The Irish standard., 1896-07-11

prrated in the tariff bill would long einee
have abundantly supplied #. Respecting
finance, the Republ leans, Populists and
Democrats, while differing upon almost
lsdeclaring for the restoration sof our
American system OF bimet IA llism.
BY Republican and Democratic efforts
alike, the Sherman law was swept from
| the statute books, the eagerness to rid
the country of the Republican incubus
being SO great that no prudent effort
was made to provide a substitute. In
the very act of the Sherman law re-
nealed. it was declared to be the policy
of the United States of America to cons
tinue the use Of both gold ana silver as
standard money, and to coin them into
dollars of equal Intrinsic and e1chanSea-
BILE value. 55 SsS4l s#
The Republican party has now re-
nounced the creed of its platform and
our national pledges and presented to the
country the issue Of higher taxes, more
bonds and less money. It has procialmea =
the British gold standard. We can only
expect, should they succeed, my coun-
trynen, a specimen Of panic and long
prolonged period Of depression. DO not
ask us then to Join them In any OF their
propositions. Least Of all, ask US not
and fight sham battle over settled
tariff, for the money question is the para
mount issue before the American people
and it involves true Americantsm more
than any economic issue that ever was
presented to a president at presidential
election.
The existing gold standard, whence
comes the idea that we are upon It? No,
we are not upon any gold standard. but
we have a disordered and miscellaneous
| currency of nine varieties, three metal
and six paper, the product for the most
- f<,~Sf tel ton, WOW
dered worse by the treasury practices be-
gun by Republican secretaries and unfor-
tunately copied by their Democratic sue
cessors. (Applause)
Then consider these facts, gentlemen:
The federal, state and municipal taxes
In this country are assessed and paid by
the standard of the whole mass Of money
in circulation. No authority has ever
been conferred by congress for the issue
of any bonds payable in gold but dis
tinctly refused. The specie presumption
of 1875 gave the surplus revenue in the
treasury not gold only, the money of
redemption.
act Of 1878 added to our circulation some
1855, 000,0 900 Of standard silver money, Or
paper based upon it and all that mass
of silver money sustained at parity with
gold by nothing whatever on earth but
the silver In it and the legal tender
IuUcClOuS 1IupdfLGO u ~ ny law. SAp~
plause) We have no outstanding obi
cations in the United States except the
small sum Of s44,ooo,ooo of gold certifi-
Gates which are specifically payable i'm
gold and they, of course, should be SO
paid. All our specie obligations are pay
able in coin, which means silver or gold
at the governments option, or In silver
specifically and only. There Is more
silver and paper based upon silver, in
circulation today than there is Of gold
and paper based on gold, and that the
gold dollar has not the unit Of value is
demonstrated by the fact that no gold
dollar pieces can now. under our laws
be minted. If we should go upon the
gold standard we must change the ex-
listing bimetallic standard of payment of
all public debts, taxes and appropriations
saving alone those specifically payable
in gold.
The public revenues have fallen, wages
of labor have fallen and everything on the
face of the earth has fallen, but taxes
and debts, which have grown In burden
while on the other hand the means Of
their liquidation has been diminished. In
the meantime, commercial failures have
progressed with devastating effect North,
South, East and West in this nation. The
dividends on bank stocks have shrunken.
Three-fourths of the railway mileage OF
the United States is now in the hands of
receivers and the country has received a
shock from which 1t will take many years
to recover Yet, in this depressed and
contracted condition the new f1edged
mono metallists ask us. to declare for a
gold standard and to wait for relief upon
some ghostly dream of an international
agreement.
The concession that comes from the
gold standard men of all Europe for the
restoration of the double standard is the
only solution Of the financial difficulties
that we can find in the outlook before
us. The declaration Of the English pre-
mier and the French minister and the
Russian government, which have re-
Gently been expressed, shows that If it
succeeds at all, it will succeed against
the monster power of autocracy which
has been used against 1t. An interna-
tional agreement for the restoration Of
the meals to an equality would be a
bond of mankind which would enable us
to regulate the value Of money and bring
the two metals upon a parity. Alexan.
der Hamilton, the great secretary Of
the treasury under Washington, under
stood this question. He framed the first
passed in 1892, fixing the unity Of our
currency upon both metals, for a double
reason: first, that to exclude one would
reduce it to a mere merchandise; and the
other, that it would involve the difference
between scanty and full circulation.
'l1DOIIla6 JelLeISJH hAcW llHS WITCH Alo
indorsed the work Of Hamilton, and
George Washington knew this when he ap-
proved it. Daniel Webster knew this
when he declared that silver and gold
are the legal standard. and that neither
congress nor any state has any right to
establish any other standard or to dis,
place this one. General Grant knew this
when he looked to silver as resource
Of payment, and found to his astonish-
ment that Republican congress had de-
npnetized it and he himself had un-
willingly signed the bill. The whole
United States now knows this, and they
know also that they who would free
themselves, must strike the blow.
(Cheers) The majority Of this conven>
ton, have the honor here to represent,
maintain that this great American nation,
with natural basis Of fixed empire, the
greatest ever established by man, with
more productive energy than Great Brit-.
ain France and Germany combined, with
out dependence upon European nations
for anything that they produce, and with
European nations dependent upon much
that we produce, is fully capable Of re-.
storing constitutional money system of
gold and silver at equality with each
other. (Applause) And as our fathers In
1776 declared our national Independence OF
all the world, so today the great Demo
cratic party, founded by Thomas Jefferson,
the author of that declaration appeared
here In Chicago to declare the financial
other nations, and to invoke all true Amer
leans to assert by their suffrage at the
polls. that our. country may be placed
where she by right belongs. as the freest,
as the foremost, as the most prosperous
and haDpiest nation that ever blessed the