The record-union., 1896-10-09
COLONEL INGERSOLL
TALKS ABOUT MONEY
Addresses an Immense Audience in a
! Big Tent at Chicago,
Who Wildly Cheer the Words of the
Brilliant Orator.

Says a Nation Can No nore Create
noney Than 1t Can Create Corn,
Wheat and Barley-To Take a
Dollar 1t nust Contain a Dollars
Worth of the Metal of Which
1t is Coined.
CHICAGO, Oct. S.-Twenty thousand
people went to the big Republican tent
on the West Side tonight to hear the
speech Of Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll
of this number II 900 managed to force
themselves under the canvas, which
contained only 1900 seats, and those
Of the remainder who did not go away
were taken care of at an overflow
meeting which was addressed by local
politicians
To-night's Grafton was the first that
Mr.. Ingersoll has delivered in a politi-
cal line since the last campaign. He
was loudly cheered when he stepped on
the platform erected under the tent.
But it was just thirty minutes from the
time he attempted to commence speak
ing to the time when sufficient order
was secured to permit of mis- proceed
ing. A number of boys from the Chi
cago University to the left of the plat
form brought their college yells with
them, and evidently had planned
repetition of the experience that Can
didate Bryan met with in Connecticut.l
For time there was trouble, but a.
squad of twenty policemen with their
clubs succeeded in quieting the enthu-s
siasm of the youths, and after one on
slaught by the officers the yelling
ceased.
Colonel Ingersoll requested those who
cid not want to hear him to go home,
and managed to get in few cutting
remarks at the outset of his speech,
but the quiet which reigned when he
hnally got launched into his argument
was unusual.
Il admit that all parties who disa-
gree with me are honest. Large masses
or mankind are always honest, the
leaders not always, but the mass of the
people do what they believe to be right
Consequently there is no argument in
abuse nothing calculated to convince
in calumny. TO De kind, to be candid,
Is far nobler. far better, and far more
american. We live in a democracy,
and we admit that every other human
being has the same right to think, the
same right to express his thoughts, the
same right ito vote that we have zap
Llause), and l want every one who
hears me to vote in exact accord with
his conscience.
No man ever made or created
money II ic haynpd of
Congress. Money is not something that
man can create. Money is something
that does not have to be redeemed.
Money is the redeemer (Applause)
Anything that has to be bolstered up
with the promise of any Individual or a
nation is not money. A nation can no
more create money by law than it can
create corn and wheat and barley by
law. lApplause) And the promise to
Fay money is no nearer money than a
pill Oh rare is dinner. Uaughter)
IWenty-three and twenty-five one
huhoreuthes OF pure gold make one dol
lar. That is the money to-day of the
| civilized world Some say Cannot you
make dollars out of silver?' L say yes,
bu when you make a dollar out Of sill
yer you have got to put a dollars
| worth of silver in a silver dollar CAD
plause-) If you make money out of
something else, you have got to put
dollars worth OF something else in
IL. IL takes dollars worth OF paper to
| make good paper dollar. 1t takes a
| uolIaf s worth of iron to make a good
| IRON dollar, and 1t takes a dollars worth
Oh silver to make silver dollar. You
| 90 not add to the value of gold by coin
| ing 1t any more than you add to the
value OF wheat by measuring it: any
| more than you add to the value Of coal
| by weighing it.
| An, but they say, what makes gold
valuable is when the law made it a le-
! gal tender. Again, gentlemen, you are
| arguing backwards. Because it was
| valuable the law made it legal tender
Making II legal tender did not give it
| value, but, being valuable, the law
| MADE II legal tender, recognizing its
value.
And yet these gentlemen say that
| IL got all its value from the law making
| II legal tender. 1t is exactly the other
way. The legal tender law rests on the
Value or the metal. Why is gold valu-
aple! do not know. Why do most
| people love oysters? I do not know
| (Applause and laughter) Why do so
|
| tApplause) | do not know. But these
are facts in human nature. For some
reason or for money people give more
value to gold. And that value is rec
! ognized by the law-making power, and
| tnat is all there is to the Legal Tender
| Act.
| But, says Mr.. Bryan, Our money is
TOO good. How can money be too good
| lie says: We want more money
| say yes: we want good money, and the
| more good money we have the better
There has been added to the money of
the world S225, 100000 in gold in the
last year dug from the miserly crevices
| of the rocks
I'VE are getting more good money
but he says, We want cheap money
| Well, why? Because the money is now
so good that people hoard it, Conse-
| quently he wants to get money that no.
! body Will want to keep. (Applause.) }
| Money that everybody will be crazy to
spend. If we get that kind of money
| who will take it? That is the kind of
| money these gentlemen want in the
| United states, cheap money. Do you
| know that the words cheap money are
| a contradiction in terms? Cheap money
| is always discounted where people find
/ out that 1t is cheap. They have said
| to me that l used to talk another way
J Twenty years ago at Cooper Union in
| New York l made a speech upon this
/ subject favoring honest money. /
| said / am in favor of paper with sill
] Yer behind. / believe in silver, because
l ii is one Of the great American products,