The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-25

SASCb
by gold, and are today as good as gold Jap
plause) Remembering this fact. Mr.. Altgeld
said. in a recent speech in New York; think
speech delivered a week ago tonight-that
under this system, really a gold system, but
which he falsely calls silver system-every-
thing thai. makes the civilization Of this CEN
under gold basis and not under
a silver basis, Mr.. Altgeld says
He goes on to say, And tnat
standard. the wheels of prosperity have stood
still; the people are beginning to understand
that formerly there was added every year TO
the worlds stock of money nearly all or
the gold and silver that was mined, which
in measure kept pace with the increase OF
population, but that since 1878 only gold
has been added, and the country has been
improperly deprived of currency"
Now that Is a square statement. What are
the facts? In 1872 we had no coin in this
country at ali. Those Of US who are old
enough to remember will remember that we
went back upon--a specie basis In 1879, nut
we had only paper in circulation, greenbacKs
and national bank notes in 1877 ana there
That is the year before we stopped the admis-
sion of silver TO our minis. There were IN
circulation S7SS. 600 COO. In the year 1872 OF
that particular kind of money, $12Soo0,000 Of
national bank notes had been withdrawn from
circulation and $S9.000,000 of greenbacks were
in the treasury, making, to be taken out OF
it, S212 900, 600, leaving, OF that OLD Circulation
to be reckoned with. 1926 000, 600. But what
was the amount in circulation In 1895? One
billion six hundred and two million dollars
We had added = the Republican party
had added-of gold and silver coin, 81, 076, O00-
900 to the currency (applause) OF which
nearly one-half was silver II Mr. Altgeid
would tell the truth he would never make
such statements that he made in New
York. (Applause.)
Now my fellow citizens, what are the facts
about the country being ruined by the system stem
under which we have been living for sixty
years? There is made by the bureau or
statistics of the treasury department OF the
United States a most remarkable DOOR IN ~, us
United States'' 1t contains a table giving the
true valuation of the real and personal prop
erty Of the United States for ten-year periods,
for decennial periods, beginning good mans
years back, and its accuracy Is recognized
as being as great as the accuracy OF any
such statistics OF any government can pos,
sibly be. Now the true valuation Of the real
and personal property of the United States
in 1860 was SIC, 0e0. 900. 900. Then came the
war. l want to deal with the valuations for
the two ten-year periods between 1870 and
1890. l begin at that time because 1t was In
1873 Mr.-Altgeld fixes the date at which
our prosperity began to decline. Now, then,
this tabular statement gives the true valua-
ton of the real and personal property of the
United States in 1870 being $4,000, 600, 900.
Let us see how much 1t decreased in the next
$50 O0o, COO 600, it was SAB OOO, OO0 0OO In 1885,
instead of standing still at $43. 0O0. 000 or
going down. it was $65 900. 600. Applau2e)
1t had increased in the first ten-year period
nearly 50 per cent, in the second ten-year
period just so per cent, and in the whole
twenty-year period lit per cent applause
and cry of "Bully.'0
DIVIDED FOR COMPARISON.
But, perhaps, my fellow-citizens, some one
will say that that is Jumping things together
little too much. That embraces the states
in the East and the states in the West, and
we'd like to know how that increase d.
vided up. That is a very fair proposition;
let us see. 1t SO happens that this statisti-
cal table, for convenience, divides the United
States in to five groups Of states. The first
group called the North Atlantic division
which l SHALL speak of here after as the
eastern groups composed of the states ON
the Atlantic coast, beginning with Maine and
ending down the coast with Pennsylvania
and including the state of Vermont 1t is
called the North Atlantic division / shall
call 1t the eastern group. young gentle
man who Is running for president of the
United States has called it '-the enemy's
country" Naughter.) But, my friends, he
Is very young and perhaps, he has not yet
had time, with other occupations to learn
and may be interested to know that the pres
ident Of the United States who was in office
when he was a. baby, and who had good
as that of the Confederated states. (Ap-
plause.) Now, the other group which wish
10 use Tor comparison of this increase TO
see now 1t was divided up, is composed Of
Twelve states, of which Minnesota is one, it
is called the North Central division It is
composed Of states beginning with Ohio, run
ming up to Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota
North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kan
sas, Missouri Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, back
TO Ohfo. l will call that, for convenience
the western group, of which I am speaking
NOW remember, that for the first ten-year
period the increase OF the whole country was
nearly so per cent. For that ten-year neriS,7
the increase of that eastern group was NOT
on per cent, but was Is per cent nor one
tnlrd OF the total percentage. The increase
OF the western group was 70 per cent. (An-
plause.) NAP
Now let us take the second ten-year peri
%, Tor which the increase OF the whole
shown you. The increase for the Eastern
group was 20 per cent, not 80; the Increase
OF tne Western group was IS per cent 3Ap-
tbe incre sor the Whole twentyyear
said, LII per cent-the increase for the East
ern group was 40 per cent; the increase for
the western group was 165 per cent ZAP
plause.) How is that for country going r.
ruin? "
And how is that for the "enemy's coun
sry! But perhaps it may be said, and can
Ialrly, tnat We are here comparing mere
percentages, and that good deal of trick
cry may result in percentages; for instance
tnat man who has a thousand dollars, and
who has 1t increased by 100 per cent has
got two thousand dollars at the end of If
ne Is still not so well off as man with
two thousand dollars increased by rs per
cent-he would have twenty-five hunred dol
lars. That is quite true but how is II with
this case? After the addition of these per
centages. in the year 1895, the valuation
OF the Eastern group of which have spok
en- was s21. 500, 000, 600. The value of the West
ern group was SIS, 900 000, 900. The Western
group had become richer than the Eastern.
(Applause.)
Now gentlemen, we have bie country
but 1t makes no difference as to territory
or as to population, if any country makes
unlimited issue Of legal tender money at a
ratio which Is less than its actual value If
1t does not In practice redeem it in gold
the silver can only be passed, not at its
nominal value, but at its actual value in
bullion. 1t Is SO all over the world 1t is
law of business. which cannot be altered
by any Legislature
We call ourselves big country-Russia
is very big country, both in territory and
in population. Now Russia has currency
which resembles in certain way our own
There is nothing very sacred about the name
Of our gold eagle; it is simply convenient
name for us: Russia has coin which II
calls the imperial that is a gold coin which
contains S7.72 of gold, and it Is good for that
sum the world over The imperial contains
10 rubles. The ruble is silver coin which
| is not redeemed in gold, either in fact or
practically, as with us. and the ruble in
Russia can only be passed as 100 Of the
imperial instead of Ito. Take Japan. the
richest and most powerful country of the
East-it has coinage very like our own
II mas coin called yen, which is nearly
exactly equal In amount to our dollar of
silver, and it has a ten-yen piece as we
have ten-dollar gold piece. But in Japan
the yen is not practically redeemed or re-
ceived as gold, and a yen only passes for
1-20 of a ten-yen piece instead of LILO: it is
but 80 cents the dollar. And SO il is
| In Mexico. and in all the South American
states. which are not able to redeem their
/ silver in gold. 1t is so in the vast empire
! CT India where the famous rupee contains
| just the same amount of silver as two Eng
| lish shillings, and it twenty-five years
/ ago worth two English shillngs but TODAY
1t is worth Just one; it is but so cents
| on the dollar because it is not redeemed
! in gold. The Empress of India is very
| great and powerful sovereign, but she is not
great enough or powerful enough-and no