Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-08-26
GRAND OVATION
Continued from page 5.)


onward march. In 1897, with such
change of tariff as will be founded on
business principles and have the APP
prevail of the people of the United
States, we shall again have the GER
tainty of doing our own work. With
the defeat of the Bryan Watson-Sew-
all combination will come certainty of
repayment of capital borrowed at home
and abroad, certainty that business
enterprises will have a sound founda-
ton, and 1897, with its attendant four
teen years of success, will lift us to
another height of success where per-
haps another set of misguided citizens.
forgetful of the past, will waylay us
and we shall have to beat them again.
This. then. Is the reasonable prospect
of the future. l wish / could assure
you of future prosperity that would
reign unbroken forever and ever. But
history knows human nature too well.
You will see that my statements are
not promises without limit. You have
seen exhibited many times remedies
for all the ills the world is heir to, but
did you ever see a perfectly healthy
world? You never will.
"Omne ignotum pro magnifico" is
all understand it. But l want to give
you a free translation. Everything we
do not know anything about looks big
The human creature is imaginative.
If he sees tail disappearing over
fence he images the whole beast and
usually imagines the whole beast: es-
pecially if it is dark and wild animals
abound. I suppose that all the Kings
1t.
frightened the people of this world
half so much as ghosts, and yet there
never We're any ghosts.
Whenever we take a trip into the
realms of fancy we see a good many
things that never We're. The safe foot
ing in this world is on the things We
know. If this nation follows the silver
people, what sure footing is there any
where? Has any nation ever succeeded
in what we are asked to undertake?
Not one. Has any nation ever failed?
Mexico, supported by the great en-
pire of China with 400,000,0O0 of people
has foil a to lift silver above its mar
ket value. l am we'll aware that we are
mightier than Mexico or China or both
combined. But we are not omnipotent.
We are only part of the world. We
cannot add a cubit to any mans stat
ure. We cannot fix the price of wheat.
Chicago standing for the whole coun-
try, tried that once and was Worsted in
the struggle. We tried to fix the
price of greenbacks by calling them a
dollar, but never one of them was a
dollar until 1879, when we promised to
give a dollar and backed up the prom
Use with 500, 900 900 of gold.
When gold was at 200 not all the
power of this country with 100000 of
men in arms could make a greenback
buy more than so cents worth of any
thing except human labor.
Either the silver men expect silver
under free coinage to go to par or they
do not. If they do they have not a
single fact on which to depend. All
human history is not only against
them but overwhelmingly so. If over
valuation of silver by three cents on a
dollar drove all the gold out of our
country for so years once in it's history
what will so cents of valuation
do? Why, it is as clear as mathe-
mates.
We shall then be on silver basis,
whatever that may be. If we get
there, the basis will be either stable or
unstable If it is stable, what i'm
provement will that be? Are there
any more potatoes in four pecks than
III one bushel? Are 1873 75-cent dollars
worth any more than 100 1Oo-cent dol
lars? Does a dollar get any more val
uation by changing it into coppers?
But suppose the new standard is I'M
stable, what will happen then? Well
human experience is here to tell you
All uncertainties are a detriment to
business. For the last so years all the
struggles of business has been toward
certaintes Business has long ago
ceased to be gambling. Small and sure
profits often repeated is the foundation
of modern wealth. The SueZ canal, the
ocean cable, the swift steamships and
the swiftest railroads are all harnessed
into this service; whoever that can
have stable currency and swings off
into an unstable currency, sets himself
against the civilized world and must
take the consequences.
But, say some of these men, suppose
we do swing off from Europe, we join
the great silver-uSing countries, China
and Japan and Mexico and all the rest
with their 900, 900 inhabitants. Why
not give up the European trade and
tame Int tIdue VI AHlIld ana Japan
This sounds we'll 1t looks all the larger
because it exists in imagination. Do
you suppose we could get the trade of
these countries by simply having the
same money? Such ideas, like the old
time cry of markets of the world"
are of such stuff as dreams are made
Of Trade takes decades, nay, cen
turtles for its growth
But let let us imagine We could have
all that trade which would come to us,
see how actual experience will cause
to dwindle the figures of the magma
ton. In the first place there are no
9OO,000,00O of silver using people One
hundred and fifty millions of these out
siders are on paper basis. We could
not get them even by giving them
Greenbacks. How much do you sup
pose the remaining people take of our
stuffs now? Only fifty millions How
much do the gold countries takee
Seven hundred and sixty-five millions.
only about 10 times as much. Great
Britain alone takes four hundred mil
lions of our products, eight times as
much d. all the silver countries of the
world. We buy of silver countries one
hundred and seventeen millions. of
EVy0 a.