Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1896-10-20
HON. CARL SCHURz
The Great German American
Statesman Speaks For Sound
Money at Chicago.

terror, delivered an address ON September
9Th, in Central Music hall. Chicago, on the Is
sues Of the campaign, under the auspices Of the
American Honest Money league. Every seat
in the hall was flied. many persons who de-
sired admission being turned away for lack OF
room. The address In part was as follows;
FELLOW CIrIzENs-I have come from the
east to the west 10 speak 10 you for honest
money. do not Imagine myself 10 he IN an
"enemy's i country" There IL 10 me no enc
my's country within the boundaries 81 this re-
public. Wherever / am among Americans
nm among fellow citizens and friends bound
together by common interests and n common
patriotism. IN this spirit shall discuss the
question of tho day. / shall not deal In hnan-
cial philosophy bu; in hard and dry facts
There arr sporadic discontonts in the coun-
try. partly genuine. partly produced by arti-
fetal agitation. They may he specified thus:
There are farmers who complain 81 the low
prices OF agricultural products; laborins men
complaining 81 n lack OF rcmuncrntivc en-.
ployment: men in all sorts Oi pursuits com
planning of "A general business stagnation and
OF "A scarcity Of money. In some parts uf the
country. especially the south and west, there
arr many people complaining Of want OK
capital and too high rate of interest. The
arr tho principal and the most definite com
piaints. Beyond them. however, an impress
sion has been spread 10y agitators that an or
ganikcd conspiracy Of muneycd men. mainly
great bankers. in America and In Europe,
backed by tho m0narchs and aristocrncics OF
the old world. j. seeking the general establish
mcnt ot tho gold standard of value To monopo-
lie or corner the world money 10 th. gen
.ral dctrimcnt.
-.
following declaration % the Chicago platform:
eve declare that the act of ls53 domonc,ixing
silver without the Knowledge or approval Of
the American pruplo has resulted In III. sp-
probation Of gold and a corresponding fall In
the prices % commodities produced by the
people a heavy increase In the burden Of
taxation and - all debts. public and private.
thu enrichment of the money lending class ~
home and abroad. prostraiion uf industry and
impoveri>hmcEt Uf the people Mark vol
that all these evil consequences ara a-cribcd
. the dcmoncti1,tinn - silver In the United
States Al0nc-aot - its dom onotiEation any
where elsr. This Is 10 Justify Ia" prcSents-
,ion as sufficient, remedy O. the free coinage
Of silver In tho United s;stcs alone, without
waiting for the aid or consent % any other
nation.
This platform Is ampliacd by FREQ coinage
orators who tell us that the nc; - is1A called
.'thr criino Of lSs8 has Surrcpti,iuusiy "wtp-
cd out" onc-h hall ~ the people mun"y-nnIno-
ly silver: that IN cons quencc the remaining
half % our metallic moncy-namcly. gold-as
n basis ot the whole financial structure, has 30
do the same business that formerly was done
by gold and silver together; that thereby gold
has risen to about double it, former purchss
ing power. thc gold dollar hring virtually sD
cent dollar: that the man who produces things
for sale T. thus being robbed IL half the price,
while debt. payable Oh the gold basis have be
come twic, "a heavy, aud that this fall of
prices and increIs-. II burdens l. vrriching the
money changers and upprcSsing the pcOplc.
What Are the Facts?
Are these complaints well foundcdS Look
n. facts which nobody disputes. That there
has bocn considerable fan In the prices u
many articles since ls7J l. certainly true. Brt
was this fall caused by the 80 called d"mone-
t.za;iun % silver through the gct Of 1897 Now.
not 10 speak uf other periods Of our history,
such n the ported from 1876 q ISL everybody
knows that there ws~ a considerable TALL OF
prices. not only as to agricultural products
cotton. for instance, dropped from 81 pound
IN lssI o. IL cents In lssl-but IN many kinds
of Industrial products before iss3. What hap
p.nc,i before 1873 cannot have bocn caused by
what happcncd In ls;3. This i clear The
shrinkasy after ISIS may. therefore, have been
caused by something else.
Another thing II equally clear Whenever
change in the prices "a. commodities Is caused
by n change IN supply or demand, or both.
then Il may affect different articles diforUnt'
ly. Thus wheat may rise IN price. the supply
being proportiOnaicly short, while at the same
time cotton may decline In price. the supply
being pruportionatsly abundant But whom q
change OF prices takes placc in consequence Of
"A great change in the purchasing power OF ths
money of the country. especially whom that
change Is sudden. then the effect must b.
equal. or at least approximately ~, as 10 all
articles that arr bought or sold with that
money. II by tho 80 called dcmoncuzaiion o!
silver In $50 TN, gold dollar or the dollar Ola
the gold basis became n AD crnt dollar at all
then IL became IA I'D cent dollar at once and
for everything. II could not possibly be nj
the same timr "a 30 c,ni dollar for wheat, and
n l2O cent dollar for coal and l5O cent dollar
for cotton, aud lUo cent dollar for corn OF
for shUyc!s. ! challenge any one 70 gainsay
this.
Prices aud the Act of 1873.
Now for the facts The act Ot 1913 in ques'
tion became law on tho 18th Of February.
What was the efocii Wheat. rye, oats and
corn rose above the price OF ls12, while cotton
declined. In is7t wheat dropped little: corn
made "a Jump upward. cotton declined; oats
and rye rose. In 1875 there was general de-
cline In 1876 there rise IN wheat and o
decline In corn, oats. rye aud cotton. In 1871
there was another rise In wheat, carrying The
price above that Of 1870 and up 10 that OF isIl,
years preceding the act of 1913. Evidently 80
FAR the sUo cent dollar had not made it, mark
ut all. But will admit the possible plea that,
A. they say. the nc, OF 1858 having been passed
IN secret people did not know anything about
IT. and prices remained measurably steady, In
Ignorance OF what dreadful things had hap
pened II 80, then /; would appear that, II the
Knowing ones had only kept still about IL, the
eold dollar woulA have modestly remained a
iOu cent dollar and nobody would have been
hurt But seriously speaking. II may be said
that when the act Of 1873 was passed We were
still using exclusively paper money, that net
ther gold nor silver was in circulation, anu
that therefore the demonetization would not
b. felt Very we'll But, then, in 1879 specie
paynents were resumed. Metallic money cir
culated again. And more than that, the cry
about 1.-The crime Of 1873" rcsounded IN con
gress and in the country. Then at last the y"
cent gold dollar had its opportunity. Prices
could no longer plead Ignorance. what nap
pened? In 1850 wheat rose above the price OF
ls1p. likewise corn. cotton and oats. In 1881
wheat rose again. also corn. oats ana COTTON
In lss2 wheat and cotton declined, while corn
and oats rose. The reports here given are
those OF the New York market. They may
but they present the rise and decline OF prices
with substantial correctness
H. however, there b. somebody believing
that in spite of these facts, the deinonetization
of silver by the act Of 1873 must IN some ihys-
terious way have done something TO deprcss
prices / meet him with the affirmation thht
the silver dollar was practically demonetiLed
long before 1873. To judge from the speeches
Of our free coinage orators, the American peo
ArlN
silver dollars. What is the facti President
Jefferson stopped the coinage Of silver dollars
In lsO6 From l.s3 to 1873. aside from fraction
al lcurrency-which since lsa3 was only limited
legal tcnder--only about s,Uul,UU OF silver uoi-
lars were coined. They were ~ scarce that
Won would hardly ever see one except In
curiosity shop as rare coin.
There was constant trouble with the legal
ratio between gold and silver, which could
not be 80 fixed a. to keep the two metals 10.
rether In circulation. Once one Of them would
be driven out of the country and then The
other Meanwhile over $l,OUO,0DOUO of gold
coin was coined, and since 1853 gold was sub
stantially tho only full legal tender money In
actual circulation. And those were excep-
tionally prosperous times. Then the civil war
came and swept all our metallic money out OF
sight. Paper money took its place, and in that
condition we were In 1873, when the famous
act Of 1873 was passed. What, then, was In
reality that law that has since been 50 fierce
ly denounced as ''the crime Of 1882 Why, 10
was simply an act revising our coinage laws
and providing among other things that certain
silver coins should be struck to be legal tender
In the payment Of debts only to small amount.
The standard silver dollar, that had practicai-
ly b.,en out OF use since President Jener-
son in lsU6 had stopped its coinage, was simply
not mentioned in the enumeration. That u
all The act CT 1873 therefore did not create
new state OF things, but SIMPLY recognized
state on things which had existed for many
and many years IL did thereby no. only no.
destroy half the money OF the country uut
not u single dollar Of IL.