The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1896-02-08
Senator Dubois Made a Strong
Speech in their Defense.
A DEMAND FOR FAIR PLAY
Sueers aud Jibes of the Fast at the
Treasure BOX of the Nation
Uudeservcd.


answer the sneers Of the eastern press
on pocket boroughs" of the west. and
took advantage Of the subject 'Issu-
ance Of interest Bearing Bonds to in
clude an argument for bimetallism
Extracts from the speech follow:
Mr.. President: / presume the real
question which is directly before the
senate at the present moment is wheth-
err by a vote of this body we will give
our authority and sanction for the is
suance OF interest-bearing bonds, or
whether we win declare that in the
judgment of the senate the unlimited
coinage of silver is the first step which
should be taken in any further financial
legislation by this country
There is plainly something wrong in
this country, so fruitful in resources
and opportunities, and so filled with
intelligent, lawabiding and industrious
people. Business is slack, employment
at fair wages, or at any wages at ALL
hard to get. Factories and mines are
either idle or working at much less than
their full capacity, while the great ag-
rlcultural classes receive scarcely
enough for their produce t. pay the
running expenses Of their farms and
Plantations. There is no prosperity
among the toilers, Notwithstanding the
statement made now and then that this
or that factory or industry has com
menced operations with an increased
number OF employees and increased
wages.
We have passed the Mckinley tariff
act. a high protective measure. and we
have repealed it. We have passed the
Wilson-Gorman act, and now desire and
intend to repeal it.
The people have alternately defeated
the republican and democratic parties
in national elections since 1876, hoping
in their restlessneSS and hard condition,
to find relief in a change.
The prophecies of those who object to
unlimited silver coinage, that the re-
peal of the Sherman act, or the enact
ment of the Mckinley law, or anything
else they have tried, have been proven
to be idle vaporings. They certainly
must know that the evil lies somewhere
else; they must know that the trouble
has come through the decentralization
of silver, and that it will remain so long
as we adhere to the single gold stand
ard.
England adopted the gold standard in
1916 and has been striving ever since to
induce the other great nations to do
the same. She succeeded practically in
accomplishing her object in 1873, when
Germany and the United States demon
etized silver England is the great cred
itor nation, and the scarcer and dearer
money is the greater is her gain and
power. With out debts, and with the
constantly increasing demand for mon
ey to develop our immense resources,
we can not compete with England and
the other European countries in the
scramble for gold. When we get the
gold we can not keep it. and about the
only way we can get 1t at all, apparent
ly is to borrow it.
We owe Great Britain and her citizens
1000 millions of dollars; whenever she
needs money she dumps as many OF our
securities as may be necessary upon our
market and takes our gold. She has
done that on a large scale several times
within the last few years, with the re-
suit that business on this side has each
time been paralyzed. Still. wise bust
ness men and great financiers, to say
nothing of the metropolitan press, i'm
sist that the way to choke Great Britain
into subsection is to send over another
5000, 900 worth of bonds and draw
that much gold from her. England
holds our indebtedness precisely as a
banker holds a mans paper to whom he
has loaned money on call. What must
English financiers think of men who
pursue such an argument as that?
But, Mr.. President, there is much
more to this business.
England purchases of us annually
food products, cotton and other raw
materials in vast amounts. 1 suppose
that last year those purchases amount
ed to $400, 600 900; that represented only
so per cent of what the same articles
would have brought had silver never
been demonetized. Thus she gets cheap
material for her factories to work upon,
cheap food for her operatives, and over
all clears directly probably $16O. OOO, 900
in the purchase. Moreover, we have to
pay England annually in interest and
dividends 150,OO0,O0O in gold, or Its
equivalent, and we are going to force
her to adopt bimetallism! We are going
to force her to give up annually a sum
equal to per cent interest on all the
gold in the world, and at the same time
force her to raise the price of the ma
terials she uses in the factory and the
food she feeds to her operativesl
There is a business congestion, almost
business prostration, in nearly all for
eign lands-in Australia, in Argentina
in England herself-everywhere in
deed, except in bimetallic France and
where the mines in South Africa are be
ing worked. In our own country pro-
duction has ceased to be profitable. The
strength of our country, the men who
give laborers employment in the field
factory and mine, and who produce the
articles the exchange of which make:
commerce, have worked without reward