The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-08-01
SILVER And PRICES.
Speech Of Representative James 7.
HcCleary Of Minnesota.
HOW FREE COINAGE WOULD HURT
THE WORKING MAN.

Convincing Presentation ss Sound
Money Arguments-Favorite Fallacies
Why the Working Man Would Be the
Sufferer Under Free Coinage.
On the 18th day of last February in the
National House of Representatives, Hon.
James 7. McCleary.t of Minnesota, de-
livered notable speech on the currency,
in which he showed the fallaoy of many
of the arguments used by the advocates
of free silver coinage. Much of the speech
was an answer to speech on the free
silver side of the question made several
days before by Representative Towne.
Mr.. MoCleary's speech is one which
should be read by all thinking men at
this time, when the country is on the
eve of a Presidential campaign, the re-
suit of which, it is generally admitted,
will sertle the question whether for the
next four years this country Is to have q
sound financial system, or is to be sur
rendered to the advocates of the unl1mit-
ed coinage of silver. The PRESS prints
below portion of Mr.. McCleary's speech:
I am reminded Of the poem of that wit
tieSt and wisest, that keenest and kind
est of men, John g. SAKE. poem that
we all read in our boyhood, entitled,
"The Six Blind Men of Indostan," who
event to see the elephant, though all of
bop Hind ., Thair orIrincifu bad
been aroused in relation to the famous
animal, ana each was anxious to learn
what it was like In cropping around,
one grasped its tail, and thought the
elephant like rope;" the next en-
braced its giant leg, and thought it Hlike
a tree'': another seized it's writhing
t1unk, and thought it "like a snake';
coma in touch with different part OF
the elephants anatomy had different
idea of the animals appearance. And
over those ditferences, the poet tells u.s.
They argued loud and long;
Bach being partly In the right,
Though all of them were wrong.
To us who are blessed with eyesight
their petty contentious seem almost pitt
able. 1t is easy for US to see where their
differences arose. No doubt each was
sincere in his opinion and each was in
possession of a portion of the truth. Had
each been modest enough to realize his
own narrOwness of information and earn
est enough to push his Investigations as
far as possible before venturing an opin-
ion, tho contention would have been
less and the conception Of truth on the
part Of each would have been much
greater.
Had one of these blind men examined
not only the tail, but alao one or more
of the other parts of the elephant, no
one will deny that his opinion as to the
appearance of the animal would havs
been more nearly correct than that of
any of the others. And similarly in this
discussion, the value of a mans opinion
depends upon the breadth of his view
and his ability to see things in their
proper relations and proportions.
If l were called upon to characterize In
a sentence the speech of my colleague /
should say that it lacks
COMPREHENSIVE GRASP
of the several topics considered. 1t offers
a superficial view of many things, but
does not indicate thorough study of any.
We are given little (and sometimes
very little) Of the truth on many points,
but not enough of the truth on any of
them to warrant one in drawing import
ant conclusions. To carry out the figure
of the poet we are asked to judge of the
appearance of an elephant by Qrasping
it's tail; to form our conception of a oam-
81 by Selling its leg: and so on through
the ,nenagerie. And in lieu of further
information on any point, we arc RECALLED
by having a flower OF rhetoric held be-
meath our nose under the shooting in
f1uence of whose fragrance we Temperate
Iy forget that we are long on fancy and
short on fact.
By the courtesy of my colleague I am
permitted to use this afternoon some of
the charts used by him in his speech last
Saturday. And | shall show that his
fundamental positions are based on halt
truths, which everyone knows are more
dangerous and misleading than utter
falsehoods.
SILVER AND PRICES.
I now ask the attention of the commit
tee to my colleagues chart which shows
the relation in price between silver and
other commodities.