The record-union., 1896-04-16
Highest OF III h Leavenng Power-Lates U. Govt Repm
R&g>al g! RsxassE RsklRs
ABSOLUTELY PURE
ABSOLUTELY PURE

l L
one of them; and it requires no sl1t OF
prophesy to forsee that it must continue
| to fail so long as self-interest constl-
stitutes controlling factor In the pusl-
ness affairs Of men,"
The Secretary then concisely and
briefly recounted the experience of the
| United States Government and Con-
gress with the silver experiment and
| the return to the gold standard and
| limited coinage of silver
| Continuing, he said: 1--WE have now
about $500, 100000 in gold and $413,-
OOO, 900 in full legal tender silver, be-
sides $7S, ,216,677 in subsidiary silver
coins, which are legal tender in pay
ments not exceeding $40, and the real
question for the people to decide is
whether they will continue to use the
coins of both metals or adopt none
tary system which always has and al
ways will drive one of them out Of the
country. / am not here, therefore, to
advocate the exclusive use of silver
coin as money along with gold and on
parity with gold, but l am here to in
sist that we shall not abandon the pres
ent legal standard Of value, exclude all
the gold from the country and adopt
silver monometallism with the free
coinage of a nominal dollar worth in
trinsically only 81 or 30 cents.
Il am here to insist that the Mints
of the United States, which were con-
structed and are maintained and oper-
ated at the expense of all the people,
shall not be used for the exclusive ben
eft of the owners of silver bullion under
law giving them the right to have o1
or % cents worth of their silver coined
free of charge and stamped as dollar,
and compelling you and all others to re-
ceive it from them as dollar. All the
MintS of the United States operated to
their full capacity, and doing no other
work, could not coin into standard sill
yer dollars two-thirds of the annual pro-
ductiOn of silver in our own country
but knowing this it is seriously pro-
posed to offer free coinage to all the sill
yer in the world at a legal valuation
almost double it's commercial value In
the markets of foreign countries where
it is produced. We should descend by
single step from the highest standard
of value to silver monometallism with
a contracted, and at the same time de-
preciated currency, a financial expert
monetary history of the world.
"All the conservative and prudential
considerations that have usually con-
trolled in the settlement of great finan-
cial questions seem to be utterly disre-
garded, and we are confronted by an
organized and aggressive movement to
destroy by a single blow the measure of
value upon which all existing contracts
I'D {1,,r = h.
foundations of our monetary system
without allowing a single day to pre-
pare for the change In the general
confusion and disorder resulting from
such a radical measure, what will be
the condition of the American laborer?
Will he be benefited or injured by the
reducing by one-half the value of the
money in which his wages are paid, and
at the same time increasing the prices
of commodities for which his wages
are eXpended?"
Mr.. Carlisle called the special atten-
ton of his audience 20 the experience of
the laboring people in this country dur
ing the years Immediately following the
introduction of deprecated paper cur
rency in 1862, and also to the low rate
of wages which now prevail in countries
having the silver standard of value or
the so-called double standard of value
with coinage of silver at a legal ra ito
not corresponding with the commercial
value of the metal.
Concluding, he said: 1.-THE great body
OF employers, a vast majority of the men
who have embarked their capital in in
dustrial enterprises and are relying for
success upon their skill and energy in
the prosecution of their business, do
rot want the present standard of value
overthrown, because they know that the
adoption of silver monometallism would
be injurious to them and to all who are
dependent upon them for employment,
or for the supply of commodities at rea-
sonable prices"