The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-08-29

will M. struck down AZ blow IL the shall
low proiects of the Democratic and iopu
list platforms be realized.
| Rnt Won have heard from our free
| coinage friends here that other nation,
have done this. And there are many good
people who believe that France - uoins
II. and that the Latin union-so-caliei-i'
doing IL. Now, l would like 20 know why
they can't tell the entire truth about rms
| matter Let us not deceive each ctner
| and let nobody deceive us. The Lam
union is composed of France. Belgium
| Italy. Switzerland and Greece. III was
formed in 1866 by treaty between nose
| powers. whereby each agreed until tne
year 1880 10 take the coins of the other
powers nj the ratio Of l0l3 10 l.
But Germany demonetized silver; she
| had ceased 20 coin ID. and so. in 1913.
those great nations. headed by France
| 1.-THE most scientifically country
in the world. and the one which has the
most accurate financial ideasl, ! say those
countries. after Germany had demone-
tiled silver in 1873. limited their silver
| coinage aud by 1876 they suspended IL
| entirely. They, those great European
nations-France. the strongest monetary
nation in the world. with her allies-un-
dertook with all their power to do pre-
| cisely what the free coiners OF the Unit
ed States are asking this government
to undertake in the light OF such con-
spicuous failures of other nations.
InvariabIe standaads Needed.
Now, everybody admits-I think the
most rampant free-coner declaimer
would admit-that the money unit should
remain as nearly invariable as possible.
| Now. | say gold has so remained. Sill
yer has fallen commercially like other
| articles. This is denied They say sill
yer has not fallen, that gold has risen;
| Now, that is the way you look at IL.
You can look at il through the deluding
glass of idealism, and II may appear that
let me put an illustration from nature.
The waters of Lake Superior. that great
inland sea which floats so much of our
commerce and is such an element in our
prosperity. have for many years been
falling. until now they are lower than
they have been Mt any time for fifty
years, and everything on their surface
has fallen. The waters of Lake Supe-
rior. like the universal. spread-out plane
of humanity. bearing everything upon its
surface-those waters bear the fleets,
vessels and craft of all kinds. and YES
seis and craft and fleets Of all kinds have
fallen with the water. What would you
think of a man standing on the deck of
one of those vessels saying. This ves-
sci has not fallen: this vessel stands Just
where it did. but the universal shore Of
Lake Superior has risen!" Laughter
and appausel
Now. | say, my friends. that since the
Latin union, from 1873 to 1876. aban-
doned free coinage. there has existed in
European nations and the United States
the only practical bimetallism. Let me
repeat this. feel that l cannot bear it
into your minds too often or too urgently
that these nations, including ours. are
fh.ao Rlxs 81, "a Al Al
that have any bimetallism whatever.
And why! Because they went to the
danger line. as we went. and then
stopped. GApplause.l The universal
teaching Of history demonstrated that
there was a dead line. beyond which
silver could not be pressed without the
immediate humiliation of its companion,
gold, as useful. working money medi-
MN. And when any man gets up and
dreams and soliloquizes and PHILOSOPHERS
before me and tells me he knows IL won't
be so IL we try where others failed,
tell him that an ounce of fact is worth
ton OF theory. and that something bodi-
ly is worth million of disembodied
ghosts. lApplause.l
What is Ratioe
And yet these, gentlemen favor. In the
face of these historical examples and
warnings that the United States shall
make the unit of coinage the silver dol
lar az the ratio of 16 TO l.
Now. what n ratio? 1t is not SIC 10
81. as some people claim. UaughterD
Ratio means this: That there shall be
sixteen times more silver i'm weight in n
silver dollar than there is weight of gold
in gold dollar. OR, 10 put the definition
IN another form. that sixteen ounces of
silver. when coined, shall be the eouiya-
lent OF one ounce of gold when coined.
When gold measured by silver is worth
SIG per ounce, no disparity in value can
exist; but when measured by silver the
ounce of gold is worth S31 an ounce com
mercially, disparity results. Such is the
present condition, and yet the free silver
men assert that il will be no such thing
in case legislative fat endeavors TO make
two and two five instead of the old.
fashioned result. two and two four.
The trouble is that our friends have
confused the ratio of weight with the
ratio of value. and are trying to confuse
the people with il. The ratio of weight
and the ratio of value were once the
same. but they have changed. They
changed more than thirty years ago.
Other nations saw il and obeyed the i'm.
perial behest of that change before we
did, and the ratio is now throughout
the world 30, or about 80, to /.
Now ! say that no Legislative fiat what
eyer-it does not lie in the power of man
IL was about to say something more cx-
IRENE than that, which it would NOT he
proper 10 say)--it does not lie I'm the
power of man to enact that a given di-
mcnsion, volume or capacity shall be n
hairs breadth greater than the laws Of
the Almighty have fixed it from the be.
ginning. (Applause)
Ii is necessary that the ratio or pronor.
ton of value should be invariable' II Is
necessary for the production of the thing
itself called money. speaking of il in lis
great volume. as the volume of money i'm
the United States. We see analogies
everywhere: we see an analogy i'm nature.
Take the air we breathe. III is n CON.
pound substance, made up from oxygen
and nitrogen AT the ratio of about ~
TO %. and while this ratio lasts il is from
II we all draw our lives and have onr
being. But charge to any material do.
gree and, instead of being the vital. life.
giving air, il becomes u deadly and de.
structive miasma.
But the free-coiners assert that un,;m.
tied coinage of silver will restore II m n
parity with gold. Ii has been tried nv
many nations of tn world. Has II done
il in single instancey Not one. Tbcv
said the same thing when CONGRESS-
passed the Sherman act of 1890. They
said buy of us freely 4,5OO. 600 ouncas .