The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-08-07

Thomas B. Reed was today renominat-
ed by acelamatlon for congress by the
Republican convention of the First dis
trict. It is the tenth successive term
for which Mr.. Reed has been nomin-
ated.
After the nomination Mr.. Reed was
escorted to the platform amid loud
cheering. He seemed to be consider
ably affected by the ovation. Mr..
Reed thanked the convention for the
unanimous nomination, saying that by
so doing he had been relieved of the
duty of attending to his district and
given the opportunity of paying atten-
ton to the wickedness of the rest Of
the world.
Continuing, Mr.. Reed said:
1--WE, in Maine, have got to make up
our minds on the great issue of this
campaign, and a great deal depends on
what we do in September. When we
see two men standing on a corner and
both men seem to be somewhat uneasy
and unable to fully comprehend what
they are talking about, you may rest
assured that they are talking about
the currency. l shall not attempt to
fully explain the currency question to
you, but L
SHALL SAY SOMETHING
about it, We often hear that silver
was demonetized in 1873 stealthily and
by the influence of foreign embassies.
AS matter of fact, the Congressional
Record of that date had 1856 columns
of speeches on the silver question, and
the foreign embassies had nothing to
do with it, No fraud or wickedness
was practiced in 1873
THE only question is what monetary
system is the best. You hear a great
deal about bimetallism. The platform
of the Chicago convention was not a
bimetallic platform, and don't let them
try to make you believe that bimetal-
lism is what they are after.
What is the object of bimetaHism?
The subject of it is to, give TO currency
greater stability by spreading it over
tration Of it is this:
A COMPARISON.
eff you have lake anywhere and
it is subject to all the peculiar Incl
dents of the region in which it is, this
rainfall may lift it; that drought may
lower it. Now if you want a perfectly
stable face you have got to get it by
some appliance outside Of the lake.
Suppose you can join it to another
lake in different climate, which is
differently affected. -e
IF you join them perfectly together
then there will be the same level in
both lakes, and the disturbances in one
lake will be counterbalanced by the
disturbances in the other lake, and the
tendency will be to have a steadier
level.
THAT will all be perfectly true, pro-
vided your two lakes do balance and
you get more stable currency.
Nov, there is some reason and sense
in the idea that the whole world, if
they took gold AID silver at a, proper
ratio, could preserve a greater level
of prices; a, firmer and more stable
level of prices. This
NO SINGLE COUNTRY CAN DO.
But if one of the lakes were very VIC
lent in its fluctuations, 1 think the
judgment of common experience would
be to leave it out, or, if that lake was
not big enough to have proper effect,
in short, under some circumstances the
two lakes might be worse than a sin
gle one might be. However, that is a
question of legitimate discussion. But
in this case it is not proposed to have
two lakes. 1t is proposed to say we
have two lakes and shift from the
one we have tc the one we have not.
(Applause)
Let us see if the history of this
country shows us anything upon the
subject.
REAL BIMETALLISM,
and that is the kind we must have,
because, as 1 said to you at Alferd,
if this is a disease at all it is a world
disease, and has got to have a world
remedy. Nothing else will attend to it.
(Applause) Why we had some exper-
fence in this country; but mems MEM
cries are short. In 1882 our earlier
fathers determined to marry the two
metals together. What is the first
thing they did? 1t was to ascertain
the market value of the two metals as
they stood SIDE by side then, and they
thought that they were fifteen to one,
not Is to 1, but Is to 1.
What was the effect? 1t was an
over valuation Of silver. Yes, the gold
in a gold dollar was worth more than
the silver in silver dollar
What was the result? Why, if a man
had two dollars, one of which was
worth 100 cents and the other was
worth l02 cents, he kept the 102 cent
dollar longer and passed off the other
one quicker. (Applause.)
Il don't mean that the average man
did that
TWO CENTS ON A DOLLAR
even in those days was not worth max
ing much fuss about, but the money
changers We're on tine alert and when
ever SILVER dollar came into the bank
or reached the money changer he put
it out of circulation
nave misstated. 1 should have said
that gold was more valuable: that we
had silver alone during that period.
The sold being more valuable fed
away Wen, now, gold is disappearing;
our fathers in 1884 thought they had
better make a change and see if they
coulu not keep gold and silver together:
SO rhey changed the ratio from Is to
l, 10 10 TO l, or to be exact, to 1888 to
I That turned out to be
AN GENERALIZATION.
the other way and what was the, re-
suit? The result was that gold reign
ed supreme
Then, in 1861, we had a war and we
issued greenbacks, and greenbacks be-
ing cheaper Tor seventeen years, drove
out both gold and silver; but in 1879
we resumed specie payments and tine re-
suit was that we resumed them as we
agreed to do i'm 1873, upon a gold basis.
And that has been the case ever since.
This, then, is the experience of the
UNITED States encountering single
handed the question of currency. We
never We're able when there was a diff
terence OF two or three per cent to
Keep the one metal alongside the other
II was always either gold or silver.