Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-07-17
REPUBLICAN RALLY,
Tuesday Evenings Meeting at
the Auditorium

Addresses by Col. Hooker and DIR.
HoItOn.
In spite of the intense heat and the sui
try atmosphere of Tuesday evening an au-
dience of generous numbers gathered in
the auditorium, to listen to the political
addresses announced TO be given by Col.
Hooker, j. L. Martin and DR.. Holton. In
opening the meeting Col. Hooker intro
duced the Brattleboro Protective glee club,
composed of Frank Brasor, Fred Brasor,
Walter Stearns and Walter Glib t, who
sang a campaign song. Mr.. Martin then
introduced Col. Hooker as the first speak
err. Col. Hooker made no attempt at a set
address but said in a familiar way that it
seemed waste of words to discuss the tar
if before an intelligent audience. 1t is
settled beyond all question that a protect
i've tariff is an absolute necessity for bust
ness prosperity. The candidates on both
sides are of the highest personal character.
1t is purely question of political princi
Piles. The speaker had no patience with
the talk about sympathy with the laboring
man. A laboring man with good health,
plenty of work at good prices, with prompt
pay, needs no sympathy. 1t is a question
of giving him a chance to work. The
mills silent at Hinsdale and Ashuelot while
the mills at Bradford, England, are run
ming double time with two sets of hands,
tell the whole story. We need a revenue
that will pay expenses and leave a surplus,
and we want a president that will approve
such a law. Give us a sound revenue sys-
TEN and the money question will drop out
of sight. The cry should be "Start the mills
and not the minis" Vermonts part in
this campaign is to roll up a majority in
September that will electrify the whole
country.
Col Hooker closed by introducing Hon.
j. l.. Martin to speak on the silver ques-
ton. As preliminary to his address Mr..
Martin defined the terms in common use.
Free silver coinage means that the govern
ment will take all the silver bullion which
is presented to it, melt it and stamp it in
to dollars free of charge. By Is to l is
meant that 1G ounces of silver shall be
counted as equal to one of gold, and that
the government will take a specific num-
Der of grains of each and coin them into
dollars or denominations of dollars. BIZ
metallism is the use of both metals at
specific ratio and at a guaranteed parity of
value. In the main portion of his remarks
Mr. Martin said in substance
The first claim of the silverites is that under
the act of Congress of 1873 silver was taken from
its place as money and gold standard forced
resulting in disastrous contraction OF the money
in circulation: This claim rs false. The act Of
1873 had nothing to do with the contraction of the
currency. This is shown by the fact that the
government has an immense amount of uncoined
silver that cannot be forced into circulation. We
using ali the silver that can be kept on par.
ity with gold From 1923 to 1873 there was coined
Sl46,C0OOCO OF silver. From 1873 to 1895, a pc
riod of only - years. we coined $500, 900 200 of
silver, three times more than in the 81 years pre-
vious Every financier knows that to maintain
parity between coins Of unequal value, and of
paper money with coin, we must correspondingly
Increase the gold reserve unless the parity is
p eserved by international agreement. The par
ity with silver cannot be preserved in any other
way any more than with wheat, pig iron or
brass.
Secondly, we are told that the greater the cir
culation of money the higher will be the value of
all products and commodities and the greater will
be our prosperity. \ simple statement of facts
proves the absurdity Of this In 1873 the gold
production was $50 100000; in 1894 it was over
500, O00. 600 more than double, and the amount
of silver produced was S546000000 IL the as.
sumption of the silvertes be true this increase in
circulation should have put the world on a tidal
wave of prosperity. The fact is that no country
on earth can prosper without keeping its curren-
cy, whether silver, gold or paper, within its con
troll and It's ability to redeem in gold. A govern.
ment is like an individual. II 1t gives notes be-
yond its ability to pay il Is practically bankrupt.
Confidence is the basis of all business. hun
Qreu dollars Kept IN circulation VIII transact
many thousands OF dollars Of business; but let
distrust come and the 500 is boarded and panic
and business depression result.
The claim of the sverites is that the gold
standard countries do not mine silver enough to
meet the demand for the arts and for fractional
currency, and that they will become purchasers
from us. The fact is tina; the nations OF Europe
have over one thousand millions of discarded sll.
yer, of which it takes thirty ounces to buy one
ounce c 49, Open the miuts of the United
States to coinage on a basis Of 10 to and
what is To hinder tins immense SuFplugaUa bpnp
dumped in upon us; II is not a question of our
capacity Of annual mining but OF the immense
product now on hand and not in use.
We are told that the hard times Of the past
| three years are due to so many nations shifting
from bimetallism to the gold standard. II this is
what causes the trouble what about the panics
| of 1873, 1856 and 1881: The fundamental trouble
| is that a government is just like individual
If its expenses are more than its income 1t is OF
the road 10 bankruptcy. Silver has nothing Il
| do with 1t.
| We are told that a large proportion of our in
| debtedness, municipal and individual, was in
| Cured when values were far above the present
market value, and that the debtor should not b,
| called upon to pay value greater than wheI
| the loan was created. Suppose this to be true
how is free silver going TO help? How many
| farmers, working men, or business men in Yer
| mont, or in all the East, own an ounce of silve
bullion? Whom will free coinage help except tn,
| mine owners and the bullion ownerss If you
want TO increase the price of farms, farm prod
| ucts aud stocks get back to a protective tariff
set the wheels of industry In motion and maxi
the government self sustaining.
1t is claimed by the Democratic party-no tn,
| free silver party-that this country alone cal
maintain free coinage on a basis of l6 to l; Blu
the commercial parity of silver and gold lonI
since disappeared in the worlds markets. 1t 1
maintained solely by government action.
Mr.. Martin then gave history of silver legis
lation in this country since 1873 showing how tb
Bland-Alson act of 1873 was passed at the de
mand Of the silver men, calling for the purchas
| and coinage of at least S2,00OOO worth of sive
| a month, and then how in 1890 the Sherman &C
was passed compelling the purchase of 4,500,00
| ounces of silver a month. In both cases il wa
claimed that an increase in the amount of tn
| purchase would permanently restore the value o
| silver and bring prosperity. In each case Sigh
increase in the price of silver ensued, only TO b
followed by disastrous drop. After Is years o
trial of enormous purchases far beyond the need
and demands of the people millions of bullio
and coined silver are stored away in the govern
ment's vaults while the price Of silver has stead
lily declined. With silver as with every othe
commodity the law Of supply and demand fixe
the price. In 1888 silver was worth in London
pence an ounce; in 1868 il was worth 81 l-2 pence
in 1873 decline In value began and has steadil
continued, until in 1895 1t was worth only 30 penc
an ounce. This decline was not due to any &C
of decentralization, but to the enormous increas
in production. A metal constantly tuctuating /
value can no longer be claimed as precious or e'
elusive or as representative token Of circulatin
exchange. We might just as well take iron an
help wider extent of country, or better still
take leather, for pelts and hides are found every
where.
Our great mass of deprecated silver is mali
tanned at parity with gold because the govern
ment is pledged to receive 1t on equality and b.
cause the government never tenders 1t in dischare
of its obligations. In practical effect silver is OF
ly used as token coinage, but already we hay
gone beyond the limit and have had to issue bond
TO provide for it, What will be the result If W
double the amount and keep the tariff as it is,
In the remaining portion of his address Nj
Martin showed how money has been developed
the advance of civilization a medium of e,
change and that the act of coinage in itself do,
not effect the value of the metal coined. If b
metallism is wanted it can only be had by mutu
agreement among the great commercial nation