Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1896-07-29

could use the same Dushel and fill 1t with
less grain. than it takes on the other
side? But they still think they can
have a British standard OF value ana
then, by some sort of jugglery, have low
prices on this side and high prices on
the other. If we adopt their standard OF
value, we have got to accept the scale
of prices which that other meets out.
There is no escape from 1t. High prices
here and low prices there? We cannot
maintain that, for the reason that we
are debtor nation, and must pay our
debts with what we produce, or gold.
Now. on what condition can we use our
products? On one condition, that we
will sell as low as any other country
can sell. We must compete with every
other natiOn-Egypt, Mexico, Argentine,
and every other debtor country. produc-
! ing on silver basis, in offering or in
paying our debts with products. And
| if we don't sell as low then they will
demand gold from us, and now that Is
just WHAT IS THE TROUBLE.
l might as we'll stop at that line OF
thought for a moment-that is the trou-
ay-two million dollars worth of bonds
to maintain the credit Of the United
| States, as though the credit Of a coun-
/ try could be sustained by constant Dor
rowing. OF course, the promises were
TO pay gold. as a means of maintaining
the gold standard ThinkOf it! What
would you think OF a farmer who, hay
! ing mor,gaged his farm, instead OF pay
! ing the interest annually with what he
produced on his farm, should give new
notes every year for his interest. You
would say: why, that road plainly
I leads to bankruptcy, and 1t is only a
! question of years when he will get
! there" Is there any difference between
an individual in that respect and ma
! ton? Uncle Sam he's very big farm,
I and a great many people working on it,
but if ne is allowed to go on and mort
gage in that way, and give new notes
! for what he owes, how long will it be
until tnis nation. great. powerful and
rich as it is will be put in the condition
thai Egypt is in to-day? 1t is only a
question of years. (ATOlause) Why
everybody but bankers and fools know
that the gold standard cannot be main
tanned that way-that every hundred
millions
INCREASES THE NECESSITY
of issuing more-increases the debt
abroad, for there is where they go. In
( stead of saving the product TO pay the
debt, we are sending the bonds over
there all the time-another hundred
millions and another. They undoubt-
edly would take bonds until we had is
sued thousand millions more Do
you know that every great railway
system in the United States is owned
abroad! CA cry: "You bet.'O Not a
railroad comes in here, of the great
trunk lines or systems. that is not con-
trolled abroad. We have been paying
what we owe in interest with railway
bonds and railway stocks until they
would take them no longer, and de-
manded government securities. Now,
just look at it. We are proposing TO
borrow the gold with which to main
ten the gold standard. viii that gold
stay here? Borrowed gold never stays
in the country. The conditions make
It necessary to borrow and send it out
of the country as fast as It is liberated
You might as well try to pump from
the Niagara river into Lake Erie, and
expect 1t to stay there, as to borrow
gold from the other side of the Atlantic
and expect to try, at the present level OF
prices, to keep it here. 1t VII stay
when t comes of itself in the course
of trade. and it will never stay until it
comes that way l do protest against
the SuppOs.tion that because a man
! counts dollars over a counter, thereby
he necessarily becomes skilled in the
science of money. That no more fol-
lows than that a grocer who counts
hens eggs over his counter becomes a
great biologist Monetary science is
as well settled as any of the natural
sciences. but I sad gold would stay
here when it comes Of itself in the
course of trade, and not till then. And
when will it
COME HERE OF ITSELF?
When prices are enough lower or so
much lower in this country than in
others that il IS sent here 10 buy our
goods and not until then. 1t will never
STAY here. on the present scale OF prices.
Therefore. I say to you, that TO main
tain the gold standard permanently,
notwithstand.ng the fall OF prices lot
twenty years. the screws nave been
mt on until now II takes ten
! bushels OF oats in the western Country,
six of corn. two and half OF wheat,
10 get a dollar. Prices must go sun
lower before gold will come here to
buv. instead of going 10 India, Japan
ar Argentine. under a single gold stand
ard. That is all there is about 1t.
Rut saws Mr.. Mckinley, we propose
to raise prices here by means OF 'he
tariff We will increase the taxes at
the same time that we are reducing the
monev. and in that way we Will ralse
nrices We will have the same British
standard. but by a tariff we will nave
high nrices here and low prices there.
will admit al once that you may some
what check impor,ations, but l 90 say
that il is absolutely and economically
impossible to uphold or raise prices OF
our great staples with which we must
nav our debts abroad, by tariff or any
other means in the world; that no debtor
nation can do that. and therefore It is
absolutely impossible to make tariff
effective to raise prices in any debtor
country. (Applause) In Congress
I STOOD WITH RANDALL
grand man that he was-and one OF
the last things he said to me on his sick
bed. was: IF get well am with you on
the silver question, in every phase OF Il.
/ believe in it," He was right NO.
fellow citizens, you can't maintain high
er prices on this side Of the ocean than
on the other being debtor nation. ii