The herald., 1896-09-20
HISTORIC SPEECH OF
WILLIAM P. ST. JOHN

Many requests have been made that
The Herald reprint the speech of Will
lam P. st. John Of New York upon tax
ing the chair of the convention OF the
National Silver party. Following Is the
full text of the speech:
Gentlemen of the Conventions: The
skill and efficiency of your labors in the
past have been rewarded by the adop-
ton of your demand for legislation by
two great organizations of the people,
namely, the Democracy and the Peoples
party If now you are able to induce
coalition of these two organizations for
the one purpose, the desired achieve
ment on behalf of the people will ensue.
Assuming then that you Will prevail
upon those patriots calling themselves
the Peoples party to indorse the nomi-
nation of Bryan and Sewall, 1t is advis-
able to warrant the desirability of the
end in view.
It is among the first principles in
financh tia IL the Yaalne Of each dollar, ex-
plane Of high prices 10 nigh when the
number of dollars in circulation is great
in proportion to the number of things to
be exchanged by means of dollars, and
low when the dollars are proportionate-
ly few. The plane Of prices at present
and for some time past is and has been
ruinously low. The increase of our pop
ulation at about two millions a year,
scattered over our immense territory,
calls for increasing exchanges and there
by demands an increasing number Of
dollars in circulation. The increase in
the number Of dollars when dollars are
confined to gold is not sufficiently rapid
to meet the growth Of our exchanges,
The consequence is growing value Of
dollars, or a diminishing value Of every
thing elese expressed in dollars, which
Is to say, tendency toward constantly
declining prices.
The fountain head of our prosperity
has run dry. Our farmers all over the
country have endured the depression in
acre for an expenditure of $40 per acre.
and the like. Their credit is exhausted
at their country stores. The country
store ceases to order from the city mer-
chant, the city merchant reduces his de-
mand upon the manufacturer. Manu-
features are curtailed. The consequence
IS that employees and all elements of Ia
Dor are being discharged, and the wages
are lowered to those who continue in
employment. The sufferings Of the
farmers. who constitute nearly one-half
our population, is thus enforced upon
the city merchant, the manufacturer and
all forms Of labor. These combined Gle
ments constitute the overwhelming ma
jority of voters. Their intelligent con-
clusion will be felt when expressed at
the polls.
The banker, also, is without prosper
ity unless prosperity is general through
out the United States. He must learn
to distinguish between cheap money and
money. commanding low rate Of inter-
est. The dollar worth two bushels Of
wheat is dear dollar, and yet it COM
mands interest in Wall street at present
OF but per cent per annum on call. II
the dollar can be cheapened by increas-
ing the number of dollars, so that each
dollar will buy less wheat, the increasing
price of wheat will increase the demand
for dollars to invest in it's production.
Then the borrower of dollars to invest in
the production Of wheat, being reason !
ably sure of a profit from that employ
ment of the money can afford to pay in
terest Tor its use as part of his profit. |
In other words, interest is share of the |
proht on the employment of money. So |
tnat abundant money, money readily |
obtainable, which is to say really cheap |
money, is the money which commands !
q nigh rate OF interest, as share of the !
profit Of the borrower in using it.
AS we appeal to the country in the 1us-
tice of our cause one or two points, of |
common inquiry must be satisfied, as
follows:
The experience of Mexico is held UP for
our alarm. We answer, first, that Mex |
leo is conspicuously prosperous at home.
Her increase in manufactures railway |
earnings and the like in recent years ia !
phenomenal. Second, Mexico is no cri-
terion for the United States. for the rea-
son that she has foreign trade indebt-
edness of about $2O,000,O0O annually in
excess of the value Of her exports of cot
ton, sugar, coffee, hides and the like,
which must be paid e; in the surplus
products of her mines. Her silver, there
fore, goes abroad as merchandise and
at a valuation fixed by the outside world.
The United States, on the other hand,
Is nation of 100000 of people, scat
tered over a territory seventeen times
the area Of France. A single one of our
railway systems. the Erie, exceeds the
aggregate railway mileage of all Mexico.
We offer an employment for money to
an aggregate greater than the worlds
spare silver will furnish u.s. Hence, our
silver money at home and abroad. will
be valued as the money Of the United
6tateS.