The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1896-04-23
SPOKE TO LABOR MEN.
CURRENCY DISCUSSED BY CAR
Isle IN CHICAGO.
He Assaulted Free si1ver-EviIs, as He
Sees Them, That wouid Result,
Especially TO the Laboring
Glasses of the Country.

Especially to the LaborinR
Glasses Of the Country.
CHICAGO, April 16.--Hon. John @.
Carlisle spoke on the currency question
at the Auditorium last night before an
audience that filed the great hall TO the
uttermost. The address was delivered
under the auspices of the laboring men
Of Chicago and they were there in full
force, nearly three quarters of the
crowd being workingmen. II gave
great satisfaction. The secretary said
in part
The naked proposition is that the United
States shall coin, at the public expense,
for the exclusive benefit Of the individuals |
and corporations owning the bullion, all |
the silver that may be presented at the |
mints into dollars containing 37lH grains |
Of pure silver, or Il21E grains Of standard |
silver, worth intrinsically about 81 or 52 |
cents, deliver the coins to the depositors Of
the bullion, and compel all the other peo-
| pie in the country to receive these coins at
q valuation Of 100 cents each in the pay
ment Of debts due them for property sold, |
| for labor and service of all kinds, for pen
| sions TO soldiers and sailors and their
widows and children, for losses sustained
| under policies issued by life and other in
| surance companies, for deposits in savings
| banks trust companies, building assOcia.
| tions and other institutions, for debts due
| to widows and orphans by guardians, eN.
ecutors and administrators of dccedcnts'
estates and other trustees, for salaries Of
all CIVIL military and naval officials and
| the compensation of private soldiers and
seamen, and, In short, for every kind of
obligation recognized by the laws Of the
land, except only In cases where the pru'
dent capitalist has taken the prccaution
In advance 70 contract for payment II. gold
or Its equivalent. To say nothing of the
gross partiality and manifest injustice of
such policy, its immediate effect would
be TO contract our currency to the extent
OF about 1920, ,OO0,0 900 by stopping the use of
gold as money and putting a premium
tlpon the coins of that metal equal, or
about equal, to the difference between the
intrinsic value of the gold dollar and the
intrinsic value of the silver dollar.
Gold coins would at once become com
modify and would be bought and sold by
spectators in the market just as they
were during the war when we had depre-
ciated paper currency. The value of the
silver dollar would fiuctuate from day to
day moving up and down with the rise
and fall of the commercial price of the
bullion contained in II, as the Mexican
dollar does now, and the premium on the
gold dollars would of course fluctuate to
the same extent, thus afOrding an oppor-
tunity to bullion brokers and spcculatOrs
to buy and sell 1t at profit, 1t would
cease to be used as money, because no man
would pay his debt In gold dollars, or in
paper rcdeemable in gold dollars worth
100 cents, when the law permitted him to
pay 1t in silver dollars, worth only 81 or 52
cents each. The sudden withdrawal of
1920 600, 600 from the volume of currency
In the country would undoubtedly pro-
duce financial and Industrial disturbance
far more disastrous to the interests Of
labor than has ever been experienced in our
history, and no man who has particle Of
sympathy for workingmen and women
, and their dependent families can contem-
plate the possibility of such a calamity
without feeling that 1t is his duty, whether
he occupies public or private station, to
employ every honorable means at his com.
mand to avert 1t.
While the sudden expulsion of 1920, 600, :
900 in gold from our stock of money would
itself be sufficient to create financial dis
l turbance unparalleled in the history of
{ this or any other country the situation
would be very greatly aggravated by the
fact that the purchasing power of all the
\ remainder of our currency would be sud
: denly reduced about one-half; we should
= have only about two-thirds as much cur.
. rency as we have now, and at the same
time it would be so deprecated In value
9 that 1t would require about twice as much
d as we have now to transact the business
Of the country, provided there should be
b any business to transact.
i The attempt to maintain what Is called
\ the double standard of value, that is, the
attempt to keep the legal tender coins OF
= the two metals, gold and silver, in use as
d money at the same time, upon n ratio OF
z value fixed by law, has repeatedly been
: made by kings and parliaments in every
civilized country in the world, and it has
q failed again and again in every one OF
> them; and 1t requires no gift of prophecy
. to foresee that it must continue to fail sc
u long as self interest constitutes a CONTROL
s ing factor in the business affairs of men
= Secretary Carlisle then reviewed the
n financial history of the United State,
(. to prove his assertion that it is impossi
Q BILE to retain in circulation at the same
d time legal tender gold and silver coin!
II of the same denomination at any ratio
:, which does not correspond with the
actual commercial values of the two
metals in the markets of the world, ant
that, therefore, the free and unlimited
coinage of legal tender silver by the
United States alone at the ratio of II
h to |, when the true commercial ratio Il
g about 81 tc !, would instantly contrac
the currency by the expulsion of all thu
10 gold now in the country. Said he:
~ If the generalization of silver to tn,
Is amount of n little over per cent in tn
coinage law of 1892 expelled gold and es
r tablished silver mOnOmetallism, and If tn
y over.valuation of gold to the extent Of les
10 tnan per cent III lll6 dCIb ol 1908 anu 100
expelled silver from circulation and estah
a lished gold monometallism, Is not the con
m clusion irresistible that the free and un
III limited coinage of legal tender silver a
e the present time, at an over-Valuation O
nearly 100 per cent, would at once plac
"A the country upon monOmetallic stlye
N basis Under the coinage act Of 1893 W
:, had silver but no gold, and under the act
n of 1884 and 1887, with free coinage Of bot
+" metals, we had sold but no silver, excep
The token subsidiary coins after 1858, Will
at now, with gold as the standard and limit
V ed coinage of silver, we have both gold an
silver as full legal tender money In large
or amounts than ever before in our history
and the coins of the two metals are keE
ti, equal in purchasing power by the cred
at and resources of the government, notwitl
q standing the difference in their intrinsi
d. value.
AS proof cf the fact that low wage
y always prevpil under deprecated cul
a. rency, Secre Nry Carlisle gave consula
IT reports ON wages received in silvC
ho countries also bringing out the fact thi
Is q workman receives no higher wage
when paid in a deprecated currenc
le than in st@ ldard currency. He ais
cV gave as eyiG snce the condition of wage
~ ~ In 1862 in the United States, followin
,is the introduction of a deprecated papC
currency, as set forth in the repol
March 8, 1898, of the non.partisan sui
"a committee of the committee on tinanC
~ in the United States senate of price
and wages for a period of 81 years
w the United States. He said:
As stated heretofore, congress, early