The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-07-09
REPUBLICANS AND SILVER,

From Hon Chas n. Fairbanks speech at the
Louis.
"The Republican party has moi
| been unfriendly to the proper use Of
silver. 1t has always favored and
tayors to-day the use of silver as a
part OF our circulating medium.
But it favors that use under such
provisions and safeguards as shall
not impair the present national
standard. The policy of the Re
publican party is to retain both gold
ard silver as part of our circulat-
ing medium, while the policy of free
coinage of silver leads to certain
silver recommendation. 1t is an i'm
mutable law that two moneys of un-
equal value Will not circulate to-
gether, and the poorer always drives
out the better. The Republican
party, desiring fairly to secure a
large use of silver, pledged itself in
favor of an international agreement.
Harrison, true to the pledge of the
party, took the initiatory steps, and
invited an international monetary
conference at Brussels, at which the
true object of an international com
age agreement was ably and profit
ably discussed. The Democratic
party was also committed to inter-
national bimetalllsm. but when it
came into power the work which
had been so auspiciously begun bv
the Republican party was aban-
doned. 1t was so absorbed in its
efforts to break down the Mckinley
law and empty the treasury that it
had no time to promote interna-
tional bimetaIlism.
"Ihose who profess to believe
that this government can independ-
emily Of the other great commercial
powers open its minis to the free
and independent coinage of silver
at a ratio of 16 to !, when the com
merclal ratio in all the great mar
kets is 80 to l, and at the same time
not drive every dollar of gold out of
circulation, but deceive them
selves.
"Great and splendid and power
fui as our government is, it cannot
accomplish the impossible. 1t can
not create value. 1t has not the al
chemists subtitle art of transmitting
unlimited silver into gold, nor can
it by omnipotent fiat make fifty cents
worth hundred cents. As we'll
undertake by a resolution of con.
gress to suspend the law Of gravita-
ton as to compel an unlimited
number Of 80 cent dollars to circu-
late with 100-cent dollars at par
ity with each other. An attempt
to compel unlimited dollars of
such an unequal value to circulate to
a parity is bad in morals and is
vicious in politics. Sound thinkers
upon the great question of the cur
rency know from the beginning #
certainly it would fail. The COM
merce of the country would be again
thrown upon the sea of uncertainty,
and the specter of want would con-
tlnue for years to haunt US.
"Upon opening our mines to
the Independent free coinage of sill
yer foreign credits would be greatly
curtailed. More than this there
would be a certain and sudden
contraction of our currency by the
expulsion of 620,000,0OO of gold
and our paper and silver currency
would greatly depreciate in puchas-
ing power. But one result would
follow this; enterprise would be
further embarrassed, business
decentralization would be increased
and still further and serious injury
would be inflicted upon the laborers
the farmers, the merchants and all
those whose welfare depends upon
a wholesome commerce.
ga change from the present stand
ard would cut down the recompense
of labor, reduce the value of savings
banks and building and loan associ-
atoms, salaries and incomes would
shrink, pensions would be cut in
two, the benefclaries of life insu-
rance would suffer in short the in
jury would be so universal and far
reaching that radical change can
be contemplated only with the
gravest apprehension. A sound
currency is one Of the essential in
struments in developing our COM
merce. 1t is the purpose of the
Republican party not to develop
our domestic trade, but to extend
our commerce into the uttermost
parts of the earth. We should not
begin our contest for commercial
supremacy by destroying our cur
rency standard. All the leading
powers with which we must compete
suspended the free coinage of silver