The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1896-10-08
DOCTOR DRIVER
DEFINES DOLLARS
PoliticO-RellaiOus Discussion Under
the Auspices Of the Nckin-
ley Club.
FALLACY or FREE COINAGE
An Able Address on The Principal Polit-
icai Issues Of the Day. In Which the
FavnrItr Popullstic Doctrine
Is Exploded.

icai Issues ut the Day. In which the
FavnrItc Popullstic Doctrine
Is Exploded.
Mckinley Hall was packed to lts ut
most capacity last night. when Or |. d.
Driver. Of Eugene. addressed the cltl-
gems ~ Astoria on the political issues OF
the day Fully 300 people. quite num-
Der OF whom were ladies', assembled.
Shortly before the curfcw bell rang out
It's warning some twenty or twenty-five
KIDS" stoalthny entered the hall and
sought "A quiet corner. thus avoiding
the law Tor peep NJ the moon from
the business streets of the city.
Hon I j Clccton presided. The meet
Ing was opened by a song by the Glec
club. which was forced 10 respond 10
u hearty encore. The chairman then
introduced the speaker ~ the evening.
Apart from the substantial arguments
set forth by Mr Driver, the people had
the pleasure OF listening 20 what might
bo termed II rcllgious-polltical speech
u decided novelty and interesting In the
extreme The doctor said.
Ladies' and gentlemen: In what /
have 10 say 10 you tonight viii con-
nne myself TO facts To the man or
men who viii not make honest deduc-
tious from truthful assertions / have
nothing 10 say.
ITO begin with. there IL something
radically wrong with the nation, What
Is ~ one friend. the Populist. tells us
that there is not enough silver IN circu-
lation. that q great crime was com
mlttcd In -; and II We open the mlnts
and coin more silver all win be well.
Now. my friends. this Is not 10. The
fact that We had the gold standard for
twenty years during our greatest pros
pvrity Is s;.aicient evidence that We are
not suffering because Of the restricted
coinage of silver still, We are coining
all the silver--and many times as much
In a year ~ WAS In circulation before
lSI3-that We can use. Why. in the
month or September. 1895 Secretary
Carlisle coined more silver than was
ever stamped as money before the year
Of the great crimcr
The present condition is not brought
about by the gold standard For twenty
years We had that standard and during
49,, ,t.,,.. a.. y.,,,,,t~,. o,,,,4sb.A Na,,.
II a man died and the coroner's jury re-
turned verdict OF death from eating
too much cabbage and It was later
proved that the deceased had seen no
cabbage FOR twenty years, would the
Jury's verdict hold good?''
The speaker stated that the popocrat-
ic platform is one mass OF blunders. and
would fight as long as he could any
man who would stand upon Il and talk
as Mr.. Bryan does. He scored Bryan for
going about the nation melting labor
against capital, which. he said. was the
greatest crime a man could commit
rs there any conflict between capital
and labor" asked the speaker What
is one without the other? Yet the popo-
cratic candidate is trying to incite the
right hand against the left.
THE popocrats tell us that congress
committed great crime in 'IS, by de
monetizing' silver Now, silver never
was demonetized. Under the constitu
ton would congress stamp piece OF
silver as dollar and then turn around
and say II Is not dollar? In 1873 tho
standard silver dollar was practically |
obsolete. Some years before the silver |
men sent Il petition to the director Of
the mint asking him to set the old dol |
lar aside and coin trade dollar for
the Chinese trade. The old dollar con-
tained 4i2la grains and the trade dollar
~ grains more-7h grains more OF sill
yer for the cooie than for the American
workingman.
"Of course, the Chinese brought the
trade dollar back to us and we refused |
to take It, which left us without dol
lar for the dies used to coin the old |
dollar Were destroyed by law. Then, at
the instigation Of the silver mine own
ers. came the Bland-Allison act, pro-
viding for the restoration to the circula-
ton OF certain limited quantity OF the
old standard dollars. Silver having still
more rapidly declined even under the
stimulus OF the purchase by the govern
ment under this act Of many tons of
the silver miners product each month,
again the silver miners beseeched con-
gress for a further enlargement of the
market for their goods
and the Sherman purchasing clause
was added to the mint law, requiring
the government to take an amount of
silver each month for coinage into
standard silver dollars, which actually
exceeded the total product of all the
silver mines in the United States prior
to 1878 But still silver went down on
the market and ultimately President
Cleveland was forced to convene an
extra session of congress to repeal the
Sherman act and save the country from
the peril and disaster to its credit, due
to It's maintenance Of this vast quantity
Of silver in circulation at a parity with
gold"
Mr.. Driver then told a story In which
o reporter called on Bob Ingersoll and