The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1896-04-08
uoKE sa.Ir..'s SPEECH

You have listened :oa s'ovia. de-
scripson Of Ger corntrv's resources
Nv Distinguish: friend oaly needed to
complete the picture BY saying that
since 1878 the Development in all lines
has been twice as great as during any
other like period of its history. CAP
plause.) We are here tonight consult
ing together as Democrats upon party
policy. When the National Convention
shall authoritatively declare that party
policy then all differences will be at an
end among us. and we will lire up,
shoulder to shoulder, as Democrats aod
stand solidly on the party platform
(Applause. In opposing the free
coinage of silver am not fighting
silver and do not seek to reduce lis use
or its legal tender value. favor all
the gold, silvev aud paper that can be
kept equally good La answer TO the
charge that they we're seeking to stop
the use of silver or TO contract the cur
rency. he gave the amount of gold
and silver ip circulation 10 1860. 10
1873 and 10 1895. showing that the to-
tai to-day is eight times that of 1873,
and that toe per capital circulation had
increased from SIS Oh in 1873 to be-
tween S22 aud S23 IN 1895. We are
not trying, to contract the currency and
our silver friends mislead you if they
make you believe we do not mean to ac-
compish the use Of both gold and silver
as the money Of 6ual payment for all
obligations of this country.
(Appiause.l Mr.. Crisp talks about
nv confusing circulation aud standard
of value. and his own argument shows
that he entirely miscoaceives the mat
ter. Currency is something which cir
culatcs and furnishes the means of ex-
change, but standard is measure of
values, and to De standard it must
perform the function of measuring
Mr.. Crisp says we had double stan
dard prior to 1878 but what is the use
of a standard you don't measure by?
Whenever you coin two metals aud
put into Que greater valae than the
other you become mouometalists on the
cheaper metal. | am not here to fight
bimetal!ism. but silver mon ometallism
-(applduse)-to fight the contraction
that silver men are advocating. He
said thai when this country fixed the
ratio in 1892 Jefferson did SO after
finding QUIT commercial ratio. I be-
lieve in that kind of bimetallism. The
stamp of the Government does not i'm
part the value to the coin. but simply
bears witness that the coin contains a
certain amount Of valuable metal
Paper money does not acquire vsue
from che stsmp Of the Government,
but from the Governments promise to
redeec, it in something Of value. Ap-
p&ase. Jefferson found gold worth
6fteeu times as much as silve: and fixed
the ratio at Is TO l. Our latter day
statesmen 6pd gold worth thirty times
as mach as silver, bat want to fix the
ratio only 16 to l. Why not Is to l
or Il or 10 to l?
He then reviewed the history OF
financial Legislation, showing bow the
ratio had been changed, and how one
metal had left the country at one pc
riod and the other at latter period
He declared that we had silver mono
metasism up to 1854 and gold mono
metaIism afterwards He said we had
been uoable to bring the two metals to-
gether when they varied only 5 per
cent in value. aud now we proposed to
do SO when they differ so per cent. I
am opposed to the trial simply because
1 know they cannot dc it,
Mr.. Crisp says this idea that we
were on gold monometallic basis be-
fore 1853 is of modern statesmanship
I will read him from the report of the
chairman Of the ways aud means com
@i;tee from the House of Representa-
tives in 1858 as follows: owe have
had but the single standard for fhe past
three or foue years and that is gold aud
We propose 20 remain there"
MILLIONS OF SILVER DOLLARS
1t is easier to captivate an audi
ence by appeals to prejudice against
Wall street aud Lombard street than
BY argument. There is something
popular in this idea of "free" silver,
though We do not understand it like
The PopuSists that it is to be given
away. fancy that the applause
which greeted this phase Of his
speech must have come from repre-
sentatives Of tliat party Ec
charges that the ACT OF 1913 was
surreptitiously passed l dc net
care how it was passed. If it is bad
let': repeal 1t +; if good let us keep
L Before 1913 only S,o3l goo
silve: dollars had been coined Since