, 1896-09-24
At THE MK|NLEY HOME.
CITIZENS OF MUNCIE LISTEN TO
A SPLENDID TALK BY THE
NEXT PRESIDENT.
a Per Capita Comparison Made-Not
Good Money but Poor Money Caus-
es Loss-The Laborers of America
Now Wish Work, Not Shorter
Hours of Labor.

Now Wish Work, Not Shorter
Hours of Labor.
Canton. Ohio. Sept. 23.-Major Nc
kinley addressed two delegations this
afternoon. The first was from Wood
county, Ohio, and the second from
Muncic. Indiana. The latter came on
a special train of five coaches. and in
Guided our bands. the First Voters
club, the Prosperity Mckinley club and
the veteran soldiers. Addresses for
Wood county were made by Attorney
R. S. Parker of Bowling Green and for
Muncie by Attorney f. A. Needham.
Mckinley said in part t the Muncie
delegation:
Your spokesman said 1t is under
stood | am an American, native born
and naturalized. I believe in an Amer
lean pay roll, and do not believe in di-
minishing that pay roll by giving work
to anybody else under another flag,
while we have an idle man under our
own. Four years ago, the laborer was
agitating the question of shorter hours.
We then had so much to do; ] have
heard no discussion of that kind for
years. But | have never heard of the
.laboring man discussing the desira-
ability of having shorter dollars. The
complaint, the chief cause of complaint
of ON opponents is, first that we have
not enough money, and second. our
money is too good. The first complaint
| answer that the per capita of the cir
culating medium in this country has
been greater since the so-called crime
of 1873 than eve before. and has been
greater in the last five years than it
was in all II history. We have not
only the best money in the world. but
we have more of it per capita than
most nations of the world. We have
more money per capita than the United
Kingdom, Germany. Italy. Switzerland,
Greece, Spain, Russia, Servia, Austria,
Hungary, Norway. Sweden. Denmark,
Mexico and the Central and South
American states. Japan or China. SO
some reason other than a lack of vol
ume of money must be found to ac-
count for the present condition of the
country.
To the second complaint that our
money is too good, it would seem to be
enough to say that money of any coun-
try cannot be too good, and no nation
ever suffers from having a medium of
exchange Of the highest and best quail
ity. 1t has been poor money, not good
money, that has been the cause OF so
much loss and ruin in the past, both to
individuals and nations. The older men
of this audience will remember that be-
fore the war we did business with an
uncertain and fuctuating currency,
known as state bank money. Many
banks and notes were absolutely sound,
but for the most part they were subject
to Il discount. Mckinley recalled some
experiences of the people under that
system of banking. When we we're do
ing business with deprecated paper
money the interest was very much
higher to borrowers and to the debtor
thar now. | car recall when here in
Ohio the ruling rate of interest for pa
per money was 10 per cent annually
and often one per cent a month. The
~, IL ~ 80 n D,,, -, nl.. -. lA ---
call "the 20O-cent dollar" is six or seven
per cent. 1t may run as high as eight
and possibly hat has been the ruling
rate during the last two or three years
but that is because distrust has fallen
upon the country and men who have
money will not part with it and take
chances without a higher rate Of inter-
est. Money a be borrowed at a lower
rate of interest than at any time from
the days of 1860 to the day of resump-
ton. What is more healthful than this
is the fate that a dollar sound the
world over can be borrowed at a less
rate than ever before. That money is
hard to get, is not because 1t is scarce,
but because those who have it in keep
ing fear to loan it because Of the unset
tied condition of the country. Money |
today is idle because it canont be pro-
fltably and safely invested by those
who have it. It is neither lack Of vol
ume of II money nor quality Of money
that is the trouble; but lack Of conf
dence in the steadiness and stability Of
business. The threat Of free silver is
driving u money into hiding today;
the way to bring it out is to restore
confidence. The way to restore conf
dence is to defeat through the ballot
the party that destroyed confidence"