-
ticn, as claimed by the Popodem party.
lie claimed that prices of all commod-
tiles and of labor have steadily fallen
since that time and under the single
gold standard The ference intended
is that something occurred in that year
which caused the decline in prices. Mr..
De Vries failed to notice the fact that
said decline did not begin in 1873; that
there was no silver in circulation in this
country at that time, except, perhaps, a
little in California, nor for several
years afterward, therefore the disuse of
silver theoretically could have had no
1n1fuence upon prices at that time and
1rot until the resumption Of specie pay
ment six years later. That before said
resumption the Government had COM
menced the coinage of silver dollars and
continued it until 1893, putting out 5O0.-
UU,OO0 Of silver dollars as against s.
GOC,00 in all the history of the country
before that time. He also forgot to men,
tion that the Republicans claim, and
with strong reason, that the present
alarming and extraordinary business
situation is due wholly to Democratic
legislation upon the tariff question The
arguments In support of the Republican
Hheory of the case Mr. De Vries did not
attempt to answer, nor even allude to,
and they are therefore presumed to be
convincing and unanswerable.
Next he proceeded to discuss the uses
of money, affirming that there are three
purposes for which money is used
First, as medium of exchange, with
which, he claims this campaign has
nothing to do: second, as the measure
of value, and, third, as a record Of fu-
hure obligations, or the unit Of account,
we presume he meant. And this lat
ter point was the one he wished par
ticularly to explain.
The would-be successor of Hon. Grove
L. Johnson then squared himself for
the fray and declared that the demon
etiZation Of silver was effected by
stealth, in an indirect way, at the be-
hest Of such men as Ernest Say and the
gold kings and bondhOlderS of Lom-
bard street, London. 1t was a scheme
according to this young mans views, to
double the wealth of the creditor class
at the expense of debtors. His idea of
an honest dollar is one that will pay the
same on any obligation contracted
few years ago with the same amount
of farm produce or labor which would
have paid it at the time it was con-
tracted. This would be a strong point
and it is the only point with any pith
in IL that the speaker made or can
make, and 1t would be logical argu-
ment If the conditions really existed
which he claims do exist.
He said: 80, but they tell us we will
be deluged with silver" In answer to
that, he claimed that there are four
yUb ora
can be obtained, namely. first, silver al
ready existing in the form of orna-
ments, which, being more valuable in
its present form, would not be sent to
the mint for coinage; second, silver
coins of foreign countries, which being
needed at home for circulation as
money, and being worth three cents
more to the dollar there than here,
would not be imported; third silver bull
ion now in the hands of dealers in that
commodity, of which, according to Mr..
De Vries, there is only a small amount
in existence; fourth, silver mines.
which, he declares, have uniformly
failed to pan out the enormous amounts
of silver expected and have diSap-
pointed their owners; and, beside, the
number of such mines in the world is
not SO large as to be alarming. Repub-
out the location of the rich mines of
which so much has been said, are una
BILE to point them out, and the inference,
of course, is that they do not exist.
Now, this is the best argument the
Demopops have, and it amounts to a.
reductio ad absurdum. If there is no
silver, what on earth is all this noise
about? If there is no silver, there has
been no crime against silver If there
is no silver there is none from which
TO coin money for either the poor or
the rich, the debtor or creditor.
Before we ascertained from the
illogical Mr.. De Vries that silver was
80 scarce, and when we felt assured
there was sufficient for all purposes,
we were unable to see by what modus
operandi 1t was to be transferred
from where it now is into the pockets
of the poor, but as we are now in
formed by this Solon from the
Slough that there is only trifling
amount of it available, the problem
becomes not only difficult but impos-