The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-08-06
THOMAS b. REED.

ry, much less Il system of tnance-and
there are those who tell us that all things
have changed; hut these very men who
were being arrayed for decent burial had
burst the cements of the grave and trans
figured by some new arrangement of
crowns of thorns and crosses of gold,
were to lead us to Il new happiness and
even repair all the damage they them
selves had wrought. Now, this may be
so, but to me it does not seem probable.
Human experience in every walk of life
teaches us that those who have blunder-
ed will blundcr again, and that the wiScst
course is not to employ ship captain
who has not yet emerged from his last
shipwreck, but the safe sailor who has
never lost ship, passed. "er o. a let
ter, but who has sailed SAFE through
every sea. He may have lost nasts and
sails, and even been rudderless for hours,
but il he has every time come safely to
shore better have him than the lands
men who are forever shouting what they
can do and never daring to tell what
they have done. Boosters are worth
nothing. Deeds are facts and are for
ever. Talk dies on the empty space.
Better Il pound of performance than
shiplOad of language.
1.-TWO months ago, as | have already
said, everybody conceded the election of
.nc repupicail TICKET. w nat nappeneu
since then! Have the four years of
history been blotted out? Not one scrap
of it. Is our condition better? Rather
worse. We are all in Il bad way and
something must be done. Let us see
what is proposed by those gentlemen
who, within the last two months, discov-
cred new cure for all the ills flesh is
heir to and who proclaim as they did
four years ago. they alone hold prospcri-
ty in their grasp.
Their remedy is the coinage of silver
at the ratio of 16 to 1. What does that
mean? Heretofore whenever gold and
silver have stood together it has been ut
the market value. When we tried to
make them circulate together we have
always married them according to their
market value. Today we find that not
III to l, but 81 to |, is legal. vet they are
going to lift silver singlehanded against
the civilized world. Why should the
United States try to do this alone? |
won't discuss the question whether the
free coinage of silver will raise it to par
or not. Very few people claim that it
WILL and if they did l could not believe
them.
Il was told in 1890 by two of the most
sincere as well as the ablest silver men
that the purchase of 100000 ounces a
month would raise silver to par. and
when we did buy it silver went down like
lead. Silver men have not been good
prophets in the past. What we want is
not more money, but more capital-money
always comes with capital We have
money now more than we can use, living
idle. We have just exported lot of it.
Money is the transferrer of CAPITAL rs n
hayrack and horse is transferer of hay.
More hay racks will never make more
hay, but more hay will require more racks
and is sure to get them. Our capital is
great. but the United States is much
greater. There are millions of square
miles and 100000 people and undevel-
oped riches without stint. But there is
not capital enough to keep 100000
people at work. When are we the most
prosperous? 1t is when the $4,000. 600
people are all working. and when that
happens we borrow of the rest of the
world thousands of millions of dollars.
Now, just as soon as this election is over
and the future position of the United
States is assured, both as to money and