The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-08-07


ehange and see if they couldn't keep
eoio andssilyer together, go they changed
'iie raOao from fifteen to one to sixteen to
one OF, to be exact, to 10. SO to one. That
WI ned out to be an over valuation the
3 Mh way, and what was the resultp
preme
Inen II 1851 we had war and we is
saea greenbaoks and grsenbaoks being
0neaper, for seventeen years drove out
both gold and silver but in 1879 We re-
su.ne9 specie payments, and the result
mAs tnat We resumed them, ~ we agreed
uo IN 1875, upon a gold basis. And
'IaI mas been the status ever since.
NOW there is the experience OF tina
United States encountering sinale-hand-
gu Gne question of currency. We were
UNABLE, when there was difference of two
VI shfee per cent, to keep the one metal
Alongside Of the other, either gold or sill
YER. Now IL the United States then
could not lift a silver dollar that was
worth only two cents less than the gol1
1ollar, can she now lift fifty cent dol
Lar to he height of hundred conts?
Are there any more potatoes in four
thousand peoks than there are in one
Thousand Dushels?-if l remember my
arithmetic right and perhaps / don't
Your house is the same. your farm is the
same, it produces the same effect
whether you measure 1T by one standard
and call 1t worth $4,000 or by another
and call it worth $1,000 O,
but you say, our prices have gone down
and they have gone down on account of
the appreciation Of gold, and Therefore we
want to change into silyersso. that sthey
Willsgo up again. Whether gold has appre-
ciated or not do not suppose any man
kowns but whatever It's appreciation
has hQo lon 4,,Yl os-
II, and its effect upon prices, in my
Judgment mas been nothing.
Let me take some of the examples
which they give you, but before l take
them will take some that they do not
give you.
They talk about wheat and cotton,
and state that the prices of both those
articles have gone down on account of
the rise in the value of gold. Well now,
the very same set of figures, the very same
method of figures, by taking all the
other articles which the farmer produces,
shows us that all the rest of those pro
ducts have gone up two to four DER cent,
And 1t is perfectly natural that they
should, because this is world which
every year consumes more of certain
kinds OF farm produce. Men will have
bread and meat and they will have the
produce Of the farm, the vegetables, and
the Gamers bring them within the reach
OF everyone at all times, ana 1t is natural
that there should be rise.
But, they say, wheat and cotton have
gone down, those are She great staples
which the farmer raises. My friends,
everybo in this world, including the
farmer, Is liable to have something in
furious happen to his business, some
body else goes into 1t, and when good
many somebody's go into it, there isn't
enough for all hands in the way of profit.
That is the history of every occupation
on the face of the earth.
AS 90 changes In the price of farm
products, wheat or cotton or any other,
they happen from thousand things
outside OF the measure of gold or silver.
In 1880 l noticed in looking over the list,
that corn sold for thirty five and one
half cents bushel at the farm. The
next year, think, not on account of the
demonstration of silver, it went up to
lsixty-three and five-tenths cents, pretty
nearly double, and
| CORN rs THE GREAT CROP
Of this country. But why has wheat
gone down? In 1885 friend of mine, q
Democrat, but who had knowledge Of
what was going on In the world, said to
me your wheat and cotton in America
will never again bring the prices it has
brought" said whyf Said he ''Bacause
Russia is raising wheat. Your cotton Will
never bring the price again, India is rails
ing cotton \" and year or two later he
might have told me, that thousands and
thousands of Italians were going to Ar
gentina and spreading all over that coun-
try with wheat fields.
Cotton has another reason for falling,
They have discovered that an acre laid
down to cotton, in addition to cotton it.
self, will give the cotton seed oil, cotton
seed which you can sell and get money
for The result has been that while tbs
value of the cotton crop per acre has ap-
parently gone down, it has gone down
because they do not reckon into that the
cotton seed, which being by-product has
reduced the price of cotton itself while it
leaves che cotton product the same per
acre. Perhaps you think, and men do
generally think, that whenever a new
nroduct Is discovered that that inures to
the benefit of the man who owned the
original product. fortunately for the
world, 1t doesn'r. That geOs itself dis
tributed
Do you suppose the Standard Oil Com
pany desires to have petroleum, kerosene
oil I mean, worth 80 per cent less than
1t was many years sgoP No. And yet
they themselves have done 1T, for they
went to work and instead of having pc
trSleun produce only kerosene oil, they
had the by-products. which used to be
thrown away, made into valuable mer-
ohandise, and the result was that they
could sell kerosene oil cheaper, and they
have to do so.
You might as we'll charge the fall in
the price of petroleum and it's products to
the rise In the value of gold, as to charge
that of wheat.
What wnuld be the effect of our
| GOING ON A SILVER BASIS?
Well, there are some people, and you
will find them ON the corners of all the
streets. that know. (Applauss.) But
@ foreign banker was asked in New York
what would be the effect, and he saidsthey
had given the matter very great oonsid-
GRAFTON and didn't. know. They only
knew that it would be disastrous, but
just how much they couldn't calculate
suppose that the world will always
have money. Mons. Theirs said there
would always be money, and he was q
very wise old gentleman. When gold
land silver were driven out of this conn