The Portland daily press., 1896-08-28
LAW and ORDER MENACED


OF Keeping days work at home as
am the gold dollar.
In connection with this financial mat
Ter, do we all realize how important the
oholce OF President is? Do you know
as the law now u.s. without the passage
OF any free coinage of silver at all, 1t
Is the power of the President OF the Unit
country to silver basis. All he has
TO do Ia to let the gold reserve go, to pay
out silver when men ask for gold and
we nresthere already 1t is only because
each of the Presidents of the United
States that we have had-and the one
we have now-has regarded 1T under the
law as his public duty to maintain the
gold basis, maintaining that parity be-
tween our silver and gold coins which
the law declares is the policy of the gov
eminent, and because he has had the
courage to execute the powers given him
by the resumption ACT to carry out that
declaration of public law.
II undertake therefore to say that If
Mr.. Bryan. or man holding his views,
any legislation by Congress, we should
be on silver basis in a weeks time.
(Applause.)
1.-THE silver qusstion-what is itP Do
money, larger circulation medium?
have not heard anybody say so. MIR.
Bryan ia not urging it upon that basis.
If anybody we're tt. seek and give that
as reason for wanting free silver, he
would be very soon confronted by the
statement that free silver would put more
gold out of circulation than the mints Of
the United States could possibly bring
In in year Of silver and that instead
of having more money, We would have
far less. (Applause.) With our six
hundred and odd millions of gold driven
out Of circulation we will reduce the
per capita money of this country be-
tween eight and nine dollars. So it Is
not for more money. What IA it then that
creates this demand for silverY 1t is
openly avoweu. 1t is not more dollars,
but cheaper dollars that arc wanted. 1t
is lower standard Of value that they are
demanding. They soy that gold has
gone up until 1t has ceased to be proper
standard Of value and they want silver.
But how do they want itP
Now, my friends, there is great
deal of talk about bi-metallism and the
double standard, and great deal Of con-
fusion in the use of those terms. BIZ
metallism is the use of two metals as
money where they are both used. BY
a double standard they mean that we
shall have gold dollar and silver
dollar which shall be units Of value by
which all property and all wages and
everything is to be measured.
Now our fathers thought that when
they used these two metals in coinage,
they must determine the intrinsic value
of the two SO that a comparison of the
markets of the world would show Just
the relation one ounce of silver bore to
one ounce of gold. Now, what was the
object of all that? Because they fully
understood that unless these dollars
were of the same inherent intrinsic value,
both Of them could not be standards OF
value and both could not circulate. Cap
plause.) What is the law that governs
herep 1t is just this simple law of hu-
manity's selfshness and self-protection
that II you have two things either of
which will pay debt and one Is not as
valuable as the other, you are sure to
give the least valuable one.'' daughter.