Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-10-23
SENATOR AoAR ON BlMErALLlsM.

senator lIoar said:
wish to tax the unfaiing kindness of
this company by making statement
W hich hope can do briefly and com
pactlv, and in order to do it briefly and
compactly | have committed to paper
what | wish to say about it, which
think ought to be made in this campaign
once for all. 1t is due to the republican
party, it is due to the cause of truth and
it is due, if that were any considerable
importance, to a correct understanding
of my own position. That is the ques
ton of bimetalism, Of the single or the
double standard, Of the possibility of an
international arrangement by which
silver and gold may be restored to their
old positions side by side to perform the
function of medium of exchange and
standard of value. Now, thisis a ques-
ton, like other questions of the kind,
for fair debate and discussion.
Some of our friends, a very few indeed
! in this country, and the bankers and in
vestors of London, who are the great
creditors of the world, think that in the
nature of things there can be but one
standard of value and but one metal to
which there can safely be committed,
without limit as to its quantity, the func-
tion of efiecting the commercial eX-
changes among the nations of the world.
| The American people, however, are of a
! NAV Of thiplyipr Tho ronu h.
| lican party, at st. Louis, under the brill
| liant and mastery leadership which
Massachusetts furnished to that cOnven-
ton (applause), declared itself for BIZ
metallism by international agreement.
which it pledged its honor to promote.
The statute of November !, 1888, signed
| by Mr.. Cleveland, voted for in both
houses of Congress by every democrat
republican who now remains faithful to
the republican party, with one or tive
exceptions in the Northwest, declaring
the same doctrine. This is the language
of that statute, which l will ask you to
bear with me while | read;
And it is hereby declared to be the
policy of the United States to continue
the use of both gold and silver as stan
dard money, and to coin both gold and
silver into money of equal intrinsic and
eXchangeablc value.
"Such equality to be secured through
international agreement, or by such safe
guards of legislation as will insure the
maintenance of the parity in value of the
coins of the two metals, and the equal
power of every dollar at all times in the
markets and in the payment of debts.
"And it is hereby further declared
chat the efforts of the government should
he steadily directed to the establishment
'Of such a safe system of bimetallism as
will maintain at all times the equal
power of every dollar coined or issued
by the United States, in the markets and
in the payment of debts"
Now, my friends, this has been from
the beginning the American doctrine.
1t is the doctrine of Alexander Hamilton,
it is the doctrine of Robert Morris, it is
the doctrine of George Washington, it is
the doctrine of Thomas Jefferson, it. is
the doctrine of Daniel Webster and of
every financial authority in this country.
We do not mean to give our opponents
the advantage in any part of the country
of raising an Issue with us upon this
question. (Applause.) We do not mean
to permit Western agitators or Eastern
renegades (aughter) to range these
authorities on their side against us.
This is not the doctrine of the United
States alone. Bismarck. who closed the
minis of Germany to silver in 1873, and
who keeps them closed in 1896, as far as
his advice is taken, has declared in a re
cent letter that he has always been de-
srous to open them again when the con
sent of other nations could be had. The
present French assembly. more thar
three to one, under the leadership of NJ
Meline, the prime minister, has declared
itself in favor of a resolution to the
same effect. At the annual meeting OF
the Bimetallie League of France, hello
in Paris this year, May %, NJ. Loubet
the president of the French senate, the
most powerful man in his party eXcept
the prime minister, presided. NJ. Me
line, who was the honorary president OF
the league, made the principal speech
The league contains $500 active mem
bers, including nearly all the officials OF
the great mechanical and manufacturing
and agricultural associations of France
including five members of the cabinet
This resolution was signed, as is theil
fashion, by $40 deputies out of 49,,
think is, in the French assembly. NJ
Meline, speaking of the resolution a
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