The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-01-24

WASHINGTON, Jan. 2S.-The silver con.
ference today resulted in an animated
discussion of the finance situation and the
policy to be pursued by the friends OF
| silver. During the discussion considerable
feeling was aroused by the remarks OF
General Hatch, of Missouri, who stated
in effect that if the Populists of Kentucky
had done their whole duty, the election OF
Blackburn to the United States senate
would not be a matter of doubt.
General Field, of Virginia, and others
made heated replies.
Mayor Turner, of Lansing, Mich, and
Senator Stewart also addressed the con-
vention.
The committee on resolutions, of which
Senator Jones. of Nevada, is the chair
man, submitted d report as follows:
1.-The paran mount issue at this time in
| the United States is indisputably the
money question. 1t is between the gold
STANDARD, gold bonds and bank currency,
on the one side. and the blmetallIc
standard, no bonds and government cur
rency on the other.
ON this issue we declare ourselves
to be in favor of distinctive American
financial system. We are unalterably
opposed to the single gold standard and
demand the immediate return TO the
constitutional standard of gold and sill
ment, Independently of any foreign
power, of the unrestricted coinage of
both gold and silver into standard money
at the ratio of Is to l, and upon terms of
exact equality as they existed prior to
1873. the silver coin TO be full legal
tender equal with gold, for all debts
and dues, public and private.
We hold that the power to control and
regulate par currency is inseparable
from the power TO coin money; and
hence that all currency intended to cir
culate as money Should be issued and
its volume controlled, by the general gov
eminent only, and Should be legal ten
der.
we are unalterably opposed to the is
sue by the United States of interest
bearing bonds in time of peace, and we
denounee as a blunder worse than a
crime the present treasury policy, con-
Cured in by Republican house, of
plunging the country in debts by hun
dredS Of millions in the vain attempt to
maintain the gold standard by borrow
ing gold; and we demand the payment
OF all coin obligations of the United
States as provided by existing laws, in
| either gold or silver coin at The option
of the government and not at the option
of the creditor.
Whereas the decentralization of silver
in 1873 enormously increased the de-
mand for gold, enhancing its purchasing
power and lowering all prices measured
by that standard; and
Whereas, Since that unjust and indie
leHSIDlG GCls TIE prices OIL AMERICAN pro-
ducts have fallen upon an average nearly
80 per cent, carrying down with them
proportionately the money value of all
other forms of property except in pc
Cullarly favored localities, and
Whereas, Such fall of prices has de-
stroyed the profits of legitimate industry,
lnJur1ng the producer for the benefit of
the non-producer, increasing the burden
OF the debtor and swelling the gains of
the creditor, paralyZing the productive
energies of the American people, rele-
eating to idleneSS the numbers of will
ing workers, sending the shadow of de-
SDaT into the homes of the honest tofler,
filing the land with tramps and paupers
and building up colossal fortunes at the
money centers: and
Whereas, In the effort to maintain
the gold standard the country has within
the last eighteen months, in time of
profound peace and plenty, been loaded
! down with $162 100000 of additional inter-
est bearing debt, under such circum-
stances as to allow a syndicate of ma
! tive or foreign bankers to realize a net
profit of S10,000,O0O on a single deal; and
Whereas, Another call is pending for
further gold loan of $100,000,000 which,
but for an outburSt of popular indigna-
| ton. would also have been negotiated
in the same secret manner and through
| the same syndicate: and
| Whereas. 1t stands confessed that the
| gold standard can only be upheld by SO
| depicting our paper currency as to force
J the prices of our products below the Eu-
TODedu dLQ even below the ASldllC lever
! in order that we may sell in foreign
markets. thus aggraVating the very evils
| of which our people SO bitterly complain
! degrading American labor, and striking
at the very foundations of our civiliza-
| ton itself, and
! Whereas. The advocates of the gold
| standard DersiStently claim that the real
! cause of our distress is overproduction
| that we have produced so much that
it has made us poor-which implies that
| the true remedy is to close the factories
| abandon the farm and throw a multi
! tude of people out of employment-a
doctrine that leaves US absolutely with
out hope for the future: and
Whereas, The difference of exchange
| between silver standard countries and
! gold countries is equivalent to a bounty
equal TO the difference between the value
! of gold and silver in favor of the pro-
! ducts of silver standard countries ex-
ported TO gold standard countries, and q
| corresponding tariff against the products
of gold standard countries exported to
silver using countries; and
Whereas. The cost of production
otherwise in the old world, and particu-
larly in China and Japan, is far less thar
the cost at which similar products can
/ be produced or manufactured in this
country by American labor, without re-
ducing our farmers. miners, mechanics
manufacturers and other industrial
! workers to the level of Chinese coolies. y
1t was then resolved:
THAT over and above all other cues.
tons of policy, we are in favor of re.
storing to the people of the United States
the time-honored money of the constitu
tion-gold and silver-not one but both
the money of Washington and Hamilton
and jefferson and Monroe and Jackson
and Lincoln, to the end that the American
people may receive honest pay for ar
honest product, the American debtor pay
his just obligations in an honest standard
and not in a standard that is appreciated
one hundred per cent above the great
staples of our country; and to the end
further that silver standard countries
may be deprived of the unnatural adj
vantage they now enjoy in the difference
in exchange between gold and silver
an advantage which tariff legislation alone
cannot overcome
I'VE therefore confidently appeal TO the
! people of the United States, that leav-
ing in allegiance for the moment all Other
questions however important or moment
Gus they may appear, and sundering il
need be all party affiliations, they unit,
in a supreme effort to free themselve:
and their children from the domination!
of the money power-a power more de
! structiYe than any which has been fast