Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1896-08-22
oEER. OF MAcLEAY.
[continued from ilrst page.l

~ ltOtA hAHA BhAtsl
q 10 President Jefferson as having de
monctized the silver dollar by. a mere
executive order Times were 80 good
in 1892 that we had forgotten about t.
lie sent to Iowa and got Governor
: Boise's message to the legislature Il
show that Iowa farmers were very
prosperous in 1892. He referred To the
opposition as the combination of Pop
ocrats who were trying to ride in on
the silver question.
NATIONAL FINANCES.
Harrison had borrowed no money
and reduced the national debt $780,
O0O,O00 in four years. Cleveland had
not reduced the debt but had borrowed
s2G2, 800, 900 or 1901 900, 900 with inter
est when it should all fall due. This
was all under the same financial legis-
lation, and was not due to the demon
etization Of silver. [Applause.l
lie told how he had once been
changed from condition of ecstatic
bliss to abject misery by encountering
a skunk on a country pathway. So
the country had encountered the
Democratic party in 1892 and had
been in misery ever since. Laughter
Mr.. Geer read an extract from The
JOURNAL OF April 13, 1896, that IL
was the free trade policy had nearly
ruined our industries. This was
cheered to the echo 10y the Republic
cans present. Mr.. Geer failed TO state
that IL was written before the state
and national Republican platforms.
The JOURNAL editor had often "eaten
at his table on his farm to his great
social pleasure and financial loss. ;"
He then spent good half hour on the
editor of THE JOURNAL in very
clear, lucid and ambiguous manner.
NOW FOR SILVER.
He proceeded TO discuss the silver
question. The ratio was fixed at 10 |
TO /, as IA commercial ratio for the
coinage ratio. At that ratio silver
was oyer-yalued and no gold circu-
lated. Silver was the cheaper coin
and did all the business. The coinage
ratio had never been changed but to
meet the commercial ratio.
Mr.. Geer showed that the vital
point to be arrived at was to have the
two metals circulate together. II
horses were legal tender, even a free
silver man would not pay debt with
u 81 900 race horse IL he could pay il
with $40 cayuse. "There is not a
man in Oregon who is harder work
Ing man than l am, and / want to
talk TO the plain working people"
said Mr.. Geer.
He told the Thos. Tongue story,
about no man in existence ever hay-
Ing seen IA silver dollar prior TO 1873,
except in a dime museum. There
was no silver in circulation to be de-
in 1873. There was no sill
yer money to do business with. Here
Sam Clarke OF Salem said he had done
lots Of business thirty years ago in
Spanish dollars. This created some
applause.
SOME QUESTIONS.
Here man spoke up and said
that silver money did not circulate
because silver bullion was worth more
then as bullion than as coin and that
was why it did not circulate.
hhNNhSi hidh dShCus ~ W IdJ lAuue
1t worth more as bullion than as
coln9"
Geer; "It was underyalued. That
was why II did not circulate"
Mr.. Geer continued:
Under free coinage the people had
not taken enough interest in the
matter TO take more than million
dollars worth of silver year to the
mints. The bill demonetizlng silver
was not passed surreptitiously as was
1t was debated three years
and passed openly,
MORE QUESTIONS.
A workingman here asked: "Was not
The bill passed without reading itY"
Geer IL was three years before