The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1896-09-25

the New York Tribune OF 1866. which
showed that the depression AZ that
time was greater than II II at present
and, ns the country was under free
colnage at iG 10 /. al that time. the
present depression could not be. nc
cordlng to the argument of the Popu-
lists necessarily due 10 financial legis-
lation. but might be something else.
when my uncle was young man"
continued Mr. Geer. like many other
young men. he had a sweetheart. At
that Tins the country was under free
coinage laws. and my uncle was en-
gagrd to be married to his sweetheart.
lie was going TO be married In two
months. Money was NJ object o. him
he was gettng So per month-and he
resolved to buy his darling-h calico
dress Well. calico was selling for 20
cents yard. and. after nscertainlng
from the object Of his affections that II
required eight yards for her dress he
went to the store and actually expend-
cd Some third Of his monthly wage
FOR the goods He says his girl looked
finely. but his rash purchase gave him
u financial setback which required
three months for him 20 overcome. Stll.
we had the free and unlimited coinage
OF silver then"
Had Il not been for the crime OF 'S2.
the speaker asserted. all would be we'll
THE Republican party is the only
true friend OF silver The party has
always favored bImetallism as It is in
effect today-the concurrent circulation
OF both metals-a condition that does
not exist in any free coinage country
in the world today. We have both
metals In circulation and we want TO
keep them there; but We cannot do this
by passing laws giving to silver hcti-
ons value
After demonstrating plainly that the
free coinage Of silver would drive gold
out Of circulation. the speaker asserted
that he was opposed to the free coinage
OF silver because he was friend OF
the white metal. But II is not worth
one-slxteenth as much as gold and
therefore should not be coined at that
ratio.
THE popocrats assert that the free
coinage OF silver at the ratio OF i6 10 /
would raise prices, / cheerfully admit
that this would happen; in fact, II did
happen. When the country was under
free coinage laws an oregon farmer
once made a visit TO his old home in
st. Louis. Like pretty nearly every
body else. he wore shoes. While in ST.
Louis he became In need OF a pair OF
shoes and went to a store to buy them.
He asked the clerk the price Of shoes
and was thunderstruck to learn that
they were selling for Sll.5O a pair. The
farmer sworc strange oaths to himself
and told the clerk that shoes were only
So a pair out in oregon.
well he had TO have the shoes. II
would never do TO go bare-footed In
St Louis. So he told the clerk to wrap
them up, Now. II transpires that gold
was plentiful on the Pacific coast at
that time, and the farmer had taken
gold money east with him. When
the clerk handed the shoes to him he
gave In payment a $50 gold piece. The
clerk looked at 1t for some time and
finally managed TO stammer an ex-
planation. II appears he was charg-
ing $ll5O in silver for the shoes. but,
as the oregon farmer had gold, the
price would be much less So he hunt
ed up a newspaper got the latest quo
tations, and, after fifteen minutes fig
uring. gave the Oregonian the proper
change. The shoes didn't cost so much
in gold, So. you all can see what con-
dtions the free coinage OF silver would
bring about"
Mr.. Geer closed his address by ex-
ploding a favorite popocrat argument.
The Pops. state. and truthfully, that
the total debt of the world is $1,000
600. 600, while the circulating medium
of the earth is but $4,000, 900, OOO This
bothers the life out of them. How will
the debt ever be paid? There Is only !
one way to do it-increase the per cap
ita;
The speakers Illustration was as fol-
lows:
Once upon time a score of men were |
gathered around in a circle, listening |
to free silver orator. One OF the men |
happened to think that he owed an
other 81, and told him that he did not
have the money just then, but would
pay him as soon as he got it, The
creditor happened to think that he ow-
ed the man next to him the same
amount and told him the same thing.
Well, It happened that every man in
the circle owed his nelghbor 81, The
last man happened to think that he
had a dollar and told the man to whom |
he owed 81 that he would pay him |
half. Whereupon, he handed the dollar
to his creditor The latter passed II |
to the next man and 1t went around
the circle, finally getting back to its
original possessor.
"Well, by Jove, can pay you that
other dollar" he said to his creditor.
and proceeded to do so. Then the dol
lar went the round again, thus paying
a double debt for each of the twenty
men. But the poor popocrat couldn't
see that, and the speaker felt very sor-
ry for him. The Pop. argues that,
when a man pays debt with a dollar,
he not only wipes out the debt, but
the dollar Consequently it will require
sS2, 900, 100000 to wipe out the debt of
the earth.
Mr. Ge% is unquestionably one Of
the best campaign speakers who ever
Continued on Fourth Page)