Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1896-08-20
not competitors In the race of human
progress with other nations.

But these free coiners assert that we
have been going down the steps of misery
into the waters of poverty and desolation,
steadily, since 1873. l propose to prove
were true, we would have had no intervals
of prosperity in that time. The declina-
ton would have been plainly visible. and
we could have looked back and seen the
happier times from which we came and
from which we descended But between
1880 and 1898 we had years Of prosperity.
such as no nation ever saw before.
cry of misery and distress? Who
said anything about free silver or
the free and unlimited coinage Of silver ex-
cept as an academic, agitating question?
In 1898 came one of those crises which
are incident to all commercial nations of
active business life. And we look around
and ask, what is the matter with the age
and what caused it? The sober historian
who reviews these matters impartially will
say that transportation, over-trading and
living beyond means and the attempt to
coin silver in excess did it.. But the pro-
life and pernicious agitators of to-day tell
the American people that it happened be-
cause they did not join and go in for the
free and unlimited coinage Of silver. Mere
assertion, no proof, the facts of history
are against 1t, the recollections of men
during that period are all against it; and
yet In period of commercial distress and
discomfort, when men are angry, passion
ate and excited. and not in condition, many
Of them, to judge as freely and fairly as
they are de4uded by these false lights and
false alarms.
say that the last thirty years has not
been period of disaster or distress HUI
manity has been steadily going forward for
the last thirty years. The lapses back
have been comparatively insignificant and
nothing in proportion to the ascent. If it
years has been downward there would have
been less and less opportunity for human
effort during that time. Yet does not every
man in this audience know that since 1873
the opportunities for human effort have
been opening up wider and wider all the
while? Schools and universities have in
creased their function. New vocations have
instance, and the telephone, from that
marvellous genius of invention, which seems
somehow O. other to De in alliance with the
welfare and prosperity Of the American
people.
Why, take one thing since 1870. Speak
ing of these assertions of lack of oppor-
tunity and of contraction of the currency,
and of the general downward progress Of
mankind, say since 1873, one of the most
blessed features of the present century has
come into existence and efficacy and ex-
panded in operation, and that Is the EN-
ployment of women in industrial pursuits,
whereby the forces Of production have been
reinforced infinitely. Look back in your
memories, you who are able to remember
back that far. In 1873 what and how few
were the opportunities offered to woman;
and now how many and how vast
they now are, by which women live
Independently, in salf-respect and self
support, without being dependent on
any man. AID yet If we had been
descending misery men would have crowded
women out Of employment and then have
crowded each other in that competition;
but they have not done it.
A, Voice-Will the senator kindly explain
why and how the two metals parted?
Mr.. Davis-Thc two metals parted in this
way land 1 shall have to be brief in my
explanation, for l am proceeding along
line of argumenD: In 1871 Germany de-
silver. She sold her marks in
the markets from time to time thereafter,
turning loose a flood of silver upon the
nations who We're indulging in free coinage.
France and the Latin union. who were then
coinin Silver at the ratio of 151a to 1.
unlimitcdly, tried to stay 1t until 1876, and
then stopped entirely, having begun to
stop in 1873 by limiting their silver coin
age. We took the alarm and stopped In
1873. (Applause.) l will go on and say
further, in answer to the gentlemans
question, that the nations which did that
thing have prospered, and that the nations
which have not done it have not prospered
Great applause)
These crises in business affairs recur con-
tinuously. We had one in 1873, we recovered
from that. We had one in 1893, and are
enduring 1t vet, and we shall recover from
that. But they are all marked with this
same headstrong. unreasOning Authorization
which am combating. Preceding 1873, and
about, 1867, men of the same way Of think
ing as those whom am arguing against
tonight, took 1t into. their heads that 1t
was right, proper and honest and for the
benefit of the people of the United States
to pay the United States bonded debt in
paper money. The same arguments were
survivors who are to-day defending the
Populist and Democratic theories are the
same men who were advocating them then.
In 1S73-along there, in the midst of a
great commercial depression such as now
Is distressing us, the cry for the unlimited
issue of greenbacks was taken up land is
reiterated in the Populist platform in St.
American people fought it out in audiences
in this city and in every city Of the land,
until that question was settled: and it re-
NAMED practically settled until the next
calamity in the way of commercial crisis
came in 1898: and that dead and buried
spectre arose in complete steel again to
confront the American people and to call
on them for their best efforts to lay 1t in an
eternal repose. daughter and applause.)
The free coiners indulge in another state
ment which is erroneous and fallacy.
They date the decline of prices arbitrarily,
from 1873. I appeal to history, and will
ask you when you go home. to go
to history upon this subject. That
statement Is not correct. Prices be-
gan to decline at the conclusion of.
the Napoleonic wars in 1916. and with
short exception covered by the period OF
our civil war and the discovery Of gold in
California, they have been declining ever
since. And this decline continued up to
1870, while silver was being coined freely