Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1896-08-08
REEDS RECONCILIATION.
His Second Speech This Campaign
Bimeta1Iism.


3. Reed, Speaker OF the present Congress,
was renominated by acclamation yester-
day. After the resolutions had been
read, Mr.. Reed entered the hall amid
great enthusiasm. He received great
ovation. Mr.. Reed then addressed the
convention. He said in part:
I'VE, ia Maine, have got to make up
our minds on the subject Of the currency
question sooner than in any other state
in the Union, and our verdict Will be or
great Importance &c the country.
do not understand that l purpose to
make the currency question perfectly
clear to you; 1 don't know enough to do
II. In the first place. we had not, prior to
1873, had a single dollar Of gold or silver
currency in this country, and we did not
have any for FIVE years afterward. And
there is another fact, pretty important
one. and that is that in 1873 the silver
which would have made United states
standard silver dollar OF f21 grains
was worth B cents on a dollar more than
a gold dollar was.
''This was setting 10 a standard that
was cents on dollar lower than the
one which you say ought to have been
retained And the only question Is which
system is the best for this country; which
will produce the best results?
BIAIETAIIISM is DIFFERENT.
cat the very outset I want you to
understand precisely what is proposed.
You will hear great deal Of talk about
bimetallism. The system which Is pro-
posed by the Chicago convention is not
blmetallism. Bimetallism is an entirely
different affair. The object OF bimetal-
ism is to give to the currency greater
stability by spreading it over more sur
face.
Now. there IS some reason and sense
I'm the idea that the whole world, II they
took silver and gold at a proper ratio.
could preserve greater level OF prices, a
frmer and more stable level of prices.
This no single country could do.
real bimetallism has never yet had a
perfect trial. L mean international bi-
metallism, and that is the kind we must
have. Why. we had some experience In
this country; but mems memories are
short In 1852 our earlier fathers deter
mined TO marry the two metals together
What is the first think they did? 1t was
to ascertain the market value Of the
two metals as they stood side by side,
and they thought that they were 10 to 1
not l6 TO /, but Is TO /.
"What was the result? Why. II a man
had two dollars. one Of which was worth
100 cents and the other was worth lO2
cents, he kept the 102-cent dollar longer
and passed of the other one quicker.
Two cents on a dollar, even in those
days. was not worth making much fuss
about It, but the money changers were
on the alert, and whenever a silver dollar
came into the bank or reached the
money-changer, he put II ouv OF circula-
ton. ! have misstated that; ! should
have said that gold was more valuable
50 that we had silver alone during thai
period
The gold being more valuable, fed
away. Well, now, the gold disappearing
our fathers in 1894 thought they had better
make a change and see II they could not
keep gold and silver together, so they
changed the ratio from Is to 1 to 10 to ].
or. TO be exact, to 5.9S to l. That turned
out TO be an generalization the othei
way, and what was the result? the re-
suit was that the gold reigned supreme
"Then I'm 1861 We had a war and we
issued greenbacks. and, greenbacks being
cheaper. for seventeen years drove out
both gold and silver, but in 1873 we re
sumed specie payments, and the result
was that we resumed them, as we asreed
to do in 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 were
able when there was difference OF or
g per cent. TO keep the one metal along
side the other. Il was always either gold
or silver; never both. Now, II the United
States could not lift a silver dollar that
was worth only cents less than the gold
dollar can she now lift 5)-cent doilar
to the height Of 100 cents? And II she
can, why should we want to do II!