Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1896-07-16
THAT BLAINE QUOTATION.
An Insult to the Memory VI the Dead
Leader.

An INSULT to the Memory Vi the Dead
Leader.
How easy it is to misrepresent and
misconstrue the intentions Of a person
by Publishing only u part OF a spsech or
statement. A glaring instance OF this
fact is to be seen in a quotation from a
speech of James G. Blaine, which is going
the rounds OF the free silver press. The
same quotation was read by Judge Pal
mer at the Aberdeen convention, and a
portion OF it is contained in the Mani
festo' sent out by the boiling delegates
OF the Minnehaha delegation. The
quotation referred to is taken from a
speech OF Blame delivered in the United
1873, when the senate had under con-
s~iderdtion House BillNo.1693 to author
ize the free coinage OF silver dollars at a
ratio OF 16 to /, and to restore its legal
tender character, a bill which Blaine OPP
posed.
The evident purpose OF free silver adyo-
Gates in spreading the quotation
broadcast il to show, or inferthat Blaine
was a believer in their 16 to / free silver
fallacy, when, as a matter of fact, he was
positively and bitterly opposed to it, as
his words from the same speech show
when he was speaking upon thefree coin
age OF silver by the United States alone,
without the cooperation OF European
powers. Here are Blaine's exact words
as used in the same speech from which
the quotation is taken:
To remonetize silver now, as though essential
conditions had not changed, is wilfully and
blindly to deceive ourselves. The difficult
problem is what we shall do when we aim TO
re-establish silver without the cooperation of
European powers. and really as an advance
movement TO coerce those powers into the same
policy. Evidently the first dictate of prudence
is to coin such a dollar as will not only do JUS
tice among our citizens at home, but will prove
a protection-an absolute NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
the gold monometallists OF Europe, who, when
ever the opportunity offers, will quickly draw
from us the one hundred and sixty millions of
gold coin which we now hold. Ii we coin a sill
yer dollar of full legal tender, obviously below
the current value of the gold dollar, we are
simply opening our doors and inviting Europe
to take our gold. With our gold flowing out
from us we shall be forced to the single stand
ard and our relations with the leading CONNER
cial countries Of the world will not only be EN-
barrased but crippled.
1.-THE question before congress then-sharply
defined in the pending House BILLS, whether
IL is now safe and expedient to offer free coin
age to the silver dollar Of il2H grains, with the
minis of the Latin Union closed and Germany
not permitting silver to be coined as money.
AT current rates OF silver, the free coinage of a
dollar containing 412h grains. worth in gold
about ninety-two cents, gives an illegitimate
profit to the owner of the bullion, enabling him
to take ninety-two cents worth of it to the mint
and get it stamped as coin and force his neigh.
Dor TO take it for a full dollar. This is an un-
fair advantage which the Government has no
right to give to the owner of silver bullion. and
which defrauds the man who is forced to take
the dollar. 1t assuredly follows that il we give
free coinage to this dollar of inferior value and
put it in circulation, we do so at the expense of
our better coinage in gold and unless we ex.
pect the invariable experience OF other nations
to be in some mysterious way suspended for
our peculiar benefit, we inevitably lose our
Nobh@ ~ IA "a iIO" IL Win the
certainty and with the force of the tide.
Consider further what injustice would be
done to every holder Of a legal tender or nation.
al bank note. That large volume of paper
money-in excess of seven hundred millions of
dollars-is now worth between ninety-eight
and ninety-nine cents on the dollar in gold coin.
The holders Of it, who are indeed our entire
population from the poorest 20 the richest, have
been promised from the hour of its issue that
their paper money would one day be as good as
gold. To pay silver for the greenback is a full
compliance with this promise aud this obliga.
tion, provided the silver is made as il always
has been hitherto, as good as geld. To make
our silver coin even three per cent less valuable
than gold intiicts at once a loss OF more than
twenty millions of dollars on the holders of our
paper money. To make a silver dollar worth
but ninety-two cents precipitates OH the same
Glass a loss OF neatly sixty millions of dollars.
For whatever the value of the silver dollar is.
the whole paper issue of the country will sink
TO its standard when its coinage is authorized
and its circulation becomes general i'm the
channels of trade. Some Que in conversation
with Commodore Vanderbilt during one Of the
many freight competitions of the trunk lines
said lit cannot be that the Canadian Railroad
has sufficient carrying capacity to compete
with your great ~line7'-'Ihat is true re-.
piled the Commodore, ''hnt they can fix a rate
and force as down to it," Were congress
to pass a law today declaring every legal tender
note and every national bank note shall here
after pass for only ninety-six or ninety-seyen
cents on the dollar, there is not . constituency
in the United States that would re-elect a man
who supported it, and in many districts the
representative would be lucky ii he escaped
merely with a defeat at the polls.
Yet IL Is almost automatically lemonstra.
bic thet the same effect will follow from the
coinage Of an Inferior silver dollar.
In the name OF the American laborer and in
me name OF cSmnaon sense and common honesty
! ask that the American Congress win not force
npoh Inc american 'at"''.r g. inferior doilar