The American guide., 1896-08-15
FREE SILVER FACTS.
D. K. Tenney, of Chicago, Speaks
at Madison, Wis.
Fsllacies of the Cheap Money
Held Up to View In Conn
mon-sense Talk on the
Money Question. -.-li


many points of interest to the working
men Of America. Mr.. Tenney's subject
was "The Marriage of the Rocky Noun
tains TO the Sunny South" in present
ing which he said:
I'VE are now confronted with the propo-
sition that the sages OF the Rocky noun
tains who own silver mines, the poor white
trash OF the cotton states. the populists OF
Texas. Arkansas. Kansas, and elsewhere
and the Demosthenes Of Nebraska have
superior acumen and are fountains OF all
knowledge concerning the kinds OF money
best adapted for the United states. ana
that the mature opinions Of the financiers
and business men of this country, ana CT
all the civilized world besides, are entitled
to no consideration. My sole qualihcatioh
for addressing you on monetary questions
is. that for 10 years M professional pihc-
ticc has brought me into close assocla-
tIon, as clients and otherwise, not only
with numerous men of intelligence engnseo
in commercial and financial pursuits, but
with all classes and conditions of men. sol
vent and insolvent, rich and poor, In many
of the states of this union, Such client
age, with the business involved, has mnne
n continual Investigation OF financial dues-
tons both natural and necessary, fromthe.
point OF view Of integrity, and not OF pol
way before the war, and until the tax on
wildcats made them hunt their holes.
In those happy hlmetalllc days, now 50
much extolled, II man went to bed AT
night with a dollar bill in his pocket 1t
was a matter of doubt whether IN the
morning 1t would be worth dollar, haf
dollar, or nothing at all, The democrats
were In power In this country then, That
was good democratic money, When u
came the republicans turn. they jumped
into that currency with both feet ara
and furnished us with substitute SIM
maintained every dollar OF which has since
been as good as every other dollar and not
Il dollar lost,
why the south Is for silver.
"The reason that the money question Is
now so prominent Is not because the money
in use Is unsatisfactory to the people no.
because the common people have any cut
lcal opinion on the subject, 1t is simply
question Of practical politics. brought
TO the surface In the natural cvolutior Of
affairs. There has been Wedding OF me
Rocky mountains to the sunny south. rhe
two hearts OF parity and politics h-at
AS ono, senator Teller gavo away the
bride. Patriotism and popocracy have
ceased to Woo About the time the rcpib-
licanH I'm congress undertook to enact the
so-cnllcd force bill, sugar began TO deciine
In value and the free silver craze hove In
sight and began to assume prominence
Southern business men, east OF the Missis-
sippi. though by nature conservative, ielt
that any disaster or doctrine was better
than enforced negro suffrage. II was
condition, not theory, which confroh.ed
the southern politicians and. diplomatic as
OF old the southern senator's proceeded u
form an alliance offensive and dcfenslA
with the silver states and the populi
whereby the force hlll should forever be
fcated, and, as compensation, free coin@1>
Of silver should be enacted.
THE republican party, until lately mas
pursued course too antagonlstic 70 the
south on matters where that sectionis re-
culiarly sensitive and which y should he
left in peace TO work sopt1RR>eove. as u
inevitably must, 4ecerdine 70 Ns own CON
gicncc., By.fAa,o' scare OF enforced negto
h,angs the south has been driven IN an
narcrt seif-dcfense to embrace the hcresy
OF free silver coinage. Another powerful
factor has lately appeared. The labor IN
the south is very largely performed by he-
eroes. The wages paid these people are
not more than half what Is paid In the
north in like employment. but stih tho prln-
cpal crop OF ps' region cotton co"'
petlng as II fn h
is raised with 2
ns OF ofd The plant
ers and the leaders IN politics there are IA
mllar with Mexico. its free silver coinage
md the wages there prevailing The
southern wise ones have concluded that 'he
ignorance and stupidity OF their common
negro laborer Ia fully as great as In Mex
leo, That IN cnse OF free coinage cotton
can be sold for two silver dollars where
now only one In gold is obtained. out OF
this they can pay their laborers In silver
1T the present rate OF wages ana thus re-
duce the labor expenses Of raising cotton
one-half"
The Free Coinage Question.
Mr.. Tenney then took up the free coin
are question and considered u ut con-
siderable length:
we are told that the act OF congress In
1873, omittlng the silver dollar from our ~.
turc coinage, was the crime of the century n
that It Immediately struck down for AL
time half the legitimate circulating me-
dum In this country. that II doubled the
value OF gold, cut prices u products in two
made n dollar twice as diilcult TO obtain,
and tha, It was tho result OF a deliberate
scheme OF the money sharks Of Wall street
TO impoyerish the people. Now, IN iNIa the
population OF this country was about ~
10000, II Is now about GS,00O,oo0, an In
crease In 20 years OF about 6l per cent Tne
entire currency In 1873 was rrcenhacks and
national bank notes, and amounted to
I7O3, ,225, ,0O0 A remember. this currency
was at a discount then OF about u per cent,
with gold. 80 that it's purchasing power
compared with our present money was only
about sGt9. 10000 or less thnn fla per capita
of the population. The coinage fsilvcr on
private account, the return to which In now
insisted upon, had been abolished by the
act Of 1873 II was the democrats who did
that After that silver was coined. " at all,
only on government account, SO II was In
1863 and not In 1873 that free coinage was
suspended. why did not the silver non
complain them Simply because their sil-
yer was worth more than gold. why do
they complain now1 Simply because u Is
only worth half as much. Neither silver
nor gold had. In iS73, been In circulation
here for nearly 70 years during all OF which
time an American silver dollar was n Gu
riosity, and gold, being the cheaper metal.
was tho oniy American coin In eircula'
ton, our entire coinage Of silver dollars
up TO S7s, from the beginning OF the gov
ernment, had been only 100000 These
had either been melted up for use In the
arts or been exported ana sold AT their null
lion value for gold, at handsome proft
They could not circulate hore as money.
they were worth too much. Doing busi-
ness as we did In 1873, without dollar OF
coin in sight or In prospect, and having but
tib per capita OF paper money at gold value,
congress decided TO coin no more silver dol
lars, The proposition was we'll known, and
satisfactory to everybody at the time who
paid any attention to such matters There
was no secrecy about II, As the metal In
q silver dollar was worth two or three
cents more than that In a gold dollar no.
body ever expected to see another silver
dollar, and never wanted TO. Speaking upon
this subject In the senate about that time.
Senator Stewart, Of Nevada, now the great
free coinage champion OF that state, sail;
I want the standard gold, and no paper
money not redeemnblc In gold. When the
laborlng man receives a dollar II will have
the purchasing power Of dollar. lie viii
know what his money Ia worth. Gold IL
tho universal standard OF the world. Every
body knows what dollar In gold IL worth
But now, since silver. the principal product
Of Nevada, has declined to less than half
It's value In 1873, this honest senator wants
II lepisiated up to par again. In other
words, he wishes to continue as senator