The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-04-16
CARLISLE TALKS AT CHICAGO.
MEN OF TOLL SEEK THE TRUTH
ABOUT FREE COINAGE.


5000 Seats in the auditorium Oc-
cupied by an Eager Listener-The
Secretary Given an Enthusiastic
Reception.
Chicago, April 15.-John G. Carlisle. Sec
rotary Of the Treasury, arrived in this
city from Washington this afternoon on
the Pennsylvania limited. AS the secre-
tary stepped from the train he was greet
ed by a large delegation of labor men.
among whom were James McGil and
Humphrey knight Of the Louisville Cen
trail Labor Union, who had come from
that city to hear Mr.. Carlisle's lecture.
After a hearty handshake all around, Sec
rotary Carlisle entered a carriage, and.
accompanied by Henry S. Robbins, presi-
dent of the Sound Money League. ana
George w. Geary, chairman of the COM
mittee which has arranged for the lee
ture, and W. X. Carlisle, his son, was
driven to the latter's home.
Every one of the 5000 seats in Chicagos
great Auditorium was filled tonight with
people, who came to hear the address OF
Secretary Carlisle on currency and finan-
ces Several hundred people stood through
the entire address, and several hundred
more went away, being unable to gain
admittance. The secretary received a
hearty welcome and was loudly cheered
upon entering the hall.
The stage was occupied by about 200
officers of the Chicago trade and labor
assemblies, at whose invitation Mr.. Car
Isle came to Chicago. NJ. ]. Carroll, edi-
tor of the Eight-Hour Herald, presided.
Mr. Carroll said that it was the desire
of the laboring people of Chicago to hear
some plain, intelligent truth regarding
the currency question, and that the Sec
rotary of the United States Treasury had
been selected as the most mt person for
giving the information wanted. He then
introduced Mr.. Carlisle, who, after ex-
pressing his pleasure at meeting such a
large assemblage of Chicago people, be-
gan his speech, from which liberal ex-
tracts follow;
Whether the general business of the peo-
pie shall be transacted with good money
or bad money whether the wages of labor
shall be paid IN sound and stable curren-
cy, with full purchasing power in the
markets where they are exchanged for the
necessaries of life, or in a deprecated and
fluctuating currency, having no fixed value
and therefore bearing no permanent rela-
ton to the current prices OF commodities
are questions which affect the comfort and
happiness OF every hcme and the peace
and prosperity of every community. While
ali are deeply interested in the settlement
of these questions, il is unfortunately the
by an erroneous decision upon them. The
wealthy man, the man who has accumu-
lated property OF boarded money. is al
ways exempt from many OF the most Sc
riouS consequences of financial or indus
trial disturbance. He has both means and
credit, and while he may be subjected to
much loss and Inconvenience, neither he
nor his family will be pinched by hunger,
or compelled to go without raiment or
shelter 1t is the poor man and the man
or moderate means, the man who has not
been fortunate enough to accumulate
property or money, but who depends Up
on his wages or upon the products of his
own labor for the means of supporting
himself and his family, that always feels
the first and most disastrous effects of a
business or industrial depression, no mat,
Ter whether 1t results from deprecated
and fuctuating currency or from other
causes.
Whether we shall or shall not have a
long period of financial. commercial and
industrial disturbance in this country
permanent employment or be partially
employed and inadequately paid, are ques-
tons directly and necessarily involved in
the demand now seriously made by many
of our fellow citizens that the United
States, without the cooperation of any
other government in the world, and in op-
position to the established policy of every
other great civilized and commercial ma
ton, shall authorize the free and unlim-
tied coinage of full legal tender silver at
the ratio of is to l, Notwithstanding the
true market ratio between the two metals
is ABOUT 81 TO /; or in other, words, that
the United States alone shall declare by
law that sixteen ounces of silver are
equal in value to one ounce of gold when
it is an indisputable fact everywhere rec
cognized that in all the markets of the
world, in silver standard countries as well
as in gold standard countries, sixteen
ounces of silver are worth only about
one-half as much as one ounce of goid and
will purchase only about one-half as much
OF the necessaries of life. The naked pro-
position is that the United States shall
coin, at the public expense, for the exclu-
siVe benefit of the individuals and corpora
tons owning the bullion, all the silver that
may be presented at the minis into dol
lars containing 3TlA grains of pure silver,
or 4l212 grains of standard silver worth
intrinsically about 81 or 50 cents, deliver
the coins to the depoSitors of the bullion,
and compel all the people in the country
to receive these coins at a valuation of
100 cents each in the payment of debts
service of all kinds, for pensions to sol
diers and sailors and their widows and
cies issued by life and other
insurance companies for deposits
in savings banks, trust com
panies, building associa tons and other
institutions, for debts due to widows and
orphans by guardians, executors and adj
illustrators of decedents' estates and
other trustees, for salaries of all civil,
military and naval officials, and the COM
pensation of private soldiers and seamen,
recognized by the laws of the land, except
only in cases where the prudent capitalist
has taken the precautton in advance to
contract for payment in gold or its
equivalent. To say. nothing of the gross
Partially and manifest injustice of such
policy, its immediate effect would be to
contract our currency to the extent o,
about $620O00,0O0 by stopping the use of
gold as money and putting premium
upon the coins of that metal equal, or
about equal to the difference between
the intrinsic value of the gold dollar and
the intrinsic value of the silver dollar.
Gold coins would at once become com
modify and would be bought and sold by
spectators in the market just as they
We're during the war when we had de-
preciated paper currency. The value of
the silver dollar would fluctuate from day
to day, moving up and down with the rise
and fall of the commercial price of the bull
lion contained in it, as the Mexican dollar
does now, and the premium on the gold
dollar would of course fiuctuate to the
same extent, thus affording an opportunity
TO bullion brokers and spectators TO buy
and sell it at a pritit 1t would cease
10 be used as money, because no
man would pay his debt in gold dollars, or
IN paper redeemable in gold dollars, worth
100 cents, when the law permitted him to
pay it in silver dollars, worth only 81 or
y cents each. The sudden withdrawal of
1aa rrln .