The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1896-10-13
THE FIRST DEBATE.

occurred at the opera house on Wednes-
day night last. There was very large
! attendance.
Charles Evan Merritt, acting for the
Republicans, and Jerome B. Grigg, repre-
senting the silverItes, presided.
Mr.. Merritt stated that the question to
be discussed was, "Shall the existing gold
standard of value be maintained ?" He
introduced Mark r. Sooy as the speaker
for the affirmative side. Mr.. Sooy was
given a rousing reception as he stepped
to the front of the stage.
By the gold standard, said Mr.. Sooy. is
not meant that gold is used alone as
money. butsnnder that standard the larg-
est possible safe use of silver is permitted
The gold dollar is the unit, the measure
of money value. 1t is as necessary to
have monetary unit as it is to have
standard of measure such as the yard
stick, bushel. pound, etc.
i Mr.. Sooy then gave a history of our
metallic currency from 1892 to 1873, prov
ing that gold and silver never could be
maintained at parity, as the cheaper
metal, whichever it might be, forced the
dearer coin from circulation. The ratio
was changed, but still there reappeared
discrepancy in the value of the metals,
although the legal ratio had been exactly
adjusted 10 the market ratio.
! In 1858 a coinage act was passed which
| e IL
al COINS and practically recognized gold
as the only standard of value. From the
speeches made at that time it is evident
that the idea was to get on gold basis.
Nothing was said about the silver dollar or
providing for getting it into circulation
by reducing its weight. Silver dollars
had entirely disappeared from circulation
and no effort was made to reinstate them.
In 1870 the law emitting the silver dol
lar from thellist of coins was introduced,
and passed by Congress three years later.
This act made legal what had practically
beel the case with the silver dollar since
circulation.
Mr.. Sooy advanced seven reasons why
the gold standard should be maintained,
upon each of which he presented able
and convincing arguments.
First. The free coinage of silver would
/ be doubtful experiment If unsuccess-
full the damage could not be undone. Our
present standard has been demonstrated
to be the best. Any change of basis must
be experimental. with the chances IN
favor of an adverse result.
Second. Gold only has the essential
qualities for a monetary standard, be-
cause, first, it maintains its value indie
pendent of legislation and, second. its
value remains more stable. monetary
metal should have as little variation as pcs
sible in value The market value of gold
is not affected by the stamp of the govern
ment. That it has this independent value
was demonstrated by the circulation at
par, during the war, of gold coins minted
in California by private individuals. Sill
YER, on the contrary. has always been
huctuating metal. In period of go
years there were no three consecutive
years in which the value of silver re-
NAMED the same.
Third Gold is the accepted standard
of the leading civilized nations of the
world. Ne nation commanding the re-
spect of the world has silver standard.
After centuries of experience with both
metals, it was demonstrated that one
would have to be chosen, and gold was
adopted. Senator Stewart, before he had
Interior reasons for advocating silver,
said, ut is idle to compromise on any
other measure of value. Every body
knows what gold dollar is WORTH"
Fourth. The gold standard permits the
largest possible safe use of silver as
money. Every gold standard country
uses silver, but no silver standard unry
uses gold. No gold country uses as much
silver as the United States. Our silver
per capita is larger than that of any silver
nation in the world. The Democrats do
not want bimetallsm, which may be de-
fined as the concurrent circulation of both
metals, with equal purchasing and debt
paying power. We now have that practl-
cally They want silver monometallism.
In his Centralia, N. Y speech, Bryan said
''The Republican party has declared this
year in favor of single standard of gold
The Democratic party has declared in
favor of single standard of silver"
Fifth We have enjoyed. under the
gold standard, from 1879 to 1898, until
adverse tariff legislation and free sill
yer agitation unsettled business. the
greatest prosperity in the history of the
country.
Sixth. The change to silver standard
would work great disaster. Even Mr..
Bryan has admitted that such change
would result in panic ''at least for q
time," but he thought it would affect the
rich and not the poor. Every man would
suffer, but the wage Garner the greatest of
ALL Gold would leave the country, result
ing at once in contraction of the cur
rency, and there would be loss of bust
ness confidence and stability.
Seventh. The change from gold to a
silver standard would be dishonest. We
would then have legalized dollars in name
but of only about So cents value. This
would wipe out one-half the value of
every insurance policy, savings bank de-
post, mortgage, pension, building asso-
citation investment, etc.
b,,o;n GOO into of This n0nn-
try know that a stable, honest currency
is to be maintained, and the hard times
will vanish.
Mr.. Sooy was frequently interrupted by
applause, and his able presentation of the
cause of honest money brought forth
compliments even from the silverltes.
Harrington Emerson, of Nebraska, at
tempted to reply to Mr.. Sooy and to ad-
vance reasons why the free silver heresy
should he adopted. There is no doubt,
even from the silverites' standpoint, that
he did not succeed. But he had poor
subject, to begin with, and it was uphill
work, as his effort fully demonstrated.
| Mr. Emerson stated that the Republi
can party has always heretofore been ia
vorable to the use of both silver and
gold, and quoted from many noted Repub-
lican statesmen to prove it.
The Democrats are getting tired of the
gold standard of value and will not be
put off any longer. We propose to try
this experiment, and if we fail, then We
can reconsider our action.
The difference between a standard of